If you've read Derek McCulloch & Colleen Doran's graphic novel Gone To Amerikay, you know that it is full of references to music. There are Irish folk tunes and jazz, in addition to a couple of original songs. Colleen Doran posted a link to a streaming playlist that contains versions of most of the songs (except for the imaginary original tunes):
http://8tracks.com/humoresques/gone-to-amerikay
You have to register first, but it's fast and free. I wish it could have used a more traditional version of "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," but it's still pretty cool.
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That settles it. I'll have to get this book. Not only am I an Irish immigrant to the New World myself, but I'm a big fan of the old fiddle-dee-eye!
I saw that one of the Pogues is quoted on the back of the book. Sounds like the whole book is a graphic version of Thousands are Sailing.
BTW, did you happen to know, Mark, that the word Jazz itself may have originated from the Irish community in the US?
No, I never heard that about the word "Jazz." I'll have to look into it. See, I was meant to play the stuff! I'll be very interested to hear what you think of the book.
That playlist was based on this list that I did for Largehearted Boy - http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2012/03/book_notes_dere... - wherein I give a bunch more notes on each song, including Gone to Amerikay's connection to Thousands Are Sailing.
Glad you liked the book!
Thanks for the link to your blog entry, I'd have mentioned it if I knew about it! Interesting to see how you dealt with the public domain issue. In case it isn't clear from what I posted earlier, I'm a musician and a comics fan, so I'm always on the lookout for comics that involve music.
Well, see the one I did for Stagger Lee some years back, too:
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2007/01/book_notes_dere...
I heard The Fighting Jamesons play "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" this weekend at the Philly Folk Fest. They played the hell out of it.
I've been meaning to check out this book; it'll likely be in my next mail-order graphic novel purchases.
Thanks for stopping by our little discussion board, Derek. Having read some of your notes, I can see its a project that revolves around some of my favourite things.
From your notes at the largeheartedboy blog regarding Thousands are Sailing:
Ha! I hit that one on the head, didn't I? Seriously, wonderful song. It's been getting renewed appreciation in Ireland of late, what with our young people all heading for foreign shores in their droves again. I have a friend here in Australia who works as a teller in a bank, and she's amazed at the number of young Irish people coming in to open accounts for the first time here. The Tiger years were just a blip, it seems.
In that vein, Derek, and given that I understand that the last part of the book is about an Irishman who did well in the boom years, how do you feel about that aspect of the 'topicality' of the book being undermined by the economic collapse in Ireland? Not that anyone could have really foreseen how epic the crash was when it hit.
Anyway, thanks for putting such a well-thought-through book about a part of the Irish story out there.
Here is Captain Comics original review of your book, in case you missed it.
(All the above assuming that Derek is still tuning in, of course!)
Mark, I got the information about the origin of the word Jazz from a book called 'How the Irish Invented Slang'. Great book for anyone interested in Irishness, American slang, language, immigrant history, American urban culture, all sorts of things.
Here is an article going into the origins of the word 'Jazz', by the author of that book.
The email alerts drag me back!
Yes, you've identified one of the great perils of working in long-form comics. There's no telling how timely anything even the slightest bit topical will seem by the time the book comes out. When I was putting together the plot for Gone to Amerikay, the Celtic Tiger was still riding high. By the time I was scripting it it was obvious that the bubble had burst, so I put it a line of dialogue acknowledging that the Irish economy wasn't doing so well, but I hedged it because there was no way to know how things would stand when the book came out. I could never have predicted that in the very month we released there would be headlines all over Ireland about a new Irish diaspora. An Irish emigration book suddenly seemed right in step with the news, but I still got zinged in a couple of reviews for framing the story with a super-rich Irish guy when the economy was tanking. You can't win with this kind of stuff.