(lively Irish music) - You're very welcome to "TradFest, the Fingal Sessions."

We're coming to you from the medieval splendor of the Great Hall in the Malahide castle.

Our marvelous guests are Judy Collins with Thad DeBrock on guitar, and Stu Mindeman on keys.

Eddi Reader with John Douglas, and Seamie O'Dowd, BLÁNID and Aidan Connolly.

(lively Irish music) - Whoo!

- Yah!

(Fiachna laughing) Judy.

We are indeed in the presence of greatness with yourself.

It's so wonderful to have you here in Dublin for TradFest.

- I'm thrilled to be here.

It's so wonderful.

All this music and all this art and all this history.

- You've sung Irish songs.

You've been drawn to Irish music for years.

Where do you think that came from?

♪ All the songs and the Kerry Dancers ♪ ♪ Oh, the thrill of the pipers too ♪ ♪ Oh, for what - [Announcer] "TradFest: Fingal Sessions" was funded by Fingal County Council.

(lively Irish music) (lively Irish music continues) "TradFest: Fingal Sessions" was funded by Fingal County Council.

♪ Oh, for one of those hours of gladness ♪ ♪ Gone alas like our youth to soon ♪ (Judy chuckling) - [Fiachna] Yeah, beautiful.

♪ When the Kerry pipers Anyway, we will think about doing the whole song later.

- You have a new record coming, which is very exciting.

- Oh, yes.

- "Spellbound."

- "Spellbound."

- Which I can't believe is the first record of your own original songs.

- Yes, Leonard Cohen asked me in 1966 when we met and he brought me his songs to show me his brand new songs and I recorded "Suzanne" and a couple of others and then he said, "I can't understand why you're not writing your own songs."

And so I went home and wrote my first song and then I've written about 60 songs since then and put them on albums with different combinations of other people's songs.

But then about four years ago I started working on these songs that wound up on "Spellbound."

- Amazing, well, I think you're gonna give us one of those songs.

- Yes, I am.

I can't wait to do that.

- Okay.

- Thanks.

- Take it away.

- Okay.

(gentle upbeat music) ("When I Was a Girl in Colorado") ♪ When I was a girl in Colorado ♪ ♪ Rivers danced on canyon walls ♪ ♪ Paintbrush nodded in the springtime ♪ ♪ I could hear the bluebirds' calls ♪ ♪ When I was a girl in Colorado ♪ ♪ Winter held me in its arms ♪ Summers rocked me like a lover ♪ ♪ I could never come to harm ♪ When I was a girl in Colorado ♪ ♪ I could conquer anything ♪ I could fly with wings of silver ♪ ♪ I could whisper, I could sing ♪ ♪ Will you take me to the mountains ♪ ♪ Before another summer ends ♪ We could catch the outbound zephyr ♪ ♪ We can travel like the wind ♪ When I moved out to the desert ♪ ♪ 40 years to lose my soul ♪ Somewhere back there in her rivers ♪ ♪ Colorado made me whole ♪ When I go back to the mountains ♪ ♪ I always find a windy hill ♪ Watch the sunset over Long's Peak ♪ ♪ Ski those slopes and feel the thrill ♪ ♪ Will you take me to the mountains ♪ ♪ Before another summer ends ♪ We can catch the outbound zephyr ♪ ♪ We can travel like the wind ♪ When I was a girl in Colorado ♪ ♪ I knew enough to fall in love ♪ ♪ Like the bluebirds in the pine trees ♪ ♪ Like the snowfall from above ♪ Will you take me to the mountains ♪ ♪ Before another summer ends ♪ We can catch the outbound zephyr ♪ ♪ We can travel like the wind ♪ Like the wind ♪ Like the wind ♪ Like the wind - Wow.

- Beautiful.

Beautiful.

(all clapping) - [Judy] Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- What a beautiful, beautiful, evocative song.

- It was the last one that I wrote for this album, just popped out, you know?

- Right, one of those magic songs.

- So, you don't know where they come from.

- Are you the girl from Colorado?

- I am, really.

