Lankum performs live at WGBH’s Fraser Performance Studio in Boston. The Dublin-based group, consisting of Cormac MacDiarmada, Radie Peat, and brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, makes a special kind of Celtic folk music, mixing ambient textures with harmonies that harness astonishing power. In 2019, their album The Livelong Day won Album of the Year at the RTÉ Choice Awards.
Set list:
The Wild Rover 0:01
The Rocky Road to Dublin 09:53
Bear Creek 13:47
TRADITIONAL
Sergeant William Bailey was a man of high renown
Tooral looral looral looral loo
In search of gallant young recruits he used to scour the town
Tooral looral looral looral loo
His face was full and swarthy, of medals he had forty
And ribbons on his chest red white and blue
It was he that looked the hero as he made the people stare O
As he stood on Dunphy’s corner tooral loo
But alas for human greatness every dog he has his day
Tooral looral looral looral loo
And Sergeant William Bailey he is getting old and grey
Tooral looral looral looral loo
No longer youths are willing to take his dirty shilling
And things for him are looking mighty blue
In spite of fife and drumming no more recruits are coming
For Sergeant William Bailey tooral loo
Sergeant William Bailey what a wretched sight to see
Tooral looral looral looral loo
His back that once was firm and straight is almost bent in three
Tooral looral looral looral loo
Some rebel youths with placards have called his army blackguards
And told the Irish youth just what to do
He has lost his occupation let’s sing in jubilation
For Sergeant William Bailey tooral loo
Irish band Lankum talk to Mark about their new album Between the Earth and Sky.
(Interview begins at 24 minutes.)
Listen: Lankum Interview, The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe – BBC Radio 2
