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"Singer and guitarist Mike Ladd has been a fixture on Worcester’s stages since the 1980s, playing rock bands, solo acoustic sets, and everything in between. Today, he’s a constant presence at the Irish folk seisiun at Fiddler's Green, where musicians drift in to improvise and encourage each other through long sets of Celtic music. Last Call sat down with Ladd to talk about the seisiuns and Worcester’s rock club history".

Click on the picture and read the rest of the WoMag piece by Meg Trogolo...

The Pooka/Stallion and Mare/The Mermaid

Tommy Byrnes

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Tommy Byrnes-all instruments
With:
Brad Hurley- flute
Audrey Knuth- fiddle
Myra MacLeod- fiddle
Mike Ladd- vocals

The Pooka and The Mermaid were solo guitar instrumentals written in Dublin in 1983. Brad Hurley and I played an early version of The Mermaid in the band Above The Timberline in the 80s.

During a recording session with Ockham's Razor
Tommy Byrnes-all instruments
With:
Brad Hurley- flute
Audrey Knuth- fiddle
Myra MacLeod- fiddle
Mike Ladd- vocals

The Pooka and The Mermaid were solo guitar instrumentals written in Dublin in 1983. Brad Hurley and I played an early version of The Mermaid in the band Above The Timberline in the 80s.

During a recording session with Ockham's Razor in 1997, Brad and I were blessed with a wonderful thunderstorm (which can be heard prominently on the tune we were tracking), which prompted me to write Stallion and Mare almost on the spot.

This arrangement of the tunes has been kicking around for a couple of decades and I'm glad to finally get it down on tape (so to speak).
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  1. The Pooka/Stallion and Mare/The Mermaid

The latest single from my friend, Tommy Byrnes has dropped to all your favorite music platforms.  This amazing opus is the song "Stallion and Mare" which I was thrilled to provide the vocals on, sandwiched between two musical pieces "The Pooka" and "The Mermaid".  I hope you'll add this one to your collection.

-Mike Ladd

On August 24 2019, 23 year old Elijah McClain was walking home from a store in Aurora, Colorado when he was confronted by three police officers, then paramedics - he was removed from life support several days later. Yet another instance of racial profiling, poor training and hiring practices, and egregious abuse of authority rampant in policing around our country, aimed overwhelmingly at black males. After attempted cover ups by the Aurora police department, and through powerful community pressure, a judge has recently ruled that there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against the officers and paramedics. They were to be arraigned last week. I was moved by this incident to write "Elijah" and document in music, an overarching passion this musician and by all accounts gentle, empathetic soul embraced, the outrage of yet another murder by a privileged and protected authority. Of course, since then there have been too many more such abuses.

My friend, Tommy Byrnes, has released a new single called "St. Michael's Day", recorded at his Southpaw Recording Studio.  This is a fantastic song, and I'm so glad Tommy asked me to sing on it.  Please give it a listen, visit Tommy's Bandcamp page, and add this track to your collection. 

 

released July 5, 2022  
© 2018 Insurrection Music ASCAP  
© ℗ Sovereignty Records  

Recorded at Southpaw Recording Studios  
Bernardston, MA  
Produced by Tommy Byrnes  

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all rights reserved

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