Gilderoy is a Scottish folk song that dates back to a publishing date of 1707. The subject matter of the song dates back to 1638. Gilderoy was a freebooter and highwayman whose mis-deeds eventually caught up with him and he was hanged for his crimes. The song was a classic Scots-Irish murder love ballad told from the point of view of the criminal's heart broken lover that witnessed him hang.

It is based on the true story of Patrick MacGregor, who was said to have hanged in 1638 along with 5 of his cohorts. The execution records at Newgate Prison in England, (published in 1926) says that Patrick was hanged in 1658 for the crime of murdering his mother and assaulting his mistress.

Over the years the song has become a flatpicking standard. It is played in a minor key. If the notes are are played in a major key, the song becomes the bluegrass standard known as "Red Haired Boy."

An Irish cheiftan in 1233 was noted for raids on neighboring villages. His gaelic name started with a G. Gilderoy is the mis translation of his name into english. His gaelic name literally means, "Red Haired Lad."

Kinda cool!

Click on link below and enjoy.

http://www.xanga.com/media/xangaaudioembedplayer.swf?c=2&i=4009958&m=eaaff

The song known as "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," is an Irish folk song written sometime in the 19th century. It was published in London in 1867, but the song goes back further than that, because the music of the song was used  in 1863 during the American Civil War under the name, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

The song was written from the point of view of a young woman who finds her badly wounded lover on the road to Athy. He is returning home from the Kandyan wars that were fought in what is now the country of Sri Lanka from 1795-1818.

She is horrified at the sight of his dis-figured body that is missing an arm and a leg. Hence the title, "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye."

It has been called the greatest anti-war song of all time, and has been recorded by various left-wing anti-war musicians such as Janis Ian, to mention one, most notably during the Vietnam war.

For me, it is simply the cry of a woman's soul upon the sight of her returning lover from war.

As many of you know, I am not a singer. My songs are almost always instrumentals. As this one is. You can google the lyrics if you would like to know more about the song.

Click on the link to play the video.

http://www.xanga.com/media/xangavideoembedplayer.swf?i=1207352&m=79978

As a child, Bonanza was my favorite TV show. Grandpa and I never missed an episode. We watched it together every sunday night. I always loved the theme music for that show, and a couple of others, like Rawhide and The Big Valley.

I took the time to record the Bonanza theme on mandolin some time ago, and I dubbed in a rhythm guitar part as well. Ah memories!

Click the link below.......

http://www.xanga.com/media/xangaaudioembedplayer.swf?c=2&i=4009557&m=fe380

The audio and video posting problem is still a problem. I have decided to go ahead with my return to Xanga, and just post links of the audio or video until I can find a better resolution to the problem. I thought maybe upgrading to premium would help the situation, but alas, it did not. Oh well......I'm back and looking forward to new music on a new blog.

Cheers, everyone!

I decided to come back to Xanga. Not to discuss or debate politics. Not to post my views on gun ownership. Certainly not to fight or argue with people that disagree with me. I have done that before, and I have no interest in it now. My only objective for returning to Xanga is to share beautiful acoustic guitar music with anyone that is interested in listening.

The huge let down in all of this is the fact that audio and video clips cannot be posted into a Xanga weblog. There is no option for posting audio or video within the weblog editor. It seems that the best one can hope for is to post embedded code into the weblog that will link to the video page or the audio page.

Back in the old days, video/audio posting was very easy and worked very well. Now it doesn't seem to function at all. Since my return to xanga was predicated on posting audio and video into my weblog, I am now faced with a dilemma. Should I continue with Xanga, or shut down my site and search elsewhere?

Xanga does not respond to inquiries for help. Nothing on the help page is helpful. With no way to use the site for what I need, I'm in a bit of a pickle here.

I'll take a few days to mull it over.