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The Green Isle

from River Of Dreams by Johnny Coppin

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about

I’ve always loved the tune of a Gaelic song: A’ Choille Ghruamach, written by Bard John MacLean ( from Tiree) after he had emigrated to Eastern Canada.
I learnt it from a recording by Fiona J Mackenzie with arrangement and piano by Irvin Duguid. The song now has new words by the poet Alison Brackenbury, which draw upon stories of Beira, the mother of all the gods and goddesses of Scotland. She is the fearsomely bleak Queen of Winter. Yet each spring she becomes young once more, by drinking the waters of the magical, floating ‘Green Isle’, where it is always summer.

lyrics

There is an island, a green isle
That old sailors may sometimes see
And catch a sweet breath, a fragrance
Not the cold of the salty sea
And if you stand high upon the shoreline
If your eyes gaze a long, long while
Oh, you may see the low mist lightening
To give a sight of the green isle.

This is the lost land of summer
Where the trees are in constant flower
And where a blue sky shines cloudless
Where a year passes like an hour
And how each tree bough hangs ripe with plenty
On no man’s tongue sweeter fruits have been
Into this land of joy and sunlight
To this isle comes The Winter Queen


She is of Scotland, she is Beira
Mother goddess so tall and grey
And her one eye sees all things
Bleakest sea and the winter day.
How her shawl holds the earth’s brown silence
Until the old bitter North winds blow
‘Til it is thrown upon the mountains.
And hides the hills with her deep snow.

But when her old feet touch the green isle
At the close of the shortest day
And how one deep drink, pure water,
Turns to blue all our skies from grey.
Now like a girl in her green dress wandering,
How she will sing until the autumn rain
Until the mist shrouds all the mountains
Until our earth turns to cold again.

And are you sick, love, of darkness
Of the cold and the constant pain
Now let me take you from the short days
Out of fear and the blinding rain
And by the young and the truly kind Queen
Where our sun and our blue skies smile
Now come with me from our long winter
With summer’s song to the green isle.
Now come with me from our long winter
With summer’s song to the green isle.

credits

from River Of Dreams, released February 16, 2022
Words: Alison Brackenbury/ Music: Trad. arr. Irvin Duguid / Johnny Coppin – PRS/MCPS.
Johnny Coppin - lead vocal, piano, and keyboard
Paul Burgess - recorder

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Johnny Coppin Stroud, UK

"The quality of his singing and outstanding songwriting surely merit even greater recognition" - RnR magazine

“Unquestionably at the top of his game” - Acoustic magazine

A singer/songwriter and co-founder of the folk band Decameron, Johnny has gone on to record over twelve albums including The Winding Stair, and Borderland. Playing guitar and piano, his music is always melodic and evocative. ... more

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