Song Lyrics

Shannon Road

Words and music Gabriel Donohue (Moyode Music ascap)

It's hard to tell the father from the son

If both our lifetimes were rolled into one

If I was the arrow he was the bow

As he sent me on my way down Shannon Road

And the old men drinking whisky in the bar

Said he'll never be the man his father was

would he have wanted me to be so

Well he knew that there was life past Shannon Road

CHORUS

And if you go go now he said, while the fire of youth is burning in your head

And try your dreams on every shore, for theres nothing here but dreams a growing old.

Little did I know I'd soon return,

Just to lay him neath the flowers and the ferns

Before the summer it was o'er

He had bid farewell to life and shannon road.

Memories are a fading photograph

Sometimes I see his face and have to laugh

The voice that calls my child from play

Is getting much more like the old man's every day

If you go, go now he said, while the fire of youth is burning in your head

And savour life on every shore, for theres nothing here but young men growing old.

Now the old men drinking whiskey in the bar, they offer up their memories of Da

"And your a chip of the old block son ya know"

But the best of ye are leaving Shannon Road

I wrote this after seeing the play (Later to become a movie) "Da" which played on Broadway around the time of my own fathers death.

Bonnie lassie o the lowlands

Words and music Gabriel Donohue (Moyode Music ASCAP)

In the softness of the evening

She came trippin’ down the moor

The bonnie blue bells on the heather

Whispering her praises oer

Bonnie Lassie o the lowlands tarry her with me a while

From Aberdeen to aberlady I’d walk the road to see your smile

And though I do not dare to ponder

the mystery in those brown eyes

For just a wee short hour with you love

I’d barter all tomorrows joys

Bonnie lassie o the lowlands

The moonlight glistens in your hair

Come and dance with me beneath

The velvet sky this evening fair

I have been a lonely sailor

Tossed upon the stormy seas

Through the tempest and the thunder

With no one to shelter me

If you deem I am unworthy

All my dreamin’ is in vain

I’ll away to yonder valley

Where no one will speak your name

Bonnie lassie of the lowlands

I fear the night is growing cold

Fill to me that silver tassie

Brandy makes the young man bold

Bonnie Lassie of the Lowlands, Repeat

Last call on bourbon Street

Gabriel Donohue Moyode music ASCAP 2005 ©

Have you been to New Orleans

scented mistress of a town

Where Packenham he tried in vain

To shut that ageless party down

have you tasted etoufee

heaven melting on your tongue

And on any given day

Pleasure like you’ve never known

Chorus

I stood and watched the august sun

Over parishes retreat

Then came a strange and mournful sound

Last call on Bourbon Street

I knew a girl named lorelee

Hazel eyes and auburn hair

I Steered her round the Maple Leaf

When Dewy Balfa fiddled there

remember Tipitina’s too

and the great alan toussaint

O’flaherty’s down on Toulouse

Where Danny sang his Irish songs

Chorus

In the calm before the storm

I ordered up some whisky neat

There came a strange and mournful sound

Last call on Bourbon Street

Now Politicians argufy

Jockey for the higher ground

No guarantee the times we knew

Ever will come back around

If I knew then what I know now

I’d drink much deeper from that well

Of Louis armstong, Jelly roll

These walls still have their tales to tell

The house they called the rising sun

Was three deep at the bar in feet

There came a strange and mournful sound

Last call on Bourbon Street

Last call on Bourbob Street

Last call on Bourbon Street

Out on the Ocean

Written on the occasion of the second annual Debbie Casey Cruise to the air of an Irish jig of the same name.

Gabriel Donohue Moyode Music

When I was a young lad I dreamed I would go

And swim in the footsteps of auld Jaques Cousteau

I’d pack up the speedo that flosses my cheeks

bound for the tropics be gone for a week

I signed up with Casey tours just for a lark

One day in January we would embark

There’d be one armed bandits and bingo and beer

Bound for tortola a long way from here

Out on the ocean on billows of blue

The driving is up to the Captain and crew

We’d drink all the beer that was laying in store.

We’d shiver their timbers and rattle their floors.

Pack up your seastores and come on with me

Out on the Ocean so fair and so free

the water’s the bluest that you’ve ever seen

the Paddy’s are bound oer the wide Carribeann

Clancy is out on the aft deck tonight

lowlands away and he’s bound to recite

Reams of fine poetry into the wind

Kagan will sail in his dory again

And as for the galley sure they never close

Though six meals a day is enough I suppose

The midnight buffet has mountains of ham

On the Holland America Westerdam

Pack up your Seastores etc

Parting of friends

Oh parting glass is empty and you must be on your way

Far across the stormy ocean to America

Do you know the hearts you’re breaking oh the tears may never dry

Still there’s only one good way to say goodbye

May the road rise before you, may you sail with fair and pleasant wind

May the sun keep you warm may the rain fall soft on you my friend

As you journey to a city where the streets are paved with gold.

There are treasures that are wonderous to behold.

But fortune can be fleeting and true friends are hard to find

And the city lights can’t warm you when you’re cold

May the road rise before you, may you sail with fair and pleasant wind

May the sun keep you warm and may the rain fall soft on you my friend

Parting glass is empty and you must go on alone

It’s a hard road you travel but well worn

There were other lonely exiles who left old erins shore

Never more to see the land where they were born

May the Road rise before you etc

Until we meet again may god hold you in the palm of his hand.

