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about

This is a medley I created by combining two of my favourite traditional Irish ballads 'If I Were A Blackbird' and 'Maid Of Culmore'. The story is based on 'If I Were A Blackbird', about a woman who pines for her sailor who has gone away to sea. I heard this song performed by Corinna Hewatt in the library on my namesake island of Iona when I was a teenager and it has been with me ever since.

lyrics

I once met a sailor in the mid month of May
I courted him dearly by night and by day
He offered to marry and stay by my side
One morning he’d left me to sail with the tide

So if I were a blackbird I'd whistle and I’d sing
And I'd follow the ship that my true love sails in
And on the top rigging I'd there build my nest
And I'd pillow my head on his lily-white breast

My true love is handsome in every degree
My parents despise him for he does love me
Well let them despise him or say what they will
While there is breath in my body I'll love that lad still

If I were a scholar I'd handle a pen
And one loving letter to him I would send
I'd tell him my sorrow my grief and I'd say
That he'll be my true love till my dying day

credits

from Beside the Waves of Time, released April 6, 2009
Lyrics & Melody: Trad
(Lyrics from ‘If I Were A Blackbird’)

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Iona Leigh Forres, UK

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