Hi Art, Jed, Richard, Barry & kat!

It's interesting, of course, for us read the comments and see which songs people focus on most. Thanks. Now I'll tell you a few stories:

I don't know where exactly where Bob Conroy first heard "Billy the Kid" but he sang it for me the first time while we were grounded on the tarmac in a tremendous thunderstorm on a Southwest Airlines 737 at Kansas City. That's when and where we workred out the idea of frailing banjo and bass (only) playing together. As soon as the plane took off, we fell asleep. By the time we got to Oakland (hey, wait a minute; there's a song there), the car rental counters had closed... one helluva trip.

Two of the musicians are child prodigies, though they might not like to hear me call them that. Eliot Grasso lives near Baltimore and his buddy, Pat Mangan, lives in Brooklyn. They were 16 and 15 respectively when they recorded "The Girl I Left Behind" and "Katie Kearney" medleys with us. They and the bouzouki player who backs them, Terry McKee, a well-known NYC session player from Co. Antrim, were very professional and very easy to record. Many an adult could learn a lesson from those 2 fine young fellas.

A man by the name of Thomas Casey came to our New York Singers' Circle last month. He picked up the CD, looked at the back and said, "I see you have 'Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill' on this. Do you know who wrote it?" I looked him dead in the eye and said, "Yes, you did." (The lyric of "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" was written about 1888 by Thomas Casey, a vaudevillian who had once worked on railroad construction.) The man bought the CD, of course.

We're taking off on our annual Irish tour tomorrow and I'm looking forward gauging the reaction there. If I don't get back on the Mudcat tomorrow, have a great St. Patrick's Day everyone!

All the best,
Dan Milner