The plains of Zaragoza

Gabriel Donohue (Moyode Music Ascap)

Underneath a Spanish moon

where the battle raged in fury

Many a brave man met his doom

a soldier of conscience bound for glory

In the year of 35

I crossed the Pyrenees to find adventure

Just another restless boy

in history to leave my indenture

On the Plains of Zaragossa

I heard a young man say to me

God bless my home in Tipperary

that I never more will see

In a land that‘s not our own,

on rio ebro’s banks we stood

On both sides of the river wide

flows a stream of irish blood

My younger brother crossed the tide

Landed down in Barcelona

Signed up with the other side

O’ duffy’s rifle he did shoulder

With every shudder of my gun

With every shadow moving towards me in the night

Could an irish mother’s son

Be the target that is leveled in my sight

On the plains of Zaragoza

A dying soldier said to me

I wish that I was back in Kerry

Contented there to die I’d be

Those we fight we do not hate

Those we guard we do not love

On both sides of this no mans land

Flows a stream of irish blood

On the Plains of Zaragoza

All on a snowy winters night

an Irish Christmas song

The word was spread throughout the land, From Galilee to Bethlehem

That every woman child and man must gather to be counted

Now Holy Mary being with child, her faithful Joseph by her side

To Caesars law they would abide they saddled up the donkey

Let us come in the Strangers cried, all on a snowy Winters night

Let us come in the Strangers cried, Good people of Bethlehem O!

No we can not let you in , there is no room at all within

No we can not let you in but you may sleep behind that stable door

That night a star shone in the east that woke the shepherds from their sleep

They left their flock, they left their sheep and minded not the danger

They knocked upon the stable door to see what wonders they’d behold

An Angel there was guarding o’er the baby in the manger.

Let us come in the Shepherds cried, All on a snowy winters night

Let us come in the shepherds cried to see the King of Israel O!

Then they blessed the Snowy night, Cold snowy winters night

Then they blessed the snowy night, Gloria in exelcis deo

Two thousand years have come and gone since that snowy Christmas morn

When a baby he was born to keep us from despairing

Let me come in the Savior cried on a snowy Winters night

Let me come in the Savior cried to feast at you fine table o!

We arose and let him in, and opened up our hearts to him, Rememered how it all began

Upon a snowy night in Bethlehem

Then we blessed that snowy night, cold snowy winters night

Then we blessed the snowy night that ever he did knock upon our window.

Moyode music 2004

For Eddie Ivie

Ar dheis de go raibh an anam

We are but Stardust after all

What can we do when tears won’t come?

To help us grieve our fallen one

The river that should cease to run,

Like time itself halts for no one

For life is only but a breath

A ripple in the Universe

And in sorrow we recall

we are but Stardust after all

A noble soul he walked the earth

In kindness, innocence and mirth

A friend a lover and a son

He left his mark on everyone

We’d have him live a hundred years

To share our laughter and our tears

He was to heed a higher call

He was but Stardust after all

Now River Street, in cobblestone

Was sanctified upon the morn

The stars and stripes he loved with care

In honor did enfold him there

Seargent Jasper take his hand

Across the threshold bid him stand

With Georgias sons so proud and tall

Among the stars for evermore

Gabriel Donohue Written July 2005

Sweet Savannah Sunday

Words and music Gabriel Donohue

My old gal Cecelia was a flower in her day

And her garden overflowed in a fine perfume bouquet

Lookin’ back now I recall where a young mans dreams were born

On a sweet Savannah Sunday down a street named Abercorn

Oh Savannah, you’re the city of my youth

Doesn’t matter where I go my road leads back to you

Georgia lady, I once made you my queen

On that sweet Savannah Sunday of my dreams

Sailing down the river see the ships with flags unfurled

Bringing us their treasure from each corner of the world

Spices from the Indies and silks from old Japan

Perfume for the ladies oh so pleasing to the man

Chorus repeat

Walking home by twilight past the fountain in the park

The ghost of Johnny Mercer plays piano in the dark

And the song that he is playing is an old familiar tune

Somethin’ bout the river, something bout the moon.

The ladies of Oahu We’re sailed aboard a barquentine they call the Charles Morgan Bound for the tropic breezes of maui and kaui Bound down from old New Bedford town to go a harpoon whaling Where humpbacks play amid the spray beneath a southern sky Chorus So haul away my bully boys, and rally around the capstan Trim the main and topsail boys and cleat the mizen line Were bound for Honolulu cross the free and boundless ocean Where the ladies of Oahu bathe in coconut and lime We’re boarded by a pleasant crew so fine and neat and handy Of bush kanaka, portugee and lads from Erins shore No more we’ll sip on auld thin brew but Polynesian brandy A barrel full of Ambergris is worth it’s weight in gold Fare thee well to Edgartown, New Bedford and Nantucket To Boston and the Cape Cod girls who never did us wrong The New York girls so frisky how they love to dance the polka aloha now my hearties for I’m Honolulu bound Haul away etc The grass is green in Killy begs, where skirts are made of Calico Wahines they shake their hips with talent so sublime I’ll marry me a maole girl and sleep out in the meadow where the sugar cane grows freely, and rum flows all the time.