Archives West Finding Aid

Tape copy donated to UW Ethnomusicology Archives in April 2010 by Dr. Virginia Blankenship as part of the Joe Heaney Documentation Project at the National University of Galway; their copy of the recording came from Maire Davitt, who may have gotten it from Liam Clancy. According to Virginia Blankenship, "Liam Clancy was acting as an assistant cameraman that year with a crew making a documentary about the Festival, but he got up on stage and did a set with Joe. In addition, there is a longish sequence that Alan Lomax recorded of Joe and Liam (who arranged for Joe to attend the Festival) walking along a beach at Newport and singing some songs. This is information I got from Liam Mac Con Iomaire's biography of Joe (pp. 228-9)..."

Label on VHS tape box: A.R.I.Q. Footage Inc., East Hampton, New York.

Contents:

0:00-30:00 - footage from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (time code and identification number ("AL-18") appears over program material throughout): session appears to have the theme "Men at Work"; Liam Clancy sings "The Shoals of Herring"; Clancy introduces Mike Seeger; cut to 3 men performing "Matilda" (sound, no picture until near the end); Seeger introduces Grant Rogers who sings a song; Clancy introduces Jimmy Driftwood, who sings a song; Clancy introduces Joe Heaney, who starts to talk about "The Rocks of Bawn," but the picture goes out and there's a cut to another singer (?); Clancy and Heaney onstage; Heaney tells the story of the "Seven Drunken Nights" and sings the song; Heaney speaks briefly; Clancy refers to "the judges" of the session.

31:38-1:06:05 - footage cuts to Joe Heaney and Liam Clancy walking by the sea (time code and number ("AL-23") visible throughout): Heaney and Clancy trade songs while seated on rocky outcropping; occasionally camera switches to person carrying a Nagra tape recorder (sound of synch tone heard); Heaney sings "The Rocks of Bawn"; Clancy sings "The Yellow Bittern" (in English), Joe sings it in Irish; picture out, song out; Heaney appears to start song again; view of sea; Clancy sings song about Annie of D___(?) and Heaney joins in; Heaney talks about courting, sings "Cunnla," and Clancy joins in; view of rocks, waves breaking; Heaney sings "The Bonnie Bunch of Roses" and talks about the song; Clancy asks Heaney to talk about the "Seven Drunken Nights"; Heaney talks about it and sings it; shots of Heaney and Clancy chatting and walking down the beach singing.