From Clare to Here

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"From Clare to Here" is a ballad about Irish emigration written by Ralph McTell. It has also been recorded by The Furey Brothers & Davey Arthur on the 1977 album Emigrant; by Nanci Griffith and Pete Cummins on the 1993 album Other Voices, Other Rooms ; as a b-side by Duke Special on the 2006 single Last Night I Nearly Died ; and by Ben Glover on his 2016 album The Emigrant.

Contents

McTell's original version appears on his 1976 album Right Side Up . In the sleeve notes of the remaster, he wryly describes it as his "second most covered song".

Background

In 1963, McTell was working on a building site, and it is of this time that he wrote, in the mid-1970s, "From Clare to Here". "There was an Irish gang on the site, and the craic , as they call it, relieved the stress of the hard work. I was working with an Irishman called Michael, as so many of them are. And I said to him, 'It must be very strange to be here in London after the place you come from.' And he responded by saying, 'Yes, it's a long way from Clare to here.'" [1]

References

  1. ↑ "From Clare to Here" (live), Live at Troubador Festival 1997


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