This song has quite a history for me. I was staying in the family homestead on Rathlin Island as I do every summer and one really wet windy and cold evening some of the islanders and myself decided to meet at Catriona Curry's bar (Catriona is my cousin!) for a few songs. There was only islanders and a few very damp tourists there. We sang some songs and played some tunes when a visitor who had been holding his very young daughter across his lap asked if he could sing a song. He was camping with his family and they were soaked and he was delighted to hear soak in the warmth of the pub and enjoy the songs. I asked if he wanted the guitar and he declined and then he gave this amazing version of that song, Lovers and Friends. Immediately I knew he was not your average bar singer. With a little bit of probing he introduced himself as Sean O'Neill who is the guitarist and singer with the Scottish group, The Battlefield Band. We kept up correspondence and he sent me the lyrics when I got back to San Francisco. Move forward a couple of years and a local SF bay area singer, Sylvia Herald, decided it would be nice to put together three singers who would focus on harmony songs and she asked if Doug Olsen and myself would like to get together and rehearse some songs with no goal in mind other than having fun. We did and out of that collaboration came a few performances. This was one such performance which took place in a wonderful house concert venue in Auburn, Ca. run by Sharon Carl. It was close to Christmas and I thought this might be an appropriate song to sing. Here it is.

Michael