Music Man Makes Shane Smile + Mrs. McGrath

This article by Ireland's Sunday World showed up in my Google News feed on my cell phone today - so I assume that I must be doing something right!

Bruce Springsteen recorded a famous concert of his Seeger Sessions - and then some - songs in Dublin back in 2007. I don't know if he has actual kin or ancestors in Ireland, but the affinity between his songs and Irish music is strong. Moreover, that album influenced everyone from Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons to....me.

I remember taking road trips to Oregon with my mom in her white Nissan Sentra. Her Sentra, like most cars made in the early 2010's, was equipped with a CD player. I had picked up The Seeger Sessions CD at Barnes & Noble a few years before, and we played it on repeat....and repeat....and dozens more repeats.

The joy in most of The Seeger Sessions songs is infectious, and the peculiar anger+sorrow of Irish protest is on display in his version of the Irish ballad Mrs. McGrath. Mrs. Mcgrath is a widow, and she and her son, Ted, get duped by a British sergeant having Ted join the army/navy.

Like a lot of women in Irish ballads, Mrs. McGrath waits faithfully by the sea for her beloved son. For years. Finally, when his ship returns, Mrs. McGrath discovers with horror that Ted's legs have been blown off at the knees, replaced by "two wooden pegs." Mrs. McGrath's sorrow and desperation about her son's injury comes straight through and grabs you by the throat in the following lyrics, which Mrs. McGrath sings to Ted: "'My Teddy boy,' the widow cried,

'Your two fine legs were your mother's pride.

Stumps from trees won't do at all,

Why didn't you run from the cannonball?'"

When I was younger - in my late twenties and early thirties - I always thought that Mrs. McGrath's question was a little daft. She didn't know about cannonballs on the sea?

But then later, as I got to know my own mom better, I began to realize that Mrs. McGrath's question is a plea: her visceral maternal instinct is to save, protect, and love her child, no matter what his age or vocation.

What's more, why wouldn't someone run from a cannonball?

Only war, that absurd human invention, makes people stay in the line of fire.

The tragic story in Mrs. McGrath pulls at your heartstrings while also planting a bit of anger about the absurdity of war and offering a danceable, or head-boppable, beat.

It's a masterpiece of feeling and persuasion. Mrs. McGrath's response to war is not naive - it's human. It's wise. And it's appropriately horrific.

Anyway.

Over the weekend, Springsteen, who I mentioned in my first blog post, visited Irish punk legend Shane MacGowan and his wife, Victoria Mary. He even sent Shane a bouquet of white roses after visiting. Shane snapped a selfie with the roses, and his joy is palpable.

Shane has dealt with pretty serious health diagnoses over the last couple of decades. The Sunday World article said that he was diagnosed with encephalitis late last year. This disease can be debilitating for some folks.

Either way, despite the drama surrounding The Boss, I always had a feeling that Springsteen was a good person. His passionate songs are also tender - usually, to me, a good indication that their writer has a warm heart.

Yay for kindness from one music legend to another!