Music | Thurles Information

Happy 83rd Birthday Tina Turner.

Ms Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on this day, November 26th, back in 1939. The American-born, Swiss singer, song-writer and actress remains still today the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, who rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, before deciding to launch a successful career as a solo performer.

To-date, justifiable her records have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, thus making her one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.

She has, to-date, also received 12 Grammy Awards, which include eight competitive awards, three Grammy ‘Hall of Fame’ awards, and a Grammy ‘Lifetime Achievement’ Award.

She became the first black artist and first female vocalist to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Rolling Stone ranked her among the 100 Greatest Artists of all time and the 100 Greatest Singers of all time.
Ms Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, [with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist 30 years later in 2021].

Ms Turner retired in 2009, after her “Tina! 50th Anniversary” tour. She married husband Mr Erwin Bach in 2013 at Lake Zurich, in Switzerland, and shares an idyllic home named “Chateau Algonquin”, with her family also in Zurich.

She is also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honours and Women of the Year award.

Happy Birthday Ms Turner – You’re still simply “The Best”.

“The Best”
Lyrics by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman.

I call you when I need you, when my heart’s on fire.
You come to me, come to me, wild and wired.
When you come to me give me everything I need.
Give me a lifetime of promises and a world of dreams.
Speak the language of love, like you know what it means,
And it can’t be wrong, take my heart and make it strong, baby,
You’re simply the best, better than all the rest,
Better than anyone, anyone I’ve ever met.
I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say.
Tear us apart, baby, I would rather be dead.
In your heart I see the start of every night and every day.
In your eyes I get lost, I get washed away.
Just as long as I’m here in your arms, I could be in no better place.
You’re simply the best, better than all the rest.
Better than anyone, anyone I’ve ever met.
I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say.
Tear us apart, no, no, no, baby, I would rather be dead.
Each time you leave me I start losing control.
You’re walking away with my heart and my soul.
I can feel you even when I’m alone, Oh, baby, don’t let go.
You’re the best, better than all the rest.
Better than anyone, anyone I’ve ever met.
I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say.
Tear us apart, no, no, baby, I would rather be dead.
Oh you’re the best.
END

“I’ll Tell Me Ma” – Sinéad O’Connor.

To my ear nobody sings “I’ll Tell Me Ma” with the same flamboyant confidence of style , as Dublin born singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor.

“I’ll Tell Me Ma”

I’ll tell me ma, when I go home,
The boys won’t leave the girls alone.
They pulled my hair, they stole my comb,
That’s alright, ’til I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty.
She is the belle of Belfast City.
She is courting one, two, three.
Please won’t you tell me who is she?

Albert Mooney says he loves her.
All the boys are fighting for her.
They knock at the door and they ring at the bell,
Oh, my true love, are you well?
Out she comes, as white as snow,
Rings on her fingers bells on her toes.
Johnny Murphy says, “She will die,
If she doesn’t get the fella with the roving eye”.
She is handsome, she is pretty.
She is the belle of Belfast City.
She is courting one, two, three.
Please won’t you tell me who is she?

Let the wind and the rain and the hail blow high,
And the snow come shovelling from the sky.
She’s as nice as apple pie.
She’ll get her own lad, by and by.
When she gets a lad of her own,
She won’t tell her ma, when she gets home.
Let them all come, as they will,
But it’s Albert Mooney she loves still.
She is handsome, she is pretty.
She is the belle of Belfast City.
She is courting one, two, three.
Please won’t you tell me who is she?
END

Tipperary Country Recording Artist Molly O’Connell Announced As Contestant On Glór Tíre 2023.

* Tipperary Country Recording Artist Molly O’Connell announced as contestant on Glór Tíre 2023.
* Molly rounds off a most successful 2022 with a new Christmas single entitled “Jingle Rock A Melody“.

**Country Recording Artist Molly O’Connell chosen as contestant on Glór Tíre 2023**.

Top Country Music recording artist Molly O’ Connell will round off a great year, in style, with the announcements that she will be a contestant on Glór Tíre 2023.
Sharing her Glór Tíre news on her social media platforms, Molly said, “Over the moon to tell you all that I am a contestant on Glór Tíre 2023. I hope ye can tune in along the way and I would be so appreciative of your continued support.”

The Tipperary woman shot to fame on the country scene in 2022, thanks to a string of original releases that have helped win her a multitude of loyal fans across the country, wherever she has performed.
As 2022 comes to a close, Molly clearly has no signs of slowing down when it comes to capturing hearts, with her Christmas single looking like it’s going to be that tune you can’t help but hum through the holiday season.

From the pen of Maurice Ferris, “Jingle Rock A Melody” actually originated as a poem, some forty years ago, before eventually taking shape as a song with a production influenced by the style of the recently deceased country icon Loretta Lynn.

Molly, a native of Kilcommon, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, was approached by Maurice after the songwriter had been following her rapid rise to prominence, during the course of 2022.
As with music lovers the country over, Molly’s smooth, honeyed, bird-sweet tones quickly made an impression on Maurice, and he knew hers was the voice through whom he wanted to share some of his songs with the world.

Among a selection of songs he sent to Molly was “Jingle Rock A Melody”.
“It’s funny, because I had actually been looking for a Christmas song for a while”, revealed the ‘Crazy, Crazy Baby’ singer. “I love that frosty time of the year, so I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to record my own Christmas single, sometime soon.

During 2022, Molly first announced her arrival on the Country Music scene starting in May with a trio of fan and radio favourites; “Crazy, Crazy Baby” – “Waltz A Lifetime With You”, which followed in August, and “Don’t Judge The Book By Its Cover”, recorded in early October.
All three records came from the songbook of well-known country musician Stephen Hamilton, latter a collaborator that Molly hopes to work with again in the future, having described meeting him as being “a blessing”.
Molly now looks ahead to yet another milestone moment in her music career, with her first Christmas single.

Molly who hails from a family of talented musicians, has fondest
memories of songs, echoing through the hills of Kilcommon, during past Christmases.
“With all the family home for Christmas, my late dad Denis would be first out with his button-accordion, followed by my sister Siobhan, following suit soon after. From there, it would only be a matter of time before my other two sisters – Breda Jr. and Deirdre, my brother Denis Jr, my Mam Breda, also joining in.” Molly explained.
These sing-song sessions were always a family affair in our house and any relatives who came by on Christmas night, would contribute their own favourite party-piece for the occasion as well. We’d never needed to worry about what was on the television, because we’d have such great entertainment going on around us. You’d hear everything from
Christmas carols, to country songs, to trad tunes, and needless to say there’d be dancing around the kitchen as well. You couldn’t but dance with all that music.” continued Molly laughing.

“And of course, in more recent times”, recalls Molly, “all the grandchildren would be called by my mum and dad to play their tin-whistles and sing a few songs by the fire too. So many great memories of so many great times

If my new Christmas single can become a part of peoples’ happy memories of this time of the year”, says Molly, “something that can make everyone happy now and give them a reason to look back on days gone by with smiles on their faces in the years to come, well, I don’t think I could make a more lovely Christmas wish than that.”
Note: “Jingle Rock A Melody“, this brand new Christmas single from Molly O’Connell, will be available on all digital platforms and to request from radio, later this month.

For more information, do follow Molly’s official music page on Facebook, Molly O’Connell Music.

Catch The Wind – Donovan

Catch the Wind

Lyrics by Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer Donovan Phillips Leitch who has made Ireland his home for almost 40 years.

In memory of the days when real meaningful lyrics were written.

In the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty,
I want to be in the warm hold of your loving mind,
To feel you all around me,
And to take your hand along the sand.
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

When sundown pales the sky,
I want to hide a while behind your smile,
And everywhere I’d look, your eyes I’d find.
For me to love you now, would be the sweetest thing.
T’would make me sing.
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

When rain has hung the leaves with tears,
I want you near, to kill my fears.
To help me to leave all my blues behind.
For standing in your heart is where I want to be,
And long to be.
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

End.

Late Loretta Lynn An Advocate For Women’s Issues.

Multi award winning American singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn, who sadly passed away in her sleep, aged 90 years, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Humphreys County, Tennessee, United States, on October 4th, 2022, last; was buried on her Hurricane Mills ranch, beside her husband, Oliver Lynn, on October 7th, 2022.

Music tastes change as we age, with our teenage years consumed by more intense music, while our later early adulthood years, are inclined to seek out more contemporary tones, as we begin to search for closer relationships.

Perhaps today, younger Irish women fail to recognize fully, how Loretta Lynn, through her 160 songs, 60 albums and 16 No. 1 singles, established herself as an advocate for ordinary working-class women, often criticising upper-class feminism for ignoring the needs and concerns of the former.

In rejecting being labelled a feminist, she declared “I’m not a big fan of women’s liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they’re due.”

At the height of her popularity, some of her songs were banned from radio airplay. Much of her chosen music discussed and highlighted many women’s issues; e.g. “Harper Valley P.T.A” (written by Tom T. Hall), “The Pill” (latter written by Lorene Allen, Don McHan, T. D. Bayless, and Loretta Lynn and banned on the radio) “One’s on the Way” (written by Shel Silverstein) “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (written by Loretta Lynn) and “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin‘ (written by Loretta Lynn and her sister Peggy Sue Wright)

The song “Dear Uncle Sam“, written by Loretta Lynn and released in 1966, during the Vietnam War, describes a wife’s anguish at the loss of a husband killed in war. It was later included in her live performances during the Iraq War.

Dear Uncle Sam.

[The name Uncle Sam remains a popular symbol of the U.S. government in American culture and a manifestation of patriotic emotion.]

Dear Uncle Sam I know you’re a busy man,
And tonight I write to you through tears with a trembling hand.
My darling answered when he got that call from you.
You said you really need him, but you don’t need him like I do.
Don’t misunderstand, I know he’s fighting for our land.
I really love my country, but I also love my man.
He proudly wears the colours of the old red white and blue,
While I wear a heartache, since he left me for you.

Dear Uncle Sam I just got your telegram.
And I can’t believe that this is me shaking like I am.
“For it said I’m sorry to inform you………”

Loretta Lynn always insisted that her music had no specific politics, rather an emphasis on what she believed to be morally right.
Proof, if proof was needed, she allowed ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) to freely use her song “I Wanna Be Free”, in a public service campaign to discourage the chaining of dogs outdoors, especially in winter weather conditions.

Not surprisingly, each of her songs that were banned, became chart toppers.

In ár gcroíthe go deo.