Happy New Year Everyone! Heres Irish American News and Irish Focus Column. January edition 2015 - Hi Everybody, Once again Christmas is over and our New Year has begun. I hope everyone had a happy and peaceful Christmas and may 2015 be good to one and all. My Christmas was quiet and lonesome as it was my first Christmas without my dear Mother R.I.P. She was my best friend but I know she is happy with my Dad and God in Heaven. From September 2014 until September 2015 I am celebrating 50 years in my Music career. I have done 10 special concerts that led up to Christmas and they were so extra special. It was wonderful seeing all those familiar faces that always came to my shows in the past. They really came out in force and I felt such great love all around me. I will do four or five more concerts in the spring and summer and some other special things. I will finish my year in Killarney in August. At which point I will sit back, rest and take a look at what may lie ahead. There is talk of my book The Promise & the Dream being adopted into a movie, so who knows what’s around the corner. Happy New Year to each and everyone - once again, over to you Joe. Thank you Margo, We all wish you and Daniel and all your family a very Happy New Year. Daniel was over here last November doing his annual shows in Branson, and some other shows here in America. Thats great news about your book maybe hitting the movie screens. We wish you great success with it. Soon Ill be heading over the ocean again, to do a few shows. Ill be there for 2 weeks mid-February. One weekend in England playing Blackpool and Leeds and also one weekend in Ireland in Galway and Mayo. I had a great time last year meeting up with people I hadnt seen in a lot of years. There was also many friends from Chicago that were home on holidays at the same time. So it was great to meet up with them at home. I really enjoyed my gigs there. But the most special part of my trip was to see my son Declan get to bond with his relatives and watch him playing along with them. Of course when he met them he kinda dumped me. Ha! Ha! But I was glad to be dumped for such a good reason. He now has another place to call home. Country music lost another great singer on December 11th. Dawn Sears R.I.P. If you have never heard her sing you could put her name up on You Tube. I feel I have to mention her because Its very, very seldom someone puts the feeling into a song like this wonderful woman did. If you listen to her sing Sweet Memories you will know what I mean. People like her are very rare. This months song is one I wrote with my cousin Pat Touhy (Chicago) and my good friend James Thacker (Nashville). Pat has always been good with words and just a wonderful human being. We were talking one day about how little things in life can mean so much. So we started writing the song Just One Single Rose. In the middle of our writing it we decided that for some reason firemen never really get mentioned in song, at least not very often. Even though they put there lives at risk everyday. I have a cousin named Mike Bush on the southside of Chicago, who is a retired fire chief and he was known for doing a lot of courageous deeds. He was stationed in Englewood for his last few years on the force. So we put our thoughts on paper and the song was borne. I mentioned in last months column that we would be running a historical, musical etc, trip to Ireland. We will have more details about it at a later date. Song writing tip - I mentioned last month about writing some hook lines (titles) down. You can never have too many of them. Later go back to them and write loads of short lines about the subject without trying to rhyme them, until you have a lot of info. It will also get you thinking. Songs come along from inspiration sometimes, but other times you just have to do a little work to make it happen. When you are writing a song for a particular singer or subject, this method works very well. Happy New Year everyone! From our family to yours, Joe and Margo Just One Single Rose Written by Joe McShane, James Thacker and Patricia Touhy Verse 1 A boy heard mom and dad say happy anniversary He looked a little puzzled and it was plain to see He wondered why one flower so they told him he should know The reason why his daddy gave Mom a single rose Verse 2 When your Dad and I first met he handed me a rose A simple loving gesture with hopes that it would grow They took him to the garden his sister by his side Be patient Son his Momma said each time that hed asked why Chorus You kids may not have noticed all these roses here before But we know someday you’ll find someone and plant a whole lot more The scent was all around where those flowers bloom and grow All the love out in that garden began with just one single rose Verse 3 You see those pink and red ones ? we planted them with Love For the time you and your sister were sent from god above And just behind them two more grow there colors white and blue For your grandma and your grandpa that had so much love for you Verse 4 The boy said to his Daddy his words a little scrambled I saw them colors in the glass case shape like a triangle You know the one with strips and stars a medal at its side It says Grandpa was a fireman, who bravely gave his life
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 02:44:04 +0000