Colorado always has been entranced me ever since we moved there when I was nine, and the mountains always do something to me.

Probably it's the altitude, but I... (all laughing) But they do, they do that.

I feel differently when I'm there.

And I mean, I'm feeling extremely Irish right now sitting here.

- Yeah, but you've taken us on this trip with that song to the canyons and the river and to those wide, open spaces and the song really feels like that wide open space.

It's beautiful.

- I'm glad, I'm glad.

People love it and it's, you know, it's a very simple song, really.

I mean, it's very basic, it's very ballad-like.

It's kind of old fashioned.

I think that goes along with my own feeling about this music that I fell into when I was 15.

Well, my dad always sang ♪ Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling ♪ ♪ From glen to glen, and down the mountain side ♪ ♪ The summer's gone, and all the roses falling ♪ ♪ It's you, it's you must go and I must bide ♪ - He sang that along with Rogers and Hart and it went down very well.

- Yeah, as it has done just now too.

- That's my daddy's song, thank you.

- Is that your Daddy's song?

- That's my Daddy's, "Oh, Danny."

I love so we sung to him every New Years, we're singing that.

- Amazing.

I know you feel at home here in Ireland, right?

- Well, yes, my home is just like this.

- It's just like this.

(all laughing) You've got all this kind of art in your house.

- Oh yes, I have all this stuff.

No, I love coming here and I'm very connected to it, very, very connected to it, and in spirit, you know, more than anything, and musically as well, just like the tunes and the way we all sing together, that's something I was brought up with.

- Yeah, yeah.

And you brought your Trash Can Sinatras with you.

Playing The Trash Can Sinatras on the radio.

Every time I play The Trash Can Sinatras, there's a volley of texts coming and going, "What a great band."

- Oh, fantastic.

- So you have lots of people listening to Irish radio and listening to music here that are hugely found.

- Oh, I'm glad to hear that.

I mean, we come over here and play.

After the show, one of the things that enjoy is listening to the late night radio since for part of that.

I'm a happy, man.

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

- Eddi, what are you gonna share with us?

- Well, we're gonna show you "Deirdre's Farewell to Scotland."

- Ah.

- Which I found in my great uncle's collection of music and I had no idea that there was an old song about an Irish person singing about their love for Scotland.

Away we go.

- Beautiful.

(gentle music) ("Deirdre's Farewell to Scotland") ♪ Dear Scotland ♪ Land o'er yonder ♪ Thou dear land of wood and wave ♪ ♪ Sore my heart is I must leave thee ♪ ♪ But 'tis Noishe I may not leave ♪ ♪ Oh Glen Etive, oh Glen Etive ♪ Where they builded my bridal-hold ♪ ♪ Beauteous glen in early morning ♪ ♪ Flocks of sunbeams surround thy fold ♪ (gentle music continues) ♪ Glen da Rua, glen da Rua ♪ My love on all who's mother thou ♪ ♪ From a cliff tree calls a cuckoo ♪ ♪ And methinks I hear him now ♪ Ooh ♪ Glen da Rua ♪ Glen da Rua - Oh, that was beautiful, oh my.

It's so sweet, though spectacular and gorgeous to hear you sing and the playing.

- They all knew it.

They all knew that song- - Yes.

- Evidently.

- Gorgeous.

- Aiden, I'll come to you.

You're gonna give us a couple of street rocking jigs, I believe.

- Yeah, yeah, we're gonna play three jigs.

The first one is actually "Off to California," which is very old horn pipe that's very well known.

But there was a traveling fiddle teacher called Tom Billy Murphy.

He was actually blind, used to go around on a donkey to different houses, an itinerant teacher, was the turn of the 20th century, but anyway, he had a jig version of this, old horn pipe, and then after that, then there's one from Padraig O'Keefe's, another itinerant teacher from the following generation, so he died in the '60s.

And the last one then is Willie O'Connell's, who was a student of Padraig O'Keefe's, is actually nearly three generations of fiddle players represented in the set.

- Ah, what a great thing.

Thanks a million.

(lively fiddle music) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music continues) (lively fiddle music ends) - Ah, magic.

