Bardry..?

I have been listening to a lot more music lately, than I have in recent years. Being given an MP3 player by a friend, as well as having this new computer upon which to keep music, has particularly helped.

So I was ripping some of my CDs the other day, and came across one called TAP into Tradition, which was put out by Alexander Keith's beer. Basically it's a bunch of East Coast Celtic stuff. Awesome stuff, mostly. The CD begins with the song Barret's Privateers, a beautiful piece performed with just voice and bodhran. I got to thinking - I've got a bodhran, and have been looking for stuff just like this to learn and maybe play with Stardancer (though I wouldn't play this one with her - the chorus begins with "God damn them all") or perform at events.

I even offered to my gods (in this case Thunor and Ing) to do this, and to do it in their honour. They seemed to really like the idea.

Now I am hunting out the lyrics for songs that I can play with just my drum as accompaniment. Great Big Sea has a lot, and there are a lot of good Irish pieces out there, but I don't want everything to be Irish, after all. I am looking for other good stuff, and I will be putting together a songbook to play from while I memorize the lyrics. So far I have "Barret's Privateers" by Stan Rogers, "The Scolding Wife" performed by Great Big Sea (though I did not see a writer's credit..?), and "Hal an Toe," which is an English traditional song for May Day. Oh, and my own "Down by the Fire to Pray." One friend sent me a link to a page with hundreds of traditional songs that the SCA uses, so I will be going over that as time goes on.

Any other suggestions?