About Time Two - Sleeve

1. Hound Dog (Leiber/Stoller) 2.30
This is a Two Time Polkaization of the 1956 Elvis Presley hit. It’s always handy to have an Elvis song in your repertoire. Our take on the song is pretty much substituting accordions and fiddles for electric guitars. The intro is deceptive and it kind of sneaks up on you hopefully bringing a smile.

Tomas  Vocals, guitar and washboard; Ray  Fiddles; Geraldine  Accordion;
Liam  Acoustic guitar; James  Bass guitar and vocals; Des  Drums and triangle.

2. Roanoke (B. Monroe) 2.03
Bill Monroe recorded this tune of his in 1954. The name comes from the town of Roanoke in Virginia. The story goes that he wrote the tune in a Roanoke hotel room while suffering from a severe toothache as the rest of the band went to eat. When the band returned he had this great tune completed.

Ray  Mandolins; Liam – Acoustic guitar, jews-harp and didgeridoo; Tomas – Acoustic rhythm guitar; Geraldine  Concertina; Mick  Dobro guitar; James  Bass guitar;
Des  Drums.

3. Bayou Pompon (Trad. Arr. R. Barron) 3.10
This is a traditional song from South Louisiana. It’s Jason O’Driscoll’s favourite song in the whole world and he makes his banjo-playing debut here. It’s strange the stuff you get mixed up in when you play with Two Time Polka!

Geraldine  Accordion; Ray  Mandolin; Tomas  Vocals, acoustic guitar and washboard; Noel  Bass guitar; Des  Drums and triangle; Liam  Vocals and electric guitar; Jason  Vocals and 5 string banjo.

4. Another Lonely Night (B. Richard) 4.14
The tune for this song was knocking around with us for quite a while but the words eluded us until one night after a gig a friend of the band gave us a video, which contained a film on Cajun music. Lo and behold half way through the film this song popped up with subtitles. The video itself has long since been borrowed!

Tomas  Vocals and guitar; Liam  Electric guitar; Geraldine  Accordion;
Ray  Mandolin; Noel  Bass; Des  Drums.

5. The Promised Land (C. Berry) 3.58
Hank Wedel calls this the perfect rock ‘n’ roll song as it was written by Chuck Berry and recorded by Elvis Presley. Our take on the song is based on a version by Louisiana hellraiser Johnnie Allen.

Tomas  Vocals and guitar; Liam  Electric guitar and piano; Geraldine  Accordion;
Ray  Mandolin; James  Bass; Des  Drums; Leon  Electric guitar.

6. Jerusalem Ridge (B. Monroe) 3.30
Bill Monroe called this tune after the area where he grew up. Jerusalem Ridge is just outside Rosnie, Kentucky. He wrote it in the mid eighties. This version comes from multi instrumentalist Robert Bowlin.

Ray  Mandolins; Liam  Acoustic electric and slide guitars, keyboards;
To mas – Acoustic rhythm guitar; Jason  Bass guitar and open tuned acoustic guitar;
Des  Drums and percussion.

7. Blind Willie McTell (B. Dylan) 5.13
Back in 1993 Rick Danko played two nights in the Lobby Bar in Cork. They were incredible concerts. Ray was asked to do the sound for the gigs and couldn’t believe his luck when Rick’s road manager requested that the gigs be recorded. On the first night Rick opened his set with this great Bob Dylan song. Tomas’ version of the song is a mixture of this recording and a Bob Dylan bootleg recording, which we got from Ger Barron in Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford. Six years later the sad news came through of Ricks untimely death. In February of 2000 Two Time Polka came together with Hank Wedel and Open Kitchen, The Lynch Mob and several other local musicians to pay tribute to Rick and the music of The Band. The gig was staged in The Lobby Bar and all proceeds from the night along with a signed poster were later sent to the Danko family.

Tomas  Vocals and guitar; Liam  Electric and acoustic guitars, Hammond organ;
Ray  Mandolin; Geraldine  Accordion; James  Bass; Des  Drums and percussion.

8 Roxanna Waltz (B. Monroe) 2.34
We used to pla y this tune when the band first started but then it got dropped from the set list. Over the last year or so it made a comeback as the first tune in a set with Roanoke. We thought it best for the CD to keep them as separate tracks. When researching these sleeve notes we found it difficult to find out any background about the tune. Kenny Baker, fiddle player and occasional Blue Grass Boys member when asked about who wrote the tune said, “Yeah, Bill composed that waltz, but I never knew who Roxanna was”.

Ray  Mandola; Geraldine  Concertina; Eileen  Fiddles; Mick  Dobro;
Tomas  Acoustic guitar; Liam  Guitar; James  Bass guitar; Des  Drums.

9. Eunice Two-Step (Trad. Arr. R. Barron)
We first got this tune from The Boat Band and it has been a mainstay of our set since then. The tune itself goes back to some of the earliest recordings of Cajun music. Legendary Cajun musician Amede Ardion recorded the tune back in 1929 as Two-Step de Eunice.

Geraldine  Accordion; Ray  Mandolin; Tomas  Vocals, acoustic guitar and washboard; James  Bass guitar; Des  Drums; Liam  Vocals and electric guitar.

10. Tokyo Rose (J. Dolan) 3.38
We learned this song from our good friend Johnny Moynihan. It was written by Johnny’s friend Joe Dolan who along with Andy Irvine and Johnny made up the original Sweeney’s Men back in the sixties. Joe has written many great songs such as The Foxy Devil and Trip To Jerusalem both recorded by Christy Moore. Johnny has long been a champion of Joe’s songs and usually includes one or two of them in his set. The Tokyo Rose referred to in this song was a Japanese American woman who became famous during World War II. She broadcast propaganda from Radio Tokyo directed at American troops in the South Pacific. She used to play popular American music in an effort to make the troops homesick, as well as telling them what their wives/girlfriends were up to at home! She was brought back to the States after the war, and imprisoned after trial for treason. She served 6 years of her 10 year sentence, and was last known to be living in the Chicago area. We’re not sure if she’s still in the radio business!

Tomas  Vocals and guitar; Aine  Vocals; Ray  Mandolin; Liam  Acoustic Guitar;
Mel  Percussion; Noel  Bass.

11. Lacassine Special (I. LeJeune) 2.15
Back in the late seventies Ray spent some time busking in London just about the time that punk was starting to happen. The bands of the day had a novel way of self-promotion by writing the name of their bands as graffiti on the tubes and subways. Ray had a busking pitch in Marble Arch in front of a piece of graffiti that declared the ‘Balham Alligators Rules’. The name stuck with him for a few decades until one day he came across a CD called ‘Cajun Dance Party’ in a bargain bin. Down at the very bottom it said in small print “17 Sizzlers From The Swamp Performed by the Balham Alligators”. When he listened to the CD this tune jumped out at him. Tomas sourced the words and somewhere along the way train noises became part of it.

Geraldine  Accordion; Ray  Mandolin; Tomas  Vocals and acoustic guitar;
Noel  Bass guitar; Des  Drums; Liam  Electric guitar; James  Vocals;
Hank  Slide guitar;

12. Azalea Waltz (K. Chiavola) 3.10
We learnt this tune from bluegrass mandolin player Butch Baldassari. It was written by Kathy Chiavola, an American singer and guitarist. We’ve played this tune live only a handful of times but it looks like it could be making a comeback

Geraldine  Concertina; Aisling  Cello; Tomas  Guitar; Ray  Mandolin;
Liam  G uitar and chimes; Noel  Bass.

About Time Two album credits

Musicians:
Tomas Dunne (Vocals, acoustic guitar, washboard)
Ray Barron (Mandolins, fiddle, mandola)
Geraldine Barron (Accordion, concertina)
Des Field (Drums, percussion)
James O’Sullivan (Bass guitar, vocals)
Liam Murphy (Vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, Hammond organ and jews-harp)

Guest Musicians:
Jason O’Driscoll (Bass guitar and acoustic guitar  track 6: Vocals and 5 string banjo track 3)
Noel Barrett (Bass guitar  track 3, 4, 10, 11 & 12)
Aisling Fitzpatrick (Cello  track 12)
Eileen Healy (Fiddles  track 8)
Mick Power (Dobro guitar  track 2 & 8)
Mel Mercier ( track 10)
Aine Whelan (Vocals  track 10)
Hank Wedel (Slide guitar  track 11)
Leon Barron (Electric guitar  final “Thank you and Good Night.solo on ‘The Promised Land’)

Produced by Liam Murphy.
Engineered by Liam Murphy and Ray Barron.
Mixed by Liam Murphy and Ray Barron *
Mastered by Robin Robyns at Mid Atlantic Digital, Enniskillen.
Recorded at Ray Barrons Studio, Douglas, Cork **

* (excep t track 10 mixed by Mel Mercier and Ray)

** (initial drum and bass recordings for tracks 3, 4, 6 and 11 engineered by John
O’Donoghue at Spector Studios, Cork City.)

Special Thanks for the musical helping hand to:
Leon, Jason, Noel, Eileen, Aisling, Aine, Mel, Mick, Hank.

Thanks for the gracious loan of instruments and amplifiers to:
Robbie Barron, Mo O’Connor, Jennifer Lomansey, Don Buckley, Jimmy Crowley, Noel Curran and Shane Scanlon.

Thanks for all the help along the way to:
Senan Quinlan, Dave Barry, Roy O’Driscoll, Trevor Kiely, Nigel Cahill, Des McCullough, Senan O’Reilly, Tom Stapleton, Paddy and Sandra McGrath, Dan Fitzgerald, Reggie McCrohan, Pat Costelloe, Austin Durack, Ita Kane, John Creedon, Aine Hensey, P.J. Curtis, Carrie Crowley, Kieran Hurley, Pat Aherne, Paul Dromey, Roger Ryan, Ruairi and Tony O’Flaherty from The Living Tradition, Therese from Osssian Publications, Michael Dower, Ger Barron, Declan McCarthy, Johnny Moynihan, Finian O’Sullivan, Niall Toner, William Hammond, John O’Regan, Rob the Bones, Alan Alcock, Harry Moore, Andreas Del Favero (Italy), Mike Considine (Chicago), Carmina Escardo (Spain), The Boat Band, Dave Martin, Neil Conway, Dave Cunni ngham, Alan Sheehan, Andrew Tuite, John O’Donoghue, Martin Bohane, Kevin and Brenda, Sonny and Anne, Paul and Ursula, William Barrett, Josephine and Denis O’Regan.

AND FINALLY.. heartfelt thanks to all the people who have supported us at our gigs down through the years. We really hope you enjoy this CD as we had you in mind when recording it. See you down the road