Get all 12 The Grinning Barretts releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Bottle Hymns, H.L.H., MacPherson's Rant, Wild Mountain Thyme, Divided By A Negative, Black Velvet Band, Armstrong Ave, The Foggy Dew, and 4 more.
1. |
Bottle Hymns Pt 1
00:46
|
|||
2. |
10 Tera Ohm
01:56
|
|||
I am internally conflicted
Combusted, vindictive
A relic from the past with no remorse
10 tera ohm resistance
To progress, insistence
I’m the victim in every step forward
When I can’t have it all with a clear conscience
I am persecuted from every direction
Revisionist histrionics
Vignettes of imagined contentment
Insatiable, I consume
Comforting platitudes
Railing at imagined transgression
I self impose containment
Rampart disinformation
My ignorance was turned into a weapon
By appeals and gas lit tales
Of a time that never existed
My vanity is pandered to
The history I cling to is a fiction
Entitled indignant and self righteous
At the notion that I benefit from privilege
Fragility pro-jec-ted
And the evidence dismissed with prejudice
|
||||
3. |
Divided By A Negative
01:54
|
|||
It’s pervasive
All consuming it’s reach
Spreading like a virus
Between commercial breaks
So persuasive
Facts succumb to belief
Governed by amygdala
And armed to the teeth
We’ve been divided by a negative
Sights set on each other
Tribal warfare in the street
Divided by a negative
Amplified and multiplied
Division and deceit
Its containment
Of opinion televised
Turning on each other
Conditioned to despise
At the arraignment
Flashing white power signs
Dog whistle signals
Hate on the rise
|
||||
4. |
Star Of The County Down
02:07
|
|||
In Banbridge Town in the County Down
One morning last July,
From a boreen green came a sweet Christine
And she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so sweet from her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut brown hair.
Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself
For to see I was really there.
As she onward sped, I shook my head,
And gazed with a feelin' weird
And I say's, say's I, to a passer-by,
"Whose yer one with the nut brown hair"?
He smiled at me with pride say's he,
"She’s the gem of Ireland's crown.
It's Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann,
She's the star of the County Down".
From Bantry Bay to Derry Quay
Galway to Dublin Town,
No maid I've seen like the fair Christine
I met in the County Down.
She’d soft brown eyes, and a look so sly
And a smile like a rose in June
And she held each note from her auburn throat
As she lilted lamenting tunes
At the pattern dance you’d be in a trance
As she skipped through a jig or reel
When her eyes she’d roll, she’d lift your soul
And your heart she would likely steal
At the Harvest Fair she'll be surely there
So I'll dress in my Sunday clothes,
With my hat cocked right and my shoes shone bright
For a smile from my nut brown rose.
No horse I'll yoke, or pipe I’ll smoke
Till the rust on my plough turns brown.
And a smiling bride, by my own fireside
Sits the star of the County Down.
|
||||
5. |
Ballad OECW
02:01
|
|||
From hanging men for stealing bread
To debtors prison cells
The rich who serve the public
First seek to serve themselves
Proclamations of emancipation didn't equate to equality
It's always rich men writing laws for poor men to obey
It's always rich men writing laws for poor men to obey
Their hands are in our pockets
Bastards on the take
Lobbyists and special interests are just legal thievery
It's always rich men writing laws for poor men to obey
Politicians passed the laws
With palms arms dealers grease
So businessmen can ship your job away overseas
Join the army, serve your country
And they'll ship you off to die
It's always rich men starting wars, for the poor to fight
It's always rich men starting wars, for the poor to fight
The weapons manufacturers handing out the bribes
Sign the no-bid contracts away from the front lines
It's always rich men starting wars, for the poor to fight
|
||||
6. |
Hope Like Hell
03:10
|
|||
One day,
We’ll have one more for the road
I hope like hell this finds you well
I miss you more than you know
Some day, this long ride
Will give way to better times
I hope like hell this finds you well
And I see you on the other side
A mile long list to never take for granted
Since normal was summarily supplanted
Locked down and uprising in
The last 2 years have hit like 10
But I hope like hell this finds you well my friend
I’ve got a mile long list I wish I’d never seen
Metastasizing bigoted beliefs
An answer to a question no one asked
Dodging assholes protesting masks
I hope like hell this lockdown is the last
Someday we’ll close the door on this
Make up for all the times we’ve missed
With handshakes and bumped fists
Concert stamps on inner wrists
Til then I’ll push on and persist
Through every fucked up turn and twist
Push on and persist
Adding lines to those lists
