Call me a silly old groupie if you like, but please bear with me for a while...I feel like I've just discovered that an old friend, who I thought long dead, is very much alive!
More years ago than I care to count, I was idly surfing our limited TV channels for something to watch, and happened upon something incredible...a music that reached out and grabbed hold of my soul. It was an Irish Rovers special, filmed on Prince Edward Island, and it totally captivated me. I was enthralled...the music made me want to laugh, cry and dance all at the same time. I don't know if I'd ever heard Irish music before, but I do know I'd never heard anything quite like that sound, and I wanted more!
Shortly thereafter, we got cable TV and I learned that the Irish Rovers had a weekly program on the CBC (one of the "new" channels we got with our cable subscription). I watched once, and was hooked...after that, I never missed a Wednesday night, if I could help it (and if I had to be away, I made my sister sit in front of the TV with a tape recorder...what I wouldn't have given for a VCR back then!). I begin to seek out Irish Rovers albums in our local record store, and soon had quite a collection, bought from my babysitting money. And when they performed in Spokane...man, I was first in line at the box office to get tickets! (one of my most cherished possesions is an album cover I got autographed by the entire band at one of their Spokane concerts).
I didn't just listen to the music, I lived it. When other kids my age were getting into Disco, I was learning to play the tin whistle (inspired by Will Millar) and incorporating Irish songs into my vocal repertoire. Thanks to the Rovers, I was turned on to other Irish and Scottish groups...The Dubliners, The Chieftains, The Boys of the Lough, The Corries, etc. But the Irish Rovers remained my firm favorite, and even after their TV show was canceled, I carried the music with me to college and beyond, in my LP collection, in the collection of audiotapes I'd forced my poor sister to make, and in my voice and fingers.
Some years later, as I was scanning newspapers as part of my job with an advertising agency, I came across an article promoting a concert by a group called simply "The Rovers." Reading the article, I came to learn that the group had dropped "Irish" from their name to indicate their "expanded" repertoire. A friend who was able to go to the concert came back and told me she was very disappointed, because they did very little Irish stuff and seemed to be leaning toward a Country-Western sound. I was terribly saddened to hear that, and hoped they'd find their way back to the sound that had captivated me as a teenager. As the years went by, however, no new Irish Rovers albums appeared in the record stores...and as CDs began to replace LPs, they pretty much disappeared entirely. When it became obvious that my old LPs were reaching the end of their lives, I started searching for Irish Rovers albums on CD, but the only one I could find was one of their earlier albums (and not one of my favorites), "The Best of The Irish Rovers." When no new or old Irish Rovers CDs appeared in the record stores, I decided the group must have disbanded.
A couple of years ago, my old turntable finally died. My LPs were pretty near unplayable anyway, and the audiotapes had long since self-destructed. I came to the sad conclusion that the sound that had so captivated me as a youngster was lost forever.
Then a couple of months ago, I learned from someone here at C&F that Will Millar had embarked on a solo career. I found his CDs on-line, and was very happy with them...they're all instrumental, but some very fine whistling indeed! Yesterday I decided to do a 'net search to see if any of the other members were doing solo work...and guess what I found?
<A HREF="http://www.irish-rovers.demon.co.uk/">The Official Irish Rovers Website</A>
It actually took me a second to realize that this was, indeed THE Irish Rovers...after all, it had been a good 15 years since I'd seen any of them. I knew that Will Millar was no longer with the group, and that Jimmy Ferguson had passed away in 1997, and my first thought was "who are these guys calling themselves The Irish Rovers???" Then I looked a little closer, and recognized George Millar, Joe Millar and Wilcil McDowell. And "Irish"...?
I clicked on one of the sound samples, and that same sound that I fell in love with so many years ago came rolling out of the speakers...some new voices, to be sure, but there was no mistaking George Millar's voice on "The Rose of Kilrea"! I swear, I listened to every single sample with tears rolling down my cheeks. You know how evocative music is...you hear something you used to love and it takes you straight back...and this took me back to the days when I first fell in love with Irish music
.I'm so happy, I could dance a jig if I knew how...maybe I'll just go downstairs and play one instead! I know where my music budget for next month is going! Straight into acquiring NEW Irish Rovers CDs!
Thanks for bearing with me...I figured this was one of the few places on the web where people might understand just how thrilling this is for me
Redwolf
