The Ballad Lounge Podcast

09/09/2026

08/25/2026

Dolly Parton has gone off to the big singsong in the sky. A wonderful soul the world will miss.
Slán leat Dolly!
If you don’t know much about her you need to listen to this great podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dolly-partons-america/id1481398762

08/22/2026

Do you have her book?

An ordinary West Cork farm woman became so famous for her singing that some of the biggest names in folk music history crossed an ocean just to record her voice.

Elizabeth "Bess" Cronin was born in 1879 near Ballyvourney, in the heart of West Cork's Irish-speaking Múscraí Gaeltacht, and lived her entire life in the same small area, working a family farm at Carraig an Adhmaid. She learned most of her enormous repertoire of songs, in both Irish and English, from her mother and the community around her as a girl, never imagining it would one day draw visitors from across the world.

By the mid-twentieth century, word of her singing had spread far beyond Cork. She was recorded by the Irish Folklore Commission, by BBC folklorists Seamus Ennis and Marie Slocombe, by American song collector Jean Ritchie, and in 1951, by Alan Lomax himself, the legendary American folklorist who included her songs in his celebrated Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music. Ennis, who knew more singers than almost anyone alive at the time, called her simply the Queen of Irish Song.

Her influence never really faded. Her version of the song Siúil a Rún went on to be recorded by both Clannad and Celtic Woman decades later, carrying a West Cork farmhouse melody to audiences who never knew where it came from.

An ordinary life, an extraordinary voice, and songs still being sung long after she stopped singing them herself.

Have you ever heard a version of an old song without knowing its true origin?

08/20/2026

We are working on a project here, folks, as this Falcon flies by and wondering if it would be a good idea to get your involvement on it? Is there a ballad you associate with a time or a day of the year? Which one and why?

08/18/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1MW5w6RMMA/

Send a message to learn more

08/14/2026

New Episode out now!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7DbiN3JPkkbHEKVnHCWjf0?si=3fokHt8hR4CF5Pdbjuk5lA
Share it with a friend!
One of the most well known songs in the engklish language Amazing Grace!
Click here to listen today!

08/08/2026

Mighty to chat with Patrick Murphy at the Irishfest La Crosse tonight. The Podcast is going to be great. The stories were only gas! Thanks a million Pat for joining us.

*Rory made a very special Ballad Lounge Cap.