The Music of Gone to Amerikay at The Comhaltas Archives
on January 6th, 2012The graphic novel Gone to Amerikay, which took Derek McCulloch and I nearly three years to finish, is now in the can and off to the printer.
Music is an important element of Gone to Amerikay. If you want to learn about and experience more Irish music, visit the Comhaltas Traditional Music Archives.
The Comhaltas Traditional Music Archive comprises the recordings, documents and images collected by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann during our 50 years of promoting Irish music and culture.
Our Archive is housed and curated within a network of Regional Resource Centres, with local specialists on hand to catalogue the unique music of each area. You are very welcome to visit any of the Centres and sign up for your account. Read more about the history and holdings of the Comhaltas Archive here:
The archives are available in both English and Irish language.
How much of the music in GtA is original, and how much is “real”?
Have any musicians read the book? Did Mr. McCulloch have a specific melody in mind when he wrote the book?
Might we petition Warner/WaterTower Music to issue a print-on-demand CD via Warner Archives?
And a fair warning, if you do not have time to waste, do not visit the National Jukebox at the Library of Congress website. Nor research the numerous folk recordings collected in the field.
The book is filled with “real” lyrics as well as ones I invented. And in one case, one of the things I’m proudest of in it, it’s kind of both — a regional version of Barbara Allen that never really existed. (Until now.) There are a couple of wholly invented songs, though I lack the skills to provide real melodies for them, though I did have something of the sort in my head as I wrote.
The book HAS been read by a couple of musicians, one of whom was kind enough to provide a quote for the back cover. I hope we can say more about that soon.