My live performances on the Pub Songs Podcast have gone over very well. I've only released two from my home studio, but I get a lot of emails from people who enjoyed them and want to hear more. So I listened to the shows again and picked the recordings that were made in those shows. They will make up the first in a series of albums from the Pub Songs Podcast.

This first album is called Folk Music with Delusions of Grandeur. Why the name? I played rock music in my early music career. I play folk music, but I'm a bit of a rocker at heart. I mean my new sideburns are kinda testimony of that. But being the realist, I know that currently folk music lacks the power and ability for mass appeal like rock music. But never the less, I dream of rocking out in an arena... with my autoharp and Celtic folk songs.

This album will feature some of the songs I recorded for my Pub Songs Podcast. Plus, I decided to add a few songs that are just hanging around waiting to be added to a CD. Here are some of the songs you may hear on the new CD:

1. Black Velvet Band
2. Jock Stuart (A Man Who Wears A Kilt Every Day)
3. Star of the County Down
4. The Virgin Diet
5. Lish Young Buy-A-Broom
6. Lord of the Pounce
7. Loch Tay
8. The Pleasant Peasant Pheasant Plucking Song
9. Eleanor Plunkett
10. I Saved The Planet Earth (Dr. Who)
11. Monkeys Over Mongolia
12. A Rabbit For Halloween (Bugs Bunny & Witch Hazel)
13. Won't You Come With Me
14. Happy Birthday, Dear Hobbit & Friend
15. Advertisement: PlagueAway, the Pestilence Potion
16. The Faire Is Over

I hope to finish mixing the album after I return from Europe. And it may well be out in mid-July 2007.

What happens when fishermen die? They go to Fiddler's Green, a paradise for those who lived their lives on the sea. It's a beautiful fantasy by John Connolly. I learned the song from The Wolfe Tones and liked it so much, it was one of the first songs I parodied on Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers, about what happens when a cat dies and the paradise that they find.

"Fiddler's Green"
Listen: LoFi
Recorded by Marc Gunn
From: Irish Drinking Songs: A Cat Lover's Companion
Read Lyrics: "Fiddler's Green" Lyrics

Download MP3: 128 kbps
Buy MP3 for 99¢: 192 kbps
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Subscribe: http://www.irish-song-lyrics.com/podcast.rss

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This is such a beautiful song. I think it was Nick Hennessey who inspired me to finally learn it. It's an old song with origins in both Scotland and the Appalacian Mountains, meaning its true origins are lost in time. The cat parody I made for Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers was a love song for black cats with a little message about stopping No-Kill Animal Shelters. It was called "Black Is the Colour (Of My Cat's Fur)".

"Black Is the Colour (Of My True Love's Hair)"
Listen: LoFi
Recorded by Marc Gunn
From: Irish Drinking Songs: A Cat Lover's Companion
Read Lyrics: "Black Is the Colour" Lyrics

Download MP3: 128 kbps
Buy MP3 for 99¢: 192 kbps
Donation: Make a Donation
Subscribe: http://www.irish-song-lyrics.com/podcast.rss

Visit MP3 Store: Buy Irish MP3s

Released under a Creative Commons Noncommercial ShareAlike License

Even before I became a cat lover, I never liked Tweety Bird. Arrogant SOB with big feet and an annoying voice. So as I was thinking of parodies for my Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers, I came up with an idea for a song that I called "Big Strong Cat ("My Puddy Tat, Sylvester)". But recently, I went in and edited some of the lyrics I didn't like and renamed simply, "My Puddy Tat, Sylvester".

The song parodies the Irish American song, "Big Strong Man (My Brudda, Sylvest)". And I'm happy to say I finally get rid of that blasted bird!

Graphic artist, Molly C. Loar, finished the CD cover Marc Gunn's upcoming CD, Irish Drinking Songs: The Cat Lover's Companion. The result is a stunning piece of art.

From the Celtic History Newsletter:

Last month I said that one of the more notable changes started by the early Irish farming culture was in the burial of their dead. There is little surviving evidence of burial customs among the earlier hunter-gatherer peoples of Ireland, but starting around 4000 BC we see the first funerary monuments in the form of megalithic structures consisting of massive rocks that were often covered with soil and sod.

These late stone age large stone constriuctions were actually a custom throughout Atlantic Europe and pre-date the numorous stone circles that were assembled later during the Bronze Age. Around 1500 megalithic tombs have been identified in Ireland.

Little is known about the homes or social organization of these tomb builders, but it is clear from the size of some of the monuments that they must have had a fairly well organized social structure. The huge mound at Newgrange is estimated to contain 200,000 tons of stones. Using sledges, logs as rollers, levers and counter-weights as tools, various calculations have said that it would have taken 300 or 400 laborers as long as 20, or 30 years to transport the materials and construct this mound which cover an area of over an acre.

