Songs play a prominent role in Family Butchers. Here are some selected lyrics and background information about the many Irish and American songs featured in the script:

Danny Boy

"And come ye back
When summer's in the meadow
Or when fields are hushed
And white with snow"

The origins of the music (as opposed to the lyrics) for the song are a matter of intense debate. One school of thought holds that many centuries ago, the tune was known as "Londonderry Air." In the Victorian era, many avoided saying that title as it sounded like "London Derrière," so they begin using a lesser known title that had also been around for centuries: "Air from County Derry."

Another group holds that the song's music is really not that old. They cite the song's seemingly modern structure (it is not similar to other traditional Irish ballads) and the lack of evidence showing that the melody had been in existence for a long time. Many different lyrics were attached to the music, including, in the 1850's, a song titled "Emer's Farewell."

Frederic Weatherley, in 1913, wrote new lyrics for the music and called the new piece Danny Boy. Weatherley intended the new song to bring together the Unionist and Nationalists elements in Ireland. This is the song we know today.

Since that time, the song has raised tantalizing questions: Who is singing to Danny? And where is Danny going? Definitive answers have never been found, though spirited debate has produced many different theories.

Perhaps the song's mysteries have contributed to its success. It has now become a symbol of Irish culture and has been recorded by everyone from Bing Crosby to Harry Connick, Jr. Popular legend holds that it is the most requested song when someone feels that the end is near.

Bless This House

"Bless this house
Oh lord we pray
Keep it safe by night and day…"

Written in 1927 by May H. Brahe (music) and Helen Taylor (lyrics), this religious song has been recorded by Mahalia Jackson and Perry Como. In the play, the song is said to be sung by the Irish tenor John McCormack (1884-1945), known for his electrifying public performances (an acknowledged lack of acting ability caused him to rarely perform in operas, but he once gave ninety-five recitals in a single year). He was a strong supporter of the Irish independence, which caused him to lose favor in England. Even today, his recordings are revered for their technical brilliance.

Home, Home on the Range

"Where the buffaloes roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day"

Where else but at the Magic can you hear a rousing rendition of the state song of Kansas in a new play containing echoes of old Ireland? A certain Dr. Brewster Higley wrote the poem My Western Home in the 1870's; his friend Daniel Kelly wrote accompanying music a few years later; together they created a song that everyone has sung on the road to Yellowstone.

She Moved Through the Fair

"My young love said to me
My father won't mind
And my mother won't slight you
For your lack of kind"

Often mistaken as a traditional song, the lyrics were actually written by the Irish poet Padraic Colum as a poem in 1916. The music, which was influenced by old Irish "airs," was created later by Herbert Hughes.

Sweet Rosie O'Grady

"For I love sweet Rosie O'Grady
And Rosie O'Grady loves me."

Stage star Maude Nugent wrote the song in 1896. James Joyce placed the song in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a test to see whether the book's hero could be swayed by the song's sentimentality. (He could not.)

The Kerry Dance

O, the days of the Kerry dancing,
O, the ring of the piper's tune,
O, for one of those hours of gladness
Gone alas like our youth too soon

The Kerry Dance was written by James L. Molloy in 1879, although the first verse of the music is said to stem back to 1790 and attributed to Margaret Casson of London. The dance itself is referenced as far back as 1549 was originally called the Rinnce Fada (pronounced reenka faudha) and was popular with nobles and their ladies. This dance's descendants are the dances called the Sir Roger and the Virginia Reel of America. The Kerry Dance was featured in The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

"Yankee Doodle went to London
Just to buy a pony
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni"

Often sung nowadays as a throw-away ditty, this song did not originate with the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy; actually, the tune goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War. In defiance of the upstart colonists, the British went into battle singing:

"Yankee Doodle came to town, for to buy a firelock;
We will tar and feather him, and so we will John Hancock."

Throughout the war there were countless variations on the lyrics. By the war's end, the colonists had adopted the tune as their own and played it when the British surrendered at Saratoga.