Thanks very much for the lyrics, Richard.


Occasionally our band does a gig, and sometimes I show the audience a tin whistle and say, "Imagine that you are a shepherd or a teenager, and you have the job of watching a herd, all alone, day after day. And there's nothing between you and insanity but this little penny whistle."

Then we play some haunting airs.

In the Alps, it was common to send a young person (male or female) up to the mountain meadows with the family cows, there to stay alone all summer. It has just occurred to me that yodeling may be the equivalent of penny-whistle playing. It's cheap, it's complicated, and it helps pass the lonely hours.