Songs from the Beautiful City: The Cork Urban Ballads

Songs from the Beautiful City: The Cork Urban Ballads is at once an ethnography and an autobiography. It proclaims the true history of the people of Cork City through their only resource of expression: the humble ballad. It is also the story of Jimmy Crowley’s own long-standing romance with Cork ballads. The songs have arranged in generic chapters like: The Sporting Muse: The Sound of History; Comic Songs, Children’s Songs, Portraits (of much-loved Cork people), Emigration, Political, Didactic and Nationalist Songs, etc.

This unique collection includes music notation to all songs as well as associated photographs with an extended, engaging preamble loosely based on his long-running weekly ballad column on the Cork Evening Echo.

All prices will include shipping and handling.

US & Canada	Ireland, Europe & UK
Hardcover $52.00USD	Hardcover €40.00
Softcover $40.00USD	Softcover €30.00

testimonials for Jimmy Crowley
*The book also includes a “balladcard” which gives access to the air of each song.
“The test of any singer is whether or not you listen to him: I have Jimmy Crowley’s Jim Mo Mhile Stor in the car at all times.”
—Liam Clancy

“Jimmy and I have been on the road for many’s the long mile and my journey is always shortened when I meet him.”
—Christy Moore

“Since I have known Jimmy Crowley, which is quite a while, the qualities which I have admired most in him are his consistency, his integrity, and his ability to adapt and be receptive to all kinds of music; his uniqueness. And for me, he embodies the spirit and voice of Cork and he’s a great singer.”
—Ronnie Drew