Loaded to the Gunwales

We didn’t set out to make an Irish record. But by then, Sean and I had spent enough Sunday nights at McGurk’s that the music around us was finding its way in by osmosis. Ballads, shanties, rebel songs—the songs we learned from musicians passing through the pub were beginning to influence the songs we were writing ourselves.

“Ditty Bag,” an original on the record, even foreshadows three songs I would later write for the first Falling Fences album: “Shot to the Devil,” “The Great Harpoon at Dawn,” and “The Ghost of 1824.”

Ultimately, though, this is the record where “Irish Old Ladies” lives. My brother John had written the chorus years earlier with our friend Matt Tabor, and by this point the song had become a Sunday night anthem. “This bar!” had naturally evolved into a response from the room, allowing whoever happened to wander through the door to join the Sunday family, even if only for one night.

Kevin Buckley and Ian Walsh helped us realize that sound on the record with their fiddles. We were also lucky to have master printmaker Tom Huck create the cover. Tom was married to a teaching colleague of mine at the time, which is how our paths crossed. His work gave the record a visual world all its own.