|
||||
7. |
The Foggy Dew
02:09
|
|||
It was down the glen one Easter morn
To a city fair rode I
There armed lines of marching men
In squadrons passed me by
No fife did hum, no battle drum
Did sound its dred tattoo
But the Angelus bells o'er the Liffey's swell
Rang out in the foggy dew
Right proudly high over Dublin town
They hung out the flag of war
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky
Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar
And from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through
While Brittania's huns with their long-range guns
Sailed in through the foggy dew
'Twas Brittania bade our wild geese go
That small nations might be free
But their lonely graves lie beneath the waves
On the shore of the gray North Sea
But had they died by Pearse's side
Or fought with Cathal Brugh
Their names we would keep where the Fenians sleep
'Neath the shroud of the foggy dew
But the bravest fell, and the requiem bell
Rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Eastertide
In the springtime of the year
And the world did gaze in deep amaze
At those fearless men, but few
Who bore the fight that freedom's light
Might shine through the foggy dew
|
||||
8. |
Kudatah
03:09
|
|||
Watching em twist in the wind
In a cycle of perpetual spin
Threats shouted from the hole
They dug themselves shilling for
The chickenhawk pretend economist
Armed with a fiction and a chip
On the shoulder and a quivering lip
Teen angst hyperbole
For the way it used to be
The story of the torch and the bridge
A decade denying evidence
Of environment and economic sense
Til the man in the blue suit
Turned tail and flew the coup
And left his stooges holding the cheque
The pride before the fall was wholly self inflicted
Matchsticks and kerosene aren’t meant for building bridges
Like old dogs and new tricks, progress meets resistance
But economies and stupid can’t be fixed
In an instant
A one hundred eighty degree (a one hundred eighty degree)
About face hypocrisy (whoa)
On display for all sapient to see
In unhinged apoplexy
|
||||
9. |
MacPherson's Rant
02:20
|
|||
Farewell ye dungeons dark and strong
Farewell, farewell to thee
MacPherson's time will not be long
On yonder gallows tree
It was by a woman's treacherous hands
I was condemned to dee
She stood upon a window ledge
And a blanket threw o'er me
What is death, but parting breath
Money a bloody pain
I've doured his face, and in his place
I curse him once again
I have lived a life o straught and strife
And I die by treachery
It burns my heart that I must depart
And no avenged be
Take these bands from off my hands
An give to me my sword
There's not a man in all Scotland
I'll brave him at a word
May cowards shame distain the name
Of the wretch who would not die
There's some come here to see me hanged, and some to buy my fiddle
But before I part with her, I'll break it through the middle
Sae rantingly, sae wantonly
Sae dauntingly gae'd he
He played a tune and danced around
Below the gallows tree
|
||||
10. |
Whisky With The Lads
02:51
|
|||
Sing us a vs of good times that we’ve had
Things could be worse
I’m drinking whisky with the lads
Oh this pint ain’t my first, and it won’t be my last
Things could be worse
I’m drinking whisky with the lads
The jokes that we tell, have all been told before
But everyone among us will be rolling on the floor
Cause there ain’t a one among us, inclined to act his age
This one’s for the choir and best damn times up on the stage
Craig has intent to make beer shoot like a hose
Put the end of his friend nae ass Carter’s nose
And when John is pouring whisky, I know I’ll wake up sick
It happens every fuckin time cause I don’t learn so quick
These are my birds of a feather
Oh the times are good when the old crew’s together
It’s long past time to go, so let’s have another round
And pay the price with our wives when we show up around
Half past 2 hours late, and stumble in like a disgrace
Cause whisky with the lads puts a smile on my face
|
||||
11. |
The Parting Glass
02:24
|
|||
Of all the money that e'er I had
I've spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
At least it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all
When I’ve got money enough to spend
And leisure time to sit a while
I’ll be down with the riot crowd
Turning up the fucking dial
With friends we made along the way
Come sing the songs the pipes do play
So fill to me that parting glass
Good night and joy be with you alll
Of all the comrades that e'er I had
They’re sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and I'll softly call
Good night and joy be with you all
|
The Grinning Barretts Ladysmith, British Columbia
We play other music for uplifting gormandizers.
Because we like to.
We hope you enjoy it.
Cheers.
Streaming and Download help
If you like The Grinning Barretts, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp