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This one has Tommy Makem singing "Waltzing with Bears"

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 12/28/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have seen Tommy Makem perform live several times at Irish Fest in Milwaukee, and picked up "Rolling Home" simply to have a copy of "Waltzing With Bears." Ironically, this is probably the only song on the album that is not truly Irish in origin, having been written by Dale Marxen of Madison, Wisconsin. But every year if Makem makes it to Milwaukee this one is a big crowd pleaser. My youngest daughter brought it to her choir teacher who taught it to the kiddies, but my wife has heard it once too often a long time ago (and she is the Irish one). Most of the songs are strongly in the Irish folk tradition. "Those Factory Girls" is about the girls who work the shirt factories in Derry, "Brendan" is about the sixth century Irish Saint who was called "Brendant the Navigator" (the original discoverer of America), "The Boys of Mullaghbawen" is about an informer in South Armagh, and "The Battle of Benburb" is about the victory of the Irish army over the English in 1646. "Rolling Home" is Makem's Irish version of the traditional sea song and "The Songs The Water Sings" and "Whaler's Tale" continues the nautical theme that also winds through the album (an idea that is emphasized somewhat on the cover photograph of Makem with his familiar banjo sitting near a chest that has a bit o' netting and some rope lying atop it). There are only eleven songs on "Rolling Home," and aside from "Watlzing with Bears" I have yet to hear Makem perform any of the rest of them in concert, but when you are dealing with someone who has as expansive a repertoire as Makem, that is to be expected."