Terence Winch & Billy McComiskey, 2016 Eileen Estes, Susan Campbell, & Chérie Campbellcat
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Last year I collaborated with one of my all-time favorite singers, Eileen Estes, on a song called “Pilgrims on the Ocean.” Eileen wrote a beautiful air to my lyrics, and late last year we recorded the song at Blue House Productions in Silver Spring, Maryland, with Jeff Gruber at the controls. We asked our friend Billy McComiskey, the great Brooklyn-born button accordion player now at the center of Baltimore’s Irish music scene, to lend a hand. For an outro to the song, Eileen had the very good idea to have Billy go into a tune by the legendary Clare fiddle player Junior Crehan. The tune has a number of names, all variations on “With Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back.”
The lyrics are below, and the song can be heard by clicking
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Pilgrims on the Ocean
There’s an awful thing that happens when the people go out marching.
There’s a sad but true confusion when the walls come tumbling down.
When the emcee takes the microphone and shoves it in our faces
and the castles feel the tremors shake, and crumble to the ground.
We were stumbling in the darkness when the houses caught on fire.
We were eating late-night dinners when the cops came cruising by.
But we sold our books and diamonds and stripped off our posh attire
and surrendered to the gender squad when they all began to cry.
[bridge]
Where the mountain meets the lake
where the lovers hearts all break
in the greening without meaning
when the give all turns to take
We’re the pilgrims and the children all forsaken on the oceans
where the storms divide and waves collide and we’re about to drown.
That’s what it’s like down here tonight drenched in our emotions
but swimming for the sunlight and the sight of higher ground.
©words Terence Winch/music Eileen Estes
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When there is magic afoot, and the wind starts to sound like a song drawn out of the soul of the earth, you'd better start looking around for a Winch.
Posted by: Thomas Davis | December 21, 2022 at 03:50 PM
feckin brilliant
Posted by: lally | December 21, 2022 at 03:53 PM
Wonderful. Thank you.
Posted by: Martin Stannard | December 21, 2022 at 04:38 PM
Thank you, brother.
Posted by: Terence Winch | December 21, 2022 at 06:01 PM
And the sight of higher ground! Cheers this solstice evening, Eileen and Terence and Billy and all!
Posted by: Bill Nevins | December 21, 2022 at 06:03 PM
Thank you, Terence, Eileen, and Billy for this marvelous song. Gratitude to Billy for the exhilarating coda. Happy holiday to all. Happy, peaceful, healthy 2023.
Posted by: Emily Fragos | December 21, 2022 at 07:00 PM
Thanks, Emily.
Posted by: Terence Winch | December 21, 2022 at 07:21 PM
Beautiful lyrics, tune, singing and playing. Well done, all!
Posted by: Abbie Mulvihill | December 21, 2022 at 07:47 PM
Wonderful!
Posted by: Liz Hill | December 22, 2022 at 06:41 AM
it's a fragile existence. lovely song!
Posted by: Jesse F Winch | December 22, 2022 at 07:31 AM
This is my CHRISTMAS present, for sure
Posted by: Grace Cavalieri | December 22, 2022 at 09:05 AM
Thank you Eileen and Terry for this very timely song. So glad you worked together and with Billy to produce this gift.
Posted by: Maureen Locke | December 22, 2022 at 12:39 PM
Thanks for the comment, Maureen.
Posted by: Terence Winch | December 22, 2022 at 01:21 PM
Sadness (drowning), hope (higher ground), rhyme. This is a beautiful poem (thank you, Terrence), beautifully sung (thank you Eileen), beautifully accompanied (thank you, Billy). And a beautiful outro (thank you, Junior Crehan, RIP). Good holidays to all.
Posted by: Anne Harding Woodworth | December 22, 2022 at 03:44 PM
Thanks, Anne. Wonderful comment.
Posted by: Terence Winch | December 22, 2022 at 03:57 PM
Beautiful and transcendent, but thoroughly grounded on the planet.
So moving.
Posted by: Susan Campbell | December 22, 2022 at 05:35 PM
Beautiful.Thank you.
I am always greatly moved when poetry and song are reunited.
---Dick Lourie
Posted by: Dick Lourie | December 30, 2022 at 05:52 PM
Thanks, Dick. Glad you liked it.
Posted by: Terence Winch | December 30, 2022 at 06:44 PM
This is a perfect song/poem for the start of 2023. It's also universal, as so many of us have to travel to those dark spaces and places that we have no control over. Here's to the New Year, and here's to Terence Winch. It's like we're all immigrants once again, traveling to the greatest country in the world. That's what my dear Irish mother always said about the U.S. She also said a day never went by that she didn't think about Ireland, but she was grateful that America took her in. Happy New Year to one and all. This song captures it all. Bravo.
Posted by: lawrence welsh | January 01, 2023 at 06:19 PM
Thanks so much for the comment, Lawrence. I have to add that without the beautiful music composed by Eileen Estes, not to mention the way her extraordinary voice brings it all to life, there wouldn't be that much to praise. Happy New Year to you, my friend.
Posted by: Terence Winch | January 01, 2023 at 07:43 PM