Jimmy Crowley: 'I’ve left Cork behind with this album for the first time'

The Leeside legend has teamed up with his Australian partner Eve Telford to record an album of songs collected from Travellers 

Jimmy Crowley, at the launch of his new album with Eve Telford, at Cork City Library. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

“Swashbuckling narrative of fierce robbers, scheming stepmothers, cross-dressing lassies, and gallant pages”. Add seduction by goblins, gothic horror, and an assortment of talking birds and you’ve got yourself a collection of Child ballads.

Not for the faint-hearted, the gruesome lyrics of some among the 305 narrative songs collected by American scholar Francis James Child and published in the late 19th century as English and Scottish Popular Ballads could curdle the blood.