- Perfect.

Wonderful.

(all clapping) - Beautiful.

My goodness, three generations of tunes.

BLÁNID, I'm gonna turn to you.

You're very welcome.

Rumor has it that you have a song that's inspired by one of the all-time greatest movies ever made.

- Yes.

- "Airplane II."

- That's absolutely correct.

(laughing) I went through a phase during the pandemic of getting really into '80s comedy films and the "Airplane" ones just grabbed my heart.

And yeah, so in "Airplane II," specifically, there's a moment where the main character is looking out the window and they're in space for this one 'cause they needed to amp it up a level for the sequel.

- Okay.

- And he sees two pilots of the spacecraft who have been ejected out and they're dead and he sees them start doing a waltz.

The moment is obviously meant to be funny and I did laugh, but it did strike me, the image.

I find it quite terrifying.

(laughing) - That's right, right.

- And I just thought, I need to write a song about that at some point and the more I thought about it, the more I thought this kind of applies to relationships and that feeling of kind of two people still going through the rigmarole of the dance, even though they're so clearly- - Dead in the water.

- Well, quite, yes, exactly.

(Fiachna laughing) Exactly.

- And it's called "Dead Man Dancing."

- It is.

- Beautiful, will you?

(gentle guitar music) ("Dead Man Dancing") ♪ Dead men dancing in space ♪ Hung amongst stars ♪ Where have they come from ♪ Will they go very far ♪ Watch out the window ♪ Watch as they spin ♪ One two three, one two three, one ♪ ♪ Clasped in embrace ♪ Tie upon tie ♪ Suit jacket straightened ♪ Glassy eye to glassy eye ♪ Take a breath in ♪ Hold it forever ♪ One two three, one two three, one ♪ ♪ Dead men dancing forever ♪ Oh, dead men ♪ Do you see heaven ♪ Ah, dead men ♪ Teach me to dance like you ♪ Oh, dead men ♪ Dance at your leisure ♪ For dead men time holds no pressure ♪ ♪ Ah, dead men ♪ Teach me to one two three too ♪ ♪ Tell me you love me ♪ Tell me you're tired ♪ Tell me you like it ♪ So close to the wire ♪ Betrayed me in some way ♪ Haven't yet worked out how ♪ One two three, one two three, one ♪ ♪ What's left of a waltz when the heartbeat is gone ♪ ♪ What's left of a song when no one sings along ♪ ♪ How am I frozen so close to the sun ♪ ♪ Are we spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and ♪ (gentle music continues) ♪ Dead men dancing in space ♪ Clinging to stars ♪ I know where you've come from ♪ ♪ Will you go very far ♪ Watch out the window ♪ Watch as they spin ♪ One two three, one two three, one ♪ ♪ Dead men dancing forever ♪ Oh, dead men ♪ Tell me, do you see heaven ♪ Ah, dead men ♪ Teach me to dance like you ♪ Oh, dead men ♪ You can dance at your leisure ♪ ♪ For dead men time holds no pressure ♪ ♪ Ah, dead men ♪ Teach me to one two three, too ♪ ♪ Teach me to one two three, too ♪ ♪ Teach me to one two three - [Fiachna] Wow.

(all clapping) - Lovely.

- That's wonderful.

- Wonderful - That's so beautiful.

(speaking foreign language) for watching "TradFest, The Fingal Sessions."

Judy Collins, Eddi Reader, BLÁNID and Aiden Connolly.

See you soon.

(speaking in Irish) ♪ Amazing grace ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ I once was lost ♪ But now I'm found ♪ Was blind, but now I see - I'd like you to sing along with me.

♪ When we've been there ten thousand years ♪ ♪ Bright shining as the sun ♪ We've no less day to sing God's praise ♪ ♪ Then when we've first begun - [Announcer] "TradFest: Fingal Sessions" was funded by Fingal County Council.

(lively Irish music) (lively Irish music continues) "TradFest: Fingal Sessions" was funded by Fingal County Council.

(lively Irish music) (dramatic music) (gentle music)