In my memory, Skinner (my big brother Kevin) was the first person to sing this song at his wedding in 1993. I must have heard it before then, I just can’t recall. The thing I love about Skinner is that not knowing the words to a song never stopped him. He just plows through the song with passion, making up words, even words that are not in the English language. I’ve adopted this technique while playing live recently and it works. Nobody notices. They will notice when I smirk, or make a face, or announce that I forgot the words, and of course, if I restart the song. But recently I adopted Kevin’s technique and just made up a few words. At a show in February, after coming off the chorus of Waltzing Matilda, I saw the verse coming around the corner and realized I couldn’t remember it. I didn’t panic. I added some Skinner, and voila!

Ride on was written by Corkman Jimmy McCarthy. I have no idea what it is about. I just started to google that and decided to come here and state I don’t care to know what it is about, because it may steal from the song. It’s another oldy I’ve been playing for almost 30 years. Bridgette and I sang it at our wedding, which, looking back, wasn’t cool as it was Skinner’s wedding song. I am the blackbird of songs; why build your own song when you can snuggle in on someone else’s. I digress. There is a haunting vibe to this song, something ancient, that taps into the Celtic root. In recent years I’ve added the intro guitar lead that appears on Christy Moore’s 1980’s version. I use a looper pedal to record the arpegio, hit playback, and then fill in the lead. It’s the icing that’s been missing on it.

Enjoy