Star of the County Down

"Star of the County Down" is an old Irish ballad set near Banbridge in County Down, in Northern Ireland. The words are by Cathal Garvey, 1866-1927, from Ramelton, County Donegal.cite book|last= O'Lochlainn|first= Colm|year= 1967|publisher= Three Candles Press|location= Dublin|title= Songwriters of Ireland in the English Tongue] The song shares its melody with many other works, including the almost identical English tune "Kingsfold", well known from several popular hymns, such as "Led By the Spirit." The song is notable for its tight rhyme scheme. Each stanza is a double quatrain, and the first and third lines of each quatrain have an internal rhyme on the second and fourth feet: [aa] b [cc] b. The refrain is a single quatrain with the same rhyming pattern.

The song is sung from the point of view of a young man who chances to meet a charming lady by the name of Rose (or Rosie) McCann, referred to as the "star of the County Down". From a brief encounter the writer's infatuation grows until, by the end of the ballad, he imagines wedding the girl.

Recordings

It has been covered by many artists, including:

* Christopher Luther [http://www.myspace.com/lutherviolin] on his 2007 Personality album.
* Van Morrison on his 1988 Irish Heartbeat album with The Chieftains.
* The Pogues
* Bryan Bowers
* The Chieftains
* Meg Davis on her 1992 album Meg Davis Live At Dennos
* The Flash Girls
* Béla Fleck and the Flecktones on their 1991 album "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo"
* John McCormack
* Yo-Yo Ma
* Julian Lloyd Webber in an instrumental rendition on his 1994 album "Cello Song"
* The King's Singers
* The Swingle Singers
* The Irish Rovers
* Neck
* Orthodox Celts
* Oysterband
* Energy Orchard on their 1993 album "Shinola", which features a hard-rock version of the song
* Ehud Banai, a version in Hebrew, called "HaKochav shel Mahoz Gush Dan" ('the star of the Gush Dan county', Gush Dan being a major area in central Israel)
* Slainte, who placed their cover of the song for free download on MP3.com where it was several times the most frequently downloaded song of the day [ [http://www.last.fm/music/Slainte/+wiki Slainte’s Biography – Last.fm ] ]
* The North Shore Celtic Ensemble
* The Wolfe Tones
* Enter the Haggis called simply "Star" on the albums "Live" and "Aerials."
* Paddy Reilly
* The Ramblers
* Three sheets T' Wind
* The Mahones on the album "Draggin' the Days"
* Roland Kalus, played a great instrumental version on an Irish McIlroy Guitar. Inspired by Italian guitar virtuoso Franco Morone. Can be heard on line at [ [http://www.acoustic-guitarist.de Roland Kalus - Acoustic Guitarist ] ]
* Cruachan used the melody from the verse of the song instrumentally as well as with different lyrics in their song "The Brown Bull of Cooley" on their 2006 album "The Morrigan's Call".
* Marc Gunn on his album "A Tribute to Love".
* Minstrels of Mayhem
* Neck

References

External links

* [http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/star.html MIDI version of the tune, some history of the work] (page plays music even before download)
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:1456995~T00B allmusic.com list of albums featuring versions of the song]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/Slainte Link to a free download of Slainte's version of the song] (hosted by archive.org).
* [http://www.mudcat.org/Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=1202457 The Starbucks of County Down (Based on "Star of the County Down" -- Traditional music, new lyrics by Neal Phillips, Greg Trafidlo and John Seay) ]
* [http://acoustic-guitarist.de/roland/listen.htm Instrumental version of the tune, played by Roland Kalus on acoustic guitar in the popular EADead open tuning ] (the page requires the Flash player to listen to the music)