The Irish Import - James Gascoyne, our trio-mate, wrote this tune and has this to say about it: "I'm constantly trying to find ways to incorporate five-string banjo with trad Irish tunes styles, usually with not much success! Using a reel as a starting point, this one has some quirky resolves and nice opportunities for ornamentation. Playing out of key of D in standard tuning but with the 5th string up to A lends an interesting resonance."
Queen of the Blackbirds - Inspired by two versions of the Irish set dance The Blackbird and the similarity in melody to the old time tune Queen of the Earth & Child of the Skies, we created Queen of the Blackbirds!
Blackbirds & Thrushes - This is a song we learned from Seamus Ennis, plus two jigs: The Cook in the Kitchen + The Champaign Jig Goes to Columbia (Liz Carroll)
Arvida - Arvida is a factory town in Quebec; these dance steps come from Danielle's Quebecois ancestors; James wrote the middle tune to accompany Danielle's steps; we finish with the Irish reel The Liffey Banks played in a Quebecois style.