This “operetta” documenting the Irish American experience was conceived prior to a West Coast tour in 1984, and has continued to evolve ever since. It links the themes of emigrations, settlement, cultural adaptation, and continuity through 150 years of music and song drawn from the broadsides, vaudeville, music hall, cinema, radio and