** Drum roll please.....**
Lankum - The Young People
I'm hopeful that I'll be introducing a few of ye to Lankum, a local Irish folk band from Dublin. They are all multi-instrumentalists which comes through in their music. The band comprises of the Lunch brothers Ian Lynch and Daragh Lynch who once made up Lynched. Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat joined them and they became Lankum in 2016.
Lankum's music inspires introspection and deep thought in it's listeners and their following continues to grow and they will play a smaller tent in Glastonbury this year. Their music arguably is not for everyone in the same way cheap wine is not for everyone. It will take a cultured ear to appreciate this music.
We'll get things going today with the second song from The Livelong Day album. I hope you enjoy what you hear.
Lankum - Hunting The Wren
The last song from Lankum's 2019 album is Hunting The Wren. This song talks of the Wren, a bird that was once hunted in Ireland.
Are Lankum talking about the Wren hunting in their song or is there a deeper metaphorical meaning? I believe the latter to be true, but it's good to understand the story of the Wren if one is to unlock the metaphorical meaning.
The exerpt below from https://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/23-language-and-culture/44-hunting-the-wren.html#:~:text=A%20wren%20is%20said%20to,Stephen's%20day. tells you all you need to know about the Wren.
"On St. Stephen's Day , December 26th, crowds of people take to the roads in various parts of Ireland, dressed in motley clothing, wearing masks or straw suits and accompanied by musicians – remembering a festival with antecedents that long predate Christmas. The Wren – sometimes pronounced and written, wran – was once common all over Ireland. In some areas, the Wrenboys are called Mummers and the festival has a strong English influence, incorporating characters like St. George.
Birds have great prominence in Irish mythology. They were seen as intermediaries, in pre-Christian times, between this world and the next. The flight patterns of birds, like the wren, were used as auguries by the Druids. Indeed, some believe, the Gaelic word for wren – dreoilín – derives from two words, draoi ean, or Druid bird.
According to legend, the birds held a parliament, it was decided that whichever of them flew the highest would rule over all the others. The eagle soared higher than any, until it tired and the tiny wren emerged from its tail feathers and climbed far above it.
Mysteriously, the wren has a reputation for treachery. A wren is said to have betrayed Irish soldiers fighting the Norsemen by beating its wings on their shields. The wren, too, is blamed for betraying St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. This is the usual explanation why the wren is the hunted bird on St. Stephen's day. It has also been argued that the antipathy shown towards the bird dates from early Christian opposition to the Druidic rites that surrounded it. Today, the wren – as a feature of the event – survives only in the rhyme and in the name of the day, although, in former times, it was hunted and nailed to a pole at the head of the procession.
In West Kerry, the focal point of the Wrenboys parade is a hobby horse. A pantomime-type horse with a wooden head, snapping jaws and a body made from cloth stretched across a timber frame, it is worn on the shoulders of one of the members of the Wren – who whirls and capers at the head of the parade. The horse, for social and military reasons, was of great importance in ancient Ireland. Horses could be both lucky and unlucky, and they had strong associations with the rights to kingship and with fertility. The horse was so important that its introduction to Ireland was credited to the god Lugh. The greatest of the Celtic gods, his name occurs across the continent in placenames like Lyon and Leiden. The cult of the horse was also opposed by the early Christians.
The straw suits worn by the Wrenboys also have historical resonances, though more recent ones. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they were worn as disguises by the Whiteboys during Ireland's prolonged agrarian wars. The suit is woven in three parts: head, chest, and skirt. The straw of choice for the suits is that which comes from oats and, since there is little demand for oats, good straw is becoming increasingly difficult to find. In many cases, oats are grown specifically for the Wren.
The Wren, in common with many customs in rural Ireland, came close to extinction. From the twenties and thirties onward emigration took a great toll among those who would have taken part. There was strong clerical opposition – the money raised in the collections the Wrenboys took up went towards holding a ball in a local hotel or public house and naturally there was alcohol involved. The Church saw the Wren, as it saw the house dances that kept traditional music alive in those times, as an "occasion of sin."
That the Wren survived at all was due to the efforts of a few individuals and small groups of people working in isolation. Nowadays, the Wren is enjoying a revival. Listowel, County Kerry, holds an annual competition. The legendary Wrens of the Dingle Peninsula are the focus of intense local competition. Dublin, too, has a festival, held on Sandymount Green. Whatever its provenance (there is a similar festival in Lerwick on Shetland, and its form finds echoes across Europe in the hobby horse, and the hunting of a small bird on one day of the year) the Wren in Ireland is not fixed in time. Like much else in Irish culture, the Wrenboys have adapted and changed. Their masks and costumes reflect change, and reflect too, perhaps, the current demonology of Irish society – long after her fall from power, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher still figures prominently in the masks worn in many a Wren.
