“Star of the County Down” is an absolutely wonderful song. I find it fascinating to see how some folk songs become more popular than others. This one has a great melody and story. It's about a guy who sorta falls in love with the local beauty. He gets all dressed up for the local fair with intent to court and marry the lass. What a quaint story, huh?
Read the lyrics to “Star of the County Down” here.
Over the weekend at ALEP 2, I got back into thinking that I would love to find another song like this. Maybe not the same story or lyric style but with that same quaintness that makes it such a popular song.
I asked Constance Wagner to write some lyrics. However, do you know of any Irish songs, or Celtic songs in general, like “Star of the County Down”? Post them below? Have you written any song lyrics like that? Post those too. I'd love to find some other great songs like this one.
Right now, the only songs that come to my mind are
How about you?
Black Velvet Band is another quaint song about falling in love, but with mischievous beauty that comes at a cost. Another great melody – I rank it close to Star of the County Down.
That’s definitely close in my mind, but the only prob I have with Black Velvet Band is it comes off a little darker than Star.
Mark,
How about the song “Sweet Caranlough Bay”, it has a good tune and is not a dark song like “Black Velvet Band”. Just a thought.
Brian
I’m not familiar with that one. I’ll look it up though.
Hey, Marc. Some Star-like lyrics are coming along. I am also getting into the rhythm of various similar songs which seems to help. So all the simialr tunes mentioned here will feed the fire of my lyrical muse.
All best,
Constance Wagner
Forgive any typos in my hasty post. I should listen to Treebeard and not “be hasty”!
Constance Wagner