No Irish pub session, no Irish folk album would be complete without a couple of ‘foot-stompers’.

“Dirty Old Town” is a really popular song in Ireland, although it was written by Ewan McColl, an English folk singer in 1949. He wrote the song about his hometown of Salford, Lancashire in England. It was written originally to fill the time in a set change for the play “Landscape with Chimneys” but with the growing popularity of folk music, it wasn’t long before The Dubliners heard it, adopted it and made it their own. They recorded it in 1968 for their album “Drinkin’ and Courtin’ ”

Because of this, Irish audiences  assumed the song was written about Dublin and adopted the lyric to sing about the Irish capital in an affectionate way. Many Scots equally think its about Glasgow.

In summer 2012, while in San Francisco with family, Evelyn Stanton - my brother-in-law’s mother - gifted me her beautiful pearl white Dallape piano accordion. Her Italian father had bought it for her when she was 10 years old, hoping she would follow in the tradition of continental accordion playing.

Alas, Evelyn passed away that Christmas of 2012, peacefully in her sleep, without ever hearing her beloved accordion leading in and swinging the play-out of Dirty Old Town!