Franklin Shea wrote: > > I want to more consistently succeed at that also. Most of > the people here seem like such life-affirming, interesting, wonderful > folk. Thank you for your fine thoughts. I appreciated them. Where > are you from, if I might inquire? Perhaps (no cringing now) we are > related. Is Shea your maiden name or married? Do you know which > county in Ireland your Shea's came from? Mine hail from Kilkenny. > There are a lot of Shea's in Iowa, Nebraska, particularly the Chicago > area... all over no doubt.
Oh, yes, the Irish are all over. Amazing, considering how small Ireland is. Shea is a middle name from my mother's side of the family, and no doubt you and I are related somehow, but then I think everyone is if we look far enough back. Both sides of my family have been in North Carolina for centuries so stories of the family emigration have been lost, except for the story of an ancestor on my father's side being one of four brothers who came from England together; each of them then settled in a different Southern state. Apparently they needed LOTS of space! A few family members moved up near Washington, DC, during WWII to work and a few later moved down to Florida. I'm the only one who's ventured above the Mason-Dixon line. And here in NYC, the Irish are everywhere! It's great! I think their influence helped create the outspoken attitude and talkativeness of most of the people here, and definitely has given the city the best bars, or as one Irish friend says, *ALL* the bars (sometimes they're even called pubs). > BTY - you're awfully polite for Irish... lol I definitely have my hot button issues, as some people here know all too well! And, hey, are you saying the Irish are not polite? You're sounding like Princess Margaret, but she probably wasn't doing any lol-ing. > I'm going to give that "Dark to the Heart" a listen after the > sincere, enthusiastic recommendation... thanks. I'll weigh in after a > few listens. There may be other cds that long-time Cockburn fans would consider better ones. Even with the occasional gushing here, I put off buying anything mostly because he's a self-described Christian, and I imagined his music to be Amy Grant-like proselytizing, and that doesn't interest me at all. A friend included some of his songs on a compilation and I liked them a lot, so that plus the recommendations here finally got me to buy one of his cds. It turns out Cockburn's music, at least what I've heard so far, is not self-righteous, preachy or even overtly Christian, the lyrics are complex and often about love, I like his voice, and I love his guitar playing. I'm not at the gushing stage, but my assumptions were way off. So, all in all, a nice surprise. I look forward to hearing your take on it once you have a chance to listen to some of his music. And, btw, welcome to the list :-) atb, Debra Shea
