Liss Ard Festival, Skibbereen, August 29th, 1999
West Country Girl (He made the piano tremble. He also shifted a couplet that had never had any relevance about her to becoming one that did; it referred to her parents hanging over her while she was followed by her unborn child, which just made her throw back her head laughing.)
Mary Down by the River (first time she’d ever heard it)
People Just Ain’t No Good (it was all over right there)
The Mercy Seat (in the totally different language of a ballad, eloquent in its pain, “and I’m not afraid to die”. The ring as a shackle came to the fore.)
Henry Lee (invoking that unseen juncture with PJ Harvey)
Papa Won’t Leave you Henry (It was awesomely changed. By then she was a mess of tears, “the ghost of her still lingers on”)
Straight to You (precipice cascade moment of “Oh no, no, no, no, no, no no…don’t access this it hurts too much. You have no right to access this; you do not even know.”)
Love Letter (this song premiered for the first time, his love letter to “her”, wrapped in a “white envelope”, just what she’d put hers in that very morning. If she’d have gotten the envelope back in Canada, it would have never have been white, because they avoid the bleaching process. As she’d done it there that morning, it so happened it was white. This song premiering sealed the letter’s fate; she finally committed. “OK. You’re getting it.”)
Stagger Lee (first time she heard it)
Wild World (Birthday Party, first time she heard that)
Ship Song
Loom of the Land (“the moon a golden crown”)
Little Empty Boat
Brompton Oratory
I’m A Roamin’
