Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy. 

By the time you read and enjoy this, St. Patrick’s Day might be just about or totally over.

Last Friday our feature was genuine Irish music. This week, there’s still an Irish theme. Irish artists and their non-St. Patrick’s Day material.

We get started with some rousing country.

McGraw made news this week when he admitted that when moving his eldest daughter Gracie across country, his emotions got the best of him, leading to a breakdown.

“I drove my daughter to L.A. when she moved out there, and drove cross-country with her. I took all the seats out of my Cadillac Escalade and loaded it up with all of her stuff. When I dropped her off, I mean, I just lost it. And then I had to drive home all by myself… I was crying the whole time. In fact there’s a song on my new album coming up that guitar player Bobby Minner wrote, ’cause I called him when I was driving back from dropping Gracie off, and was just sort of having a heart-to-heart about dropping my daughter off. It’s based on my trip… It’s a good one.”

McGraw and wife Faith Hill share three daughters together: Gracie, 25, Maggie, 24, and Audrey, 21.

It’s quiz time!

Van Morrison, who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has had some big hits. So what was his biggest?

Was it….

“Moondance?”

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No.

Well then it just had to be…

“Brown Eyed Girl”

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Um, no.

Morrison’s highest-charting hit is the uptempo raver “Domino” from his 1970 album “His Band and the Street Choir”, which climbed to No. 9 on the Hot 100 in 1971.

In the fall of 2020 Morrison released three new tracks in response to the ongoing UK government lockdown restrictions. The songs of protest questioned the measures the Government put in place. Morrison said at the time:

“I’m not telling people what to do or think, the government is doing a great job of that already. It’s about freedom of choice, I believe people should have the right to think for themselves.”

The singer-songwriter campaigned for performance venues to open at full capacity again, feeling that lockdowns could kill live music.

Singer Gilbert O’Sullivan was born in Waterford, the place that makes the wonderful crystal. He gained fame in 1972 for his depressing song “Alone Again (Naturally)” about a lonely, suicidal man being left at the altar and then telling the listener about the death of his parents. He swears the song was not autobiographical. It sold 2 million copies, spent six weeks at #1, got him three Grammy Award nominations (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year), and was the second best-selling single of the year in America behind Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

Also in 1972 O’Sullivan released a single where the listener thinks he’s singing to his (much) younger girlfriend. It gets a bit awkward as you’ll hear until you learn O’Sullivan is not the boyfriend. He’s the babysitter. Clair is a real girl, the 3-year-old daughter of O’Sullivan’s manager, Gordon Mills. According to O’Sullivan the song is really for Clair’s parents, Gordon and Jo.

“They would ring me up and say they had to go to some big do, and I would babysit. I’m one of six, so I’m used to kids. The song was written as a ‘thank you’ to the parents, and she laughs at the end. Gordon plays the harmonica solo, so it’s pretty much a family record.”

This is one of the cutest music videos I’ve ever posted.

In 2017, Clair came to O’Sullivan’s concert in Hyde Park, where he performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra. “My daughters were with her,” O’Sullivan said. “She said when I sang ‘Clair’ in front of 25, 30 thousand people, she had tears in her eyes. The song means a lot to her. She’s very grown up now, with two children of her own, but I still have that relationship with her.”

Before rock and roll harmonious vocal groups ruled the day in the 1950’s, like the McGuire Sisters, Ruby, Dorothy, and Phyllis. Both of these were #1 hits.

All three sisters have passed away.

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

Bet you didn’t know this next singer was Irish. She had a huge crossover hit that she co-wrote in 2009 that made the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and Country Songs at the same time. That doesn’t happen all that often anymore.

“This song is basically about wanting someone who is with this girl who doesn’t appreciate him at all,” said Taylor Swift. Basically like ‘girl-next-door-itis.’ You like this guy who you have for your whole life, and you know him better than she does but somehow the popular girl gets the guy every time.”

The song won won the 2009 MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video, beating Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it).” Swift’s victory wasn’t well received by Kanye West, who during her acceptance speech, jumped up onto the stage. He cut the teen singer off, grabbed her microphone and announced: “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!”

A stunned Taylor was timed out and consequently unable to complete her acceptance speech. Later when “Single Ladies” won the show’s top honor – Video of the Year, Beyoncé showed her class by calling back Swift to the stage to finish her speech. “I would like Taylor to come out and have her moment,” she said.