Dolores Keane – May Morning Dew

For some ghastly reason, it’s very hard to find this album. But Dolores Keane’s performance of “May Morning Dew” has honestly got to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded.

If you can find this album, in any form, anywhere, buy it. You will have discovered the voice of Ireland.

How pleasant in winter to sit by the hearth
Listening to the barks and the howls of the dog
Or in summer to wander the wide valleys through
And to pluck the wild flowers in the May morning dew

Summer is coming, oh summer is here
With leaves on the trees and the sky blue and clear
And the birds they are singing their fond notes so true
And the flowers they are springing in the May morning dew

The house I was reared in is but a stone on a stone
And all round the garden the weeds they have grown
And all the kind neighbours that ever I knew
Like the red rose they’ve withered in the May morning dew

God be with the old folks who are now dead and gone
And likewise my brothers, young Dennis and John
As they tripped through the heather the wild hare to pursue
As their joys they were mingled in the May morning dew