Ryan’s Fancy – What A Time! A Forty Year Celebration

Collection 1
1. Feller From Fortune
2. Peter Amberly
3. Cape Breton Dream
4. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
5. I Followed Her Into The West
6. Sweet Forget Me Not
7. Life of the Country Boy
8. Tie Me Down
9. The Star of Logy Bay
10. Reels
11. The Cross of Spancil Hill
12. Mist Upon A Morning
13. Carrickfergus
14. Jackie Tar
15. Nancy Whiskey
16. The West’s Awake
17. West Country Lady
18. Kerry Slides
19. Fare Thee Well Eniskillen
20. Sea People
21. The Ryans and the Pittmans

Collection 2
1. The Dark Island
2. Bold O’Donahue
3. The Streets of London
4. The Cliffs of Baccalieu
5. The Island
6. Ban Chnoic Eireann O
7. Reels
8. Newport Town
9. Banks of Sicily
10. Candlelight and Wine
11. Cape Breton Lullaby
12. Coal Town Road
13. A Children’s Winter
14. Farewell to Nova Scotia
15. Mist Covered Mountains of Home
16. Polkas
17. The Curragh of Kildare
18. The Rocky Road to Dublin
19. Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s
20. Far Away in Australia
21. The Parting Glass

Excerpt from inside the cd booklet, written by Bob Hallett of Great Big Sea:

“Ryan’s Fancy were the leading lights of a small group of Irish musicians who came to Newfoundland in the 1970′s. Dermot O’Reilly, Denis Ryan and Fergus O’Byrne were looking for more steady work and education than artistic inspiration when they first arrived in St. John’s in the early 1970′s. What they found was an audience eager to hear their own music played back to them in a highly skilled and energetic fashion. Newfoundlanders already knew and loved the band’s repertoire of Irish ballads and street songs, a legacy of generations of Irish immigration and strong community music traditions. When the trio started to include local songs in their lively performances, something massive clicked between them and their audience.”