Salut! Live

Another Salut! Live series. I have no idea how it will develop but let's get it started anyway ...

Driving in France, I heard a song on RTL2 that was called Galway Girl before I knew that it was sung by Ed Sheeran. My first reaction was indeed reactionary, along the lines of "I know a much better song called Galway Girl than that!".

I was, of course, thinking of Steve Earle, whose effort is best heard when accompanied by Sharon Shannon and assorted musical pals, though the Irish singer Mundy has also become firmly associated with the song (he's involved - as is Shannon - in the wonderful street version from Galway City, for which I have added a clip that has attracted a staggering 10m, or nearly, views).

Since that first hearing, I have grown to like Sheeran's song and continue to do so despite fashionable disapproval and despite feeling a little Sheeran goes rather a long way. Back in 2017, on a brief return to London, I heard my eight-year-old granddaughter Maya and her French friend from school, Mila, sing along to it in the car.

I have also read that Sheeran was inspired by Steve Earle's song: "She played the fiddle in an Irish band/But she fell in love with an Englishman". And I have also read that he wasn't, that he was merely aware of it and had even tried using other Irish towns in the title before finding none worked as well as Galway. (The quoted lines refer but only imaginatively to Niamh Dunne from Beoga, an Irish band he was working with on a recording session when the idea for his song emerged - in fact she married an Irishman).

At a gig in Dublin in 2017, Sheeran showed his respect for the Earle song by playing the first verse and chorus with Beoga before launching into his own.

So all very cosy. No plagiarism since the songs are really quite different even if they bear the same title. And we must not forget the much older song called Galway Bay, the Dr Arthur Colahan one popularised by Bing Crosby (... if you ever go across the sea to Ireland...). And at least one other ...

In a way then, this opening instalment of Cover Story really had nothing to do with the true theme. the bets I can say is that the two different songs was the inspiration for a series comparing different versions of the same songs.

Sharon Shannon, pictured by Roger Liptrot for his Folk Images site

Which, of the two Galway Girls I highlight, do you prefer, and why?

It's a question I will be asking a lot as the series develops, at whatever rate time allows and whatever form ensuing comparisons take (most will necessarily be simply different versions of precisely the same song).

And as I said in 2017, any suggestion of a song or even instrumental and covers it inspired or encouraged will be mightily welcome, all the more so if you feel to write a piece about it.

And here's that open-air treat from Galway City ...