These tombs are divided into 4 styles

Wedge Tombs are the most common in Ireland, with over 400 that have been identified by archaeologists. They are called 'wedge' tombs because of their distinctive shape, being taller and wider at the front, and lower and narrower at the rear. These date from the later end of the Irish Neolithic period up to the Bronze Age with some dates showing them to be between 3000 and 4000 years old.

Passage tombs: (Such as NewGrange, see link above, as well as) where the burial chamber is reached along a distinct, and usually low, passage. later ones, are sometimes covered with a cairn of earth or rocks. Most of the passage tombs were constructed aroun 3,000 B.C.

Court Tombs: A long rectangular or trapezoid cairn was raised over several burial chambers. The tombs had an elongated curve of stones delineating an outer area at their entrances, called a court or forecourt which usually faces the east. The cairns can be up to 30 meters long, 14 meter wide at front and 7 wide at rear. In some cases the courts appear to have been designed to accomodate the mourners at the burials. There are over 300 Court tomb sites in Ireland, located mainly in the upper half of the country. Common artifacts found in court tombs include sherds of round bottomed pottery bowls, leaf or lozenge shaped flint arrowheads and hollow scrapers made from flint. Also a few javelin heads and polished stone axe heads have been
recorded.

Portal Tombs: (once called Dolmens) These are more common in western Ireland and may be the best known of the Irish burial tombs, possibly due to some impressive and easily accessible sites still remaining. The people who built portal tombs seem to have had some connections or similarities to the court tomb builders since similar artifact have been found with both, and they both tend to appear in lowland settings.

For the most part these all of these tombs were used for communal burials for cremated remains not for single bodies. It has also been suggested that some of the tombs may have been more than simple burial monuments to ancestors and possibly created as declarations of territorial rights.

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The Celtic Croft & MacGregor Historic Games

And if you like Irish music, check out the Brobdingnagian Bards new CD, The Holy Grail of Irish Drinking Songs, Irish Stout's A Collection of Irish Pub Songs, or Victims of Irish Music. And if you're ready for more St. Patrick's Day music, check the link.

Yesterday, I wrote a new song. I called it "Silhouette of Love" at the time. I wrote it after leaving Zilker Park, here in Austin. I spent a good forty-five minutes practicing in the heat of the day and wanted some traveling music. I started playing a melody.

It was simple, beautiful, and touching. And as I walked I had an image in my mind. And it's funny. Just about everyone who heard the tune recognized what I was not verbalizing. When I started playing, the song was to be called "Pottery Girl", but this is what came out. It was not just a "Silhouette of Love", but a "Silhouette of Longing Love." The song was inspired by an ex with whom I split on poor terms.

As I lay in bed time tonight, I thought it was kind of ironic. Part of the reason for breakup was that I was unable to put her first. I thought too much about me. That's what I find ironic. This song is not about "Pottery Girl", it's about me. It's about my own longing for love and the shadows that linger over it. I guess I still haven't learned.

Well, whatever the reason for the song, I think it is a touching reminder that love comes in all shapes and sizes. It's not always happy and blissful. Sometimes you don't get the girl and ride off into the sunset. Sometimes you're left longing and hoping for that Ever After.

"Silhouette of Longing Love"
Listen: LoFi
Recorded by Marc Gunn
From: A Tribute to Love (coming in August 2007)

Download MP3: 128 kbps
Buy MP3 for 99¢: 192 kbps
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Subscribe: http://www.pubsong.com/PubSongsPodcast.rss

I need a Associate Editor for my Cat Lovers Podcast.

I got Another email saying, "more cat podcasts". But what with time, I'm having trouble. So here's what I need. I need someone willing to find

1-3 News Bits
1-3 Interesting websites
1 Comedy story
1 main story

The news and websites need to include a paragraph of explanation followed by a link to more information. The comedy and main stories can be a bit longer. Basically, reading all this stuff will take ten minutes. And it does need to be written out.

I would need this info, just once a month. Pretty simple, eh?

Anyone interested in being an Associate Editor? Email me.

I've been in my apartment way too much recently. So today, I made a break for it. I went down to ZIlker Park, brought my autoharp and played music. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day. Families and kids were out in full force, and how I would've loved to go swimming in the Barton Springs Pool, but it's not until July that I have my follow-up Lasik appointment.

