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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    This heavyweight vinyl record comes with a download card (with 7 extra tracks), a limited pressing (of 250 copies) and a print of a poem "I Sacsaibh na Séad" by Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin translated into Spanish.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Hy Brasil, Songs of the Irish in Latin America via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €20 EUR or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €1 EUR  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Gatefold cd with inlay card (lyrics book) and download card (with two extra tracks) included.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Hy Brasil, Songs of the Irish in Latin America via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 1 day
    edition of 300 
    Purchasable with gift card

      €10 EUR or more 

     

  • DVD

    The song "Marine Mambí" from "Hy Brasil" was the inspiration for this award winning feature length documentary which chronicles the life of Dynamite Johnny O' Brien.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €15 EUR or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    13
    releases

    Get all 13 Trouble or Fortune Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Waveleaplights, Bleak is the Pampa (single), The Pampa's My Home (single), Fire and Foam, "Macalla Chill Áirne" film soundtrack, Ordinary Surface (single), Hy Brasil (single), The Wine Dark Sea (single), and 5 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      €37.60 EUR or more (20% OFF)

     

about

The Basin Canal was a channel dug out of the New Orleans mud between 1831 and 1838, as many as 30,000 Irish were said to have died in its construction. As the line in this song of mine goes "who's knows how many did fall!" There is a strong Spanish influence in New Orleans's and it was run from Cuba by them from 1762 to 1803. In many ways it is as much a Caribbean city as a southern city. The Irish too played their part in its long history.

lyrics

Crawfish Lacey and Mick o' Neill, sweated 'til it hid their tears.
Sinking in a swamp, still they trudged on, as they dreamt of the old country.

I still see them now when I shut my eyes, as insects hum in warm afternoon.
Etched in blood and grit and mud-the boys of the basin canal.

Spailpíns all, we heard the call, straight from the shipyards we came.
Hope sunk in a swamp, for a dollar a day. Who knows how many did fall?

Disease knocked us down, as the bosses scowled- "a terrible loss of dollars today."
"What great bother if they die?" I hear them cry, "There's more arriving every day."

I'd had enough, though they wanted more, they break you for gold, full shame.
So I took my pack and and never looked back, and I walked on down the long road.

When I heard Lacey died I pitied O' Neill, toiling aggrieved and alone.
Against Gael and Gall like a beast he howled- at the moon, and the night, and the sea.

When I reached the Bayou, I sent the word "don't rage aggrieved and alone."
"There's a trade to be had if you hit the road and come down to the Irish Bayou."

O' Neill made it out, threw his shovel down he followed me down the quiet coast-
where fresh breezes blow and wild flowers grow, way down on the Irish bayou.

Though the day long, on the rolling wave, on the wide open plains of the sea,
no green fields of land, nor desert sands, could tempt me away I am free.

credits

from Hy Brasil, Songs of the Irish in Latin America, released December 10, 2019
Vocals and guitars Charlie. Uilleann pipes - Eoin O'Brien.

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Trouble or Fortune Records image

Trouble or Fortune Records Killarney, Ireland

Trouble or Fortune is where myself, Charlie O' Brien's, music and film projects are found.

Besides my own work and collaborations, Japanese alt. folk artist, Mari Mochizuki, is the first formal addition to label.

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