“The South Wind” is a very old Irish ballad that may be difficult to trace its actual composer. Most believe it’s credited to Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), the early Irish harpist. The actual composer was “Freckled Donal Macnamara” in the 1700s in homesickness for his homeland.

In Irish traditional music, as in most world music, tunes belong to a fixed number of tune types, each related to a specific dance style. The most common tune types are jigs, reels, slides and polkas.

The combination of melody and accompaniment is quite a recent development. Prior to the 20th century, Irish music was almost devoid of harmony. Songs and tunes were performed unaccompanied — by soloists, or sometimes by groups of players or singers in unison. The emphasis was always on the tune. The ‘interest’ in the music came from ornamentation, improvisation and a mysterious quality the Irish call lift, best translated as feel – a complex push and pull in the rhythmic structure.

As music moved out of the kitchens and living rooms into the concert hall and onto the radio, audience expectations have changed and we have become used to listening to a soloist with some sort of accompaniment. To many ears, music no longer sounds ‘complete’ unless it has a full band arrangement. It’s not surprising that Irish music has moved with the times, and during the 20th century an Irish band culture emerged.

Céilidh bands, in the 1940s, imitated the line-up of jazz bands of the time with pianos, drum kits, saxophones, and stand-up bass as well as the more obvious flutes, accordions and fiddles. The musical accompaniment was usually a very simple oom-pah style along with fairly obvious major and minor chords. This provided good loud music for dancing, but also fought against many of the strong melodic and rhythmic subtleties of the traditional tunes.

In the late 1960s, a new generation of musicians started experimenting with a different way of performing Irish music. Bands such as Planxty (who have recently reformed) and The Bothy Band drew inspiration from pop, rock and American folk music and, significantly, from the traditional music of Eastern Europe, which already had a strong folk band tradition.

Irish folk bands during this period developed a more rhythmically complex accompaniment style using strummed instruments including the guitar and a variation of the Greek bouzouki, which soon became known as the Irish bouzouki. And the musicians left behind simple major and minor chord structures to use drones, modal chords (neither major nor minor, using only the root and fifth without the third) and more complex suspended and augmented harmonies. By avoiding major or minor chords, this style of accompaniment was more sympathetic to traditional Irish melodies, which often drifted between the two. Guitars and bouzouki were often given alternate tunings that facilitated these types of chords like DADGAD.

George Root became particularly successful during the American Civil War. He wrote the first song concerning the war. The First Gun is Fired, only two days after the conflict began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He ultimately had at least 35 war-time ‘hits’. His songs were played and sung at both the home front and the real front. His most famous song the ‘Battle Cry of Freedom’ became well-known even in England.

This song first appeared in The Harp of Renfrewshire, where it was erroneously credited to Mr John Sim. The words were proven to be by Thomas Lyle (1792-1859). Lyle was born in Paisley and died in Glasgow. Kelvin Grove appeared in a volume of his works, Collected Poems and Songs (1837). This song was written to the tune of “The shearin’s no for you”.

Kelvin Grove was a picturesque and richly wooded dell a short distance north west of Glasgow and was a favourite place for young people to meet on summer afternoons.

Let us haste to Kelvin Grove, bonnie lassie o
Through its mazes let us rove, bonnie lassie o
Where the roses in there pride
Deck the bonnie dingle side
Where the midnight fairies glide, bonnie lassie o

Oh Kelvin banks are fair, bonnie lassie o
When the summer we are there, bonnie lassie o
There the May-pink crimson plume
Grows a soft but sweet perfume
Round the yellow banks of broom, bonnie lassie o

Though I dare not call thee mine, bonnie lassie o
As the smile of fortune’s thine, bonnie lassie o
Yet with fortune on my side
I could stay thy father’s pride
And win thee for my bride, bonnie lassie o

But the frowns of fortune lour, bonnie lassie o
On thy lover at this hour, bonnie lassie o
Ere yon golden orb of day
Wake the warblers on their spray
From this land I must away, bonnie lassie o

Then farewell Kelvin Grove, bonnie lassie o
And adeiu to all I love, bonnie lassie o
To the river winding clear
To the fragrant scented brier
Even to thee of all most dear, bonnie lassie o

When upon a foreign shore, bonnie lassie o
Should I come midst battles roar, bonnie lassie o
Then heaven should’st thou hear
Of thy lover on his bier
To his memory shed a tear, bonnie lassie o