I forgot to bring a bottle of water, so after about 45 minutes, I packed up the autoharp, walked along and played. I came up with a lovely melody or rather soundscape on the way to Flipnotics. So when I finally drove home, I recorded it. Now I'm just trying to figure out what effects to put on it. I was thinking of putting it on my A Tribute to Love CD.

I'm tentatively calling it "Silhoutte of Love". Let me know what you think.

Listen here (LoFi)!

On Saturday, May 12, at 2:00 PM, poet Karla Morton will be at Things Celtic, reading a piece from her original epic poem, "Wee Cowrin' Timorous Beastie".

The poem is a Scottish epic story written in rhyme about a 17th century Scottish pirate named John Murray and his love, Vashti. It's an exciting story about longing and love and the mystery of the beautiful foggy dew of Scotland.

Karla will be selling and signing copies of the audio book/CD of "Wee Cowrin' Timorous Beastie". The CD features a musical underscore by Canadian composer, Howard Baer.

Things Celtic is located at 1806 W. 35th Street, Austin, TX 78703.

I just noticed that our CD, A Celtic Renaissance Wedding, is the one of the Top 10 Most-Popular Celtic New Age CDs on CD Baby at #6. It is also listed as the Editor's Pick of great CDs there. Considering it has twice been one of the Top 100 CDs sold in their annual poll and the number of outstanding reviews for this album, it is no great surprise.

A Celtic Renaissance Wedding was first released in 2003 as a compilation of romantic Celtic and Renaissance love songs for fans of the Brobdingnagian Bards and for couples getting married. The low price has made it a huge success over other Celtic wedding CDs.

"Holy Crap! You found me!"

That was the latest comment I got when I posted a "thank you" in a fan's Livejournal. She had just finished writing a praise-filled post about how cool my Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers CD was, when I appeared... just two hours after she wrote it!

That's not the first time I have blown away fans by personally responding to a blog that they would never have expected me to respond to. So what's the deal? Am I mind-reader?

Yup! They call me Mind-Reading Marc. Okay, not really. In fact, I found Technorati a long time ago. It allows me to track what people are saying about me and my websites in their blogs.

Any music marketer worth half their weight knows that tracking the results of a campaign are essential to the success of their marketing. Technorati works with blogs or any RSS feed. You enter a word or URL and it scans those feeds. Then it comes back with the results. And it also tells you how long ago they posted the information.

Thanks to this amazing site, I learned that David Meerman Scott posted a thank you to me after finishing his New Rules of Marketing & PR. I learned that Pink Mermaid used the chorus for one of my songs in a list of quotes about forgiveness. And I got a great review and feature by AssociatedContent regarding my latest CD, Irish Drinking Songs: The Cat Lovers Companion.

Of course, I also read how a fan loved my original CD so much that she posted a link to it in her blog and got a HUGE surprise when I commented and said, "thanks!" Guess that is not too bad a tool for helping you to market your music and surprise the hell out of your fans.

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Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000's of musicians save and make money with their musical groups through his monthly newsletter, Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine. Now you can get FREE "how-to" music marketing and promotion advice by visiting www.bardscrier.com. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the Bards Crier Ezine for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

This was one of the first Irish songs I ever learned from some cassette of Irish drinking songs. It's about Tim Finnegan who dies and a wake is held in his honor. It quickly turns into a free-for-all. Even death, it's terrible thing to waste good alcohol. I parodied this song on Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers with a song about a Sphynx cat named Furagone who runs through the same life after death scenario with catnip. Notice the cute meows at the beginning of the song. That's my cat Tiziano.

"Finnegan's Wake"
Listen: LoFi
Recorded by Marc Gunn
From: Irish Drinking Songs: A Cat Lover's Companion
Read Lyrics: "Finnegan's Wake" Lyrics

Download MP3: 128 kbps
Buy MP3 for 99¢: 192 kbps
Donation: Make a Donation
Subscribe: http://www.irish-song-lyrics.com/podcast.rss

Visit MP3 Store: Buy Irish MP3s

Released under a Creative Commons Noncommercial ShareAlike License

I read Seth Godin's iPhone Challenge, and I'm gonna have to agree with him.

Seth made the claim that the iPhone will sell two million units this year and more next. Meanwhile others are saying it'll be an earlier adopter thing that is promptly abandoned. I just can't see that.

I really don't want an iPhone. But ye know what... I've kinda fallen for the buzz too. Apple makes cool products and this is one. The iPhone is just cool. And I've never used it or know anyone who has. But I do have an iPod. And despite some features I don't care for, I Love it. And it's cool.

So personally, I'll place my bet on Seth's prediction. The iPhone is the start to something that consumers will get behind and will help Apple to keep their market growing and in about three years. I'll prolly be one of five million units. Maybe sooner if they take Verizon...