Fundamentally though, the Wren is a local event, reflecting the communities it springs from – whether in the North of the country, or Wexford, Woodford in Galway or the west of Kerry."
Lankum - Go Dig My Grave
Lankum released a new album in 2023 called False Lankum. This is the first song from the album. Stripped back, simple, poignant and deep. It's a song as old as Christopher Columbus and goes by the name The Butcher Boy or The Railway Boy too.
It is about a young woman who is abondoned by her lover and takes her own life, leaving a note for her heart broken father with instructions for her burial.
Pretty heavy lyrics I know, but all these years later, her story lives on through song and through love.
Lankum released a new album in 2023 called False Lankum. This is the first song from the album. Stripped back, simple, poignant and deep. It's a song as old as Christopher Columbus and goes by the name The Butcher Boy or The Railway Boy too.
It is about a young woman who is abondoned by her lover and takes her own life, leaving a note for her heart broken father with instructions for her burial.
Pretty heavy lyrics I know, but all these years later, her story lives on through song and through love.
Three Tune Tuesday
That's right, it's Tuesday folks and for our merry little band of ladies and lads, that means sharing tunes, good vibes and engagement. As another week disappears in the rearview mirror, we have loads of engagement and tunes flying around on Three Tune Tuesday and sure isn't that bloody fantastic! I hope you're ready to share three tunes from wherever you find yourself on this magical spinning lump of rock that we all call home and sure you might even sing us a tune if we're lucky?
It's a time of the week when lovers of music, tunes and craic bring their blockchain community three of their finest and brightest tunes to share and celebrate, so let's roll on and let the tunes flow free.
This is my 153rd week waxing lyrical for Three Tune Tuesday and we are still going strong.
It started off with me just sharing tunes into what seemed like a void, but little by little others joined and now I'm thrilled that we have a little corner of Hive where we come and share our tunes every Tuesday, and long may it continue. I almost stopped posting the songs and thoughts a few times, but I stuck with it and now interestingly it is my favorite thing about Hive. I love music and now I have a network of folks around the world who love music too and we share our tunes and catch up with each others tunes and discuss them each week. We get Pop, Metal, Rock, Gospel, Folk, Jazz, Rap, Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, Reggae, Bippy bappidy Flange Hop. Ok I made that one up, but you get the idea, we are all learning about new artists, bands, back stories and sure isn't it just mighty!
Something that excites me the most is that we even get musicians sharing their covers of famous songs and even their own songs from time to time here on #ThreeTuneTuesday, which is a real favorite of mine, as that takes talent, time and dedication.
We are adding New posters and retaining our core of regulars here on #TTT which is fantastic. Let's keep it growing. Over the years, I have listened to fantastic music shared from like-minded folk from around the globe and interacted with their posts. This has led me to genres I don't know well and to some amazing new bands and artists and has even introduced me to some musical instruments I did not know existed. It also allows me to upvote smaller accounts and find some really interesting people from all over the world, which is heartening.
I hope you enjoy the tunes - be sure to tell me all about it in the comments below and above all else, please enjoy the rest of your Tuesday - smile at a stranger, rub a dog, be a nice human to someone who was not expecting it - peace out.
For those unfamiliar with TTT or Three Tune Tuesday....
The jist is as follows
Every Tuesday I'm going to share 3 songs which I like to listen to and I invite your feedback in the comments below. Better still, why not have a blast of your own Three Tune Tuesday and mention me in the post and I'll come and find the post and upvote it. If you could also use #threetunetuesday tag that would be great, as that is what I use when sifting through all the entries every Wednesday. It'll be a sweet way for us all to discover new music. You'll also be in with a chance of winning the prize - more on that later.
HBI contest - win 12HBI
Share your Three Tune Tuesday songs below or create a post with #ttt or #threetunetuesday and mention me so I can find the post.
I'll pick the three songs I enjoyed the most each week as the winner and transfer 1 share of HBI to the winner when this post pays out 7 days from now, but wait there's more...
Three Tune Tuesday Sponsors
My old pal and brother from another mother @blanchy started a trend and now also commits a share of HBI each week and along came ten more Three Tune legends @blackdaisyft @hannes-stoffel @tengolotodo @inthenow @wwwiebe @grindan @jasperdick @dbooster @thebighigg and @geneeverett so now the winner will receive twelve shares of HBI, not too shabby at all folks.
12 SHARES OF HBI FOLKS!!!! BOOM!!!
Thanks a million to our sponsors above once again.
Sin é, That's all folks, thanks for stopping by.
That's it for another week. Those are your three songs for week one hundred and fifty three. Let me know what you think - good, bad or indifferent? Did you like them all or just one or two?
Also, as I said before, I love getting good steers for new tunes, so please tell me about the latest and greatest from your playlist below and I'll be sure to check em out.
The YouTube videos shared are not owned by me and I am simply sharing great music with the community here on Hive
Thanks as always for stopping by everyone.
Peace Out
