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With Kitty I'll Go

[ Roud 3052 ; trad.]

Norma Waterson sang With Kitty I'll Go on Waterson:Carthy's eponymous debut album Waterson:Carthy. Martin Carthy commented in the album's sleeve notes:

Norma first heard With Kitty I'll Go from the great Connemara singer Joe Heaney. He sang it in its usual from which alternates verses in Irish and English—and if the Irish words are as good as the English then they must be fabulous. She got this particular version (also sung in both languages) from Dermott Barry of Armagh City who was recorded by Jean Ritchie.

Jean Ritchie recorded this song herself too; unfortunately I don't know on which album.

Lyrics

Norma Waterson sang With Kitty I'll Go

With Kitty I'll go for a ramble
Over the mountains wild
Where the blackbirds nest in the brambles
In a place where the eagle flies
Or in some lonely valley
Where the birds in the evening nest
And me with their prayers would mingle
For the sun to hurry west

Oh, me darling wee lark of the heather
Your voice is so sweet to me
As the stars all singing together
Where the mountains sweep down to the sea
And all of Erin's bright treasures
All her beautiful locks and rills
Cannot equal one smile from my Caitlin
My queen of the heathery hills

I'll buy the roughest of raiments
To last out the life of man
With me whiskers unkempt and unshaven
Till the reach is a mile in span
Like the fleece on a grey mountain wether
They'll rumble and jingle around
If I can't find a wife in the heather
I'll try in the low mown ground

(Norma Waterson does not sing the second verse but repeats the first verse at the end instead.)

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Garry Gillard. Thanks to Seth Kurtzberg for pointing out the correct verse order.