Ep 63 Karan Casey

Music Therapy Conversations

Karan Casey

Does Singing Songs Make a Difference?

This episode is a recording of Karan Casey’s keynote presentation at the close of the conference of the European Music Therapy Confederation in Edinburgh, 8-12 June 2022. Karan talked about songs and social justice, arts practice research, and about her own life and experiences as a performer and campaigner on social issues. She performed a number of songs as part of the presentation, and then had a conversation with Luke Annesley to explore these issues further. It was an inspiring ending to a varied and exciting conference.

About Karan:

Singing songs charged with a sense of social responsibility in a career spanning over 25 years Karan Casey has released eleven albums as well as contributing to numerous other artists’ projects – appearing on more than 50 albums in total. She has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Japan, performing with her own band as well as collaborating with such diverse musicians as Maura O’Connell, James Taylor, Bela Fleck, Boston Pops Orchestra, Kate Ellis, Niall Vallely, Pauline Scanlon, The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Peggy Seeger, Karen Matheson, Mick Flannery, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Tim O’Brien, Solas and Lúnasa.

In 2018 Karan helped found FairPlé which is an organization aimed at achieving fairness and gender balance for female performers in Irish traditional and folk musics.

Karan tours with her band Niamh Dunne, Sean Óg Graham and Niall Vallely.

Karan’s most recent album Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale was released on the Vertical Records Label. Her song “Down in the Glen” was nominated for Best Original Folk Song at the RTE Folk Awards 2019 and she completed a PhD in music in 2019. Karan has recently performed her new show with Director Sophie Motley called I Walked into My Head which was premiered at the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2021.

Karan is currently working on a new stage show to be produced at the Everyman Theatre in Cork in early 2023 as well as an album of new songs about women in the Irish revolutionary period.

Please note: As we are awaiting permission to include the performance of 'The King's Shilling' in this episode, here is a YouTube link to Karan's studio version of the song.

Reviews of Karan's music:

"Karan Casey’s latest album is revelatory. She’s always been a singer of songs that tell a story and show their muscle…This is a strikingly three-dimensional work that stands the test of intensive and repeated listening with ease. A vivid and dazzling snapshot of Casey invincible, at the height of her powers.”

Siobhán Long, Irish Times

“Casey’s voice is among the loveliest in folk music and she’s a wonderful interpreter of both contemporary and traditional material.”

BOSTON GLOBE

“Karan Casey's latest solo venture is a thing of rare beauty.”

SING OUT

"The most soulful singer to emerge in Irish traditional music in the past decade."

THE GLASGOW HERALD

“If ever any doubt existed about who's the best Irish traditional woman singer today, "Exiles Return" sweeps aside all pretenders…Karan Casey has no vocal peer.”

IRISH ECHO

Songs

Siúil a Rúin (trad.)

The King's Shilling (Ian Sinclair)

Rocks of Bawn (trad.)

Ballad of Accounting (Ewen MacColl)

I'm Still Standing Here (Janis Ian)

Hear How the Music it Heals (trad.)

Bog Braon (trad.)

Other links and references:

Casey, K. (2017, September). Singing my way to Social Justice. In Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy (Vol. 17, No. 3).

Davis, A. Y. (2011). Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Vintage.

www.karancasey.com

[e-mail]

Lyrics

Siúil a Rúin

I wish I was on yonder hill 'Tis there I would sit and cry my fill

Until every tear it would turn a mill

Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

I would sell my rock, I would sell my reel

I would sell my only spinning wheel For to buy my love a sword of steel Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin

Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

And now my love he has gone to France

To try his fortune to advance And if he returns, 'tis but a chance Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin

Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain

I wish I had my heart again

And it’s vainly I think that I would not complain

Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

The King’s Shilling

Oh my love has left me with bairnes twa

And that's the last of him I ever saw

He's joined the army and marched to war

He took the shilling

He took the shilling and he’s off to war

Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar

Take the King's shilling and you’re off to war

Well did he look as he marched along

With his kilt and sporran and his musket gun

And the ladies tipped him as he marched along

He sailed out by

He sailed out by the Broomielaw

The pipes did play as he marched along

And the soldiers sang out a battle song

March on, march on, cried the Captain gay

And for King and country

For King and country we will fight today

Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar

Take the King's shilling and we're off to war

The battle rattled to the sound of guns

And the bayonets flashed in the morning sun

The drums did beat and the cannons roared

And the shilling didn't seem

Oh the shilling didn't seem much worth the war

Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar

Take the King's shilling and we're off to war

Well the men they fought and the men did fall

Cut down by bayonets and musket ball

And many of these brave young men

Would never fight for

Would never fight for the King again

Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar

Take the King's shilling and we're off to war

Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar

Take the King's shilling and you’ll die in war

Rocks of Bawn

Come all ye loyal heroes wherever you may be.

Don't hire with any master till you know what your work will be

You will rise up early from the clear day light till the dawn

and you never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

Rise up, gallant Sweeney, and give your horse some hay

And give them a good feed of oats before they stray away

Don't feed them on soft turnip put them out on your green lawn

Or they never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

My curse upon you, Sweeney boy, you have me nearly robbed

You're sitting by the fireside with your dúidín in your gob

You're sitting by the fireside now from clear daylight till the dawn

And you never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn

My shoes they are worn and my stockings they are thin

My heart is always trembling for fear they might give in

My heart is always trembling from the clear daylight till the dawn

And I never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

I wish the Queen of England she would call for me in time

And place me in some regiment all in my youth and prime

I'd fight for Ireland's glory from the clear daylight till dawn

And I never would return again to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

Ballad of Accounting

In the morning we built the city

In the afternoon walked through its streets

Evening saw us leaving

We wandered through our days as if they would never e

All of us imagined we had endless time to spend

We hardly saw the crossroads

And small attention gave

To landmarks on the journey from the cradle to the grave,

cradle to the grave, cradle to the grave

Did you learn to dream in the morning?

Abandon dreams in the afternoon?

Wait without hope in the evening?

Did you stand there in the traces and let them feed you lies?

Did you trail along behind them wearing blinkers on your eyes?

Did you kiss the foot that kicked you?

Did you thank them for their scorn?

Did you ask for their forgiveness for the act of being born,

act of being born, act of being born?

Did you alter the face of the city?

Did you make any change in the world you found?

Or did you observe all the warnings?

Did you read the trespass notices did you keep off the grass?

Did you shuffle off the pavement just to let your betters pass?

Did you learn to keep your mouth shut,

Were you seen and never heard?

Did you learn to be obedient and jump to at a word,

jump to at a word, jump to at a word?

Did you ever demand any answers?

The who, the what or the reason why?

Did you ever question the setup?

Did you stand aside and let them choose while you took second best?

Did you let them skim the cream off and then give to you the rest?

Did you settle for the shoddy?

Did you think it right

To let them rob you right and left and never make a fight,

never make a fight, never make a fight?

What did you learn in the morning?

How much did you know in the afternoon?

Were you content in the evening?

Did they teach you how to question when you were at the school?

Did the factory help you grow, were you the maker or the tool?

Did the place where you were living

Enrich your life and then

Did you reach some understanding of all your fellow men,

all your fellow men, all your fellow men?

I’m Still Standing Here

See these lines upon my face

They’re a map of where I’ve been

In the deep they are traced a deeper life has settled in

How do we survive living out our lives

I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine

Or pretend that time stands still

I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear

Another line another year

I’m still standing here

See these marks upon my skin

They’re the lyric of my life

Every story that begins

Means another ends in sight

Only lover’s understand

Skin just covers who I am

I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine

Or pretend that time stands still

I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear

Another line another year

I’m still standing here

See these bruises see these scars

Hieroglyphs that tell the tale

You can read them in the dark

Through your fingertips like braille

I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine

Or pretend that time stands still

I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear

Another line another year

I’m still standing here