it's funny, i like the song because, like the blues, it makes me happy. it just does. i'm against child killing, capital punishment and any kind of killing of humans. i hate the idea that we kill animals, but i eat meat.

it also happens that people who don't understand what blues music is all about tell me that they don't care for it because it's slow and boring. first of all, with all the different styles of blues there are, most of it is not slow and (to me) none is boring (some is excruciating, like the raw style of some early blues women who had little sense of tone or time).

And that irish song, 'weela wallia' is raucous, incorrect, born of sadness and funny as hell. when it's sung, people laugh and sing along. i don't think anyone worries about its true derivation, not really, just as they don't worry about 'wild rover' being about yet another drunk.

when we think about music and songs, we 'get' that stuff, but i've never seen anyone walk out on 'weela wallia'. i was surprised, even a little shocked, but it wasn't my territory, i was new, and she had brought me.

believe me, she's not the only woman who may have lost a child in one way or another, if that's the core of it. songs like this are one way to address that suffering. maybe someday she'll hear it in a setting where she can't censure...and will understand it better.

oh well.

thanks,

*caiti*