Happy St Patrick’s Day!
Full disclaimer to begin with folks – 
I have no known Irish ancestry whatsoever, but for the past decade I’ve faithfully shared this cartoon on my facebook page! I suspect it was originally a greetings card but I have no idea of the source. I’d love to share the artist’s name and give them credit so if anyone knows, please do tell me!
A few days ago though, I was inspired to start writing a song about this obviously completely true version of St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland…
and here is the first demo version! Hope you enjoy – full disclaimers below…
- There are no effects whatsoever on my voice. The main vocal is exactly as I sung it, just as if I was singing at a local folk session. It’s a bit too low in the mix as well tbh. I did of course record the snakes voices separately.
- My second frozen shoulder still hasn’t recovered enough to let me play guitar (or indeed any instrument) comfortably, so I used this brilliant little tool to create the piano backing. I suppose in these days of AI one could call it cheating… But I do input all the chords individually and it actually takes just as long – sometimes longer – to make sure I’ve got the exact length of every chord correct. Actually I would encourage any musician to have a play around with this – if just to instantly check which chords are standard in G mixolydian and see what they sound like in a flamenco rhythm!
- Sorry, if there ever was a number 3 I’ve forgotten what it was. Happy St Patrick’s Day anyway!
- Oh yes – apologies to the creators of Father Ted – I really couldn’t resist Mrs Doyle’s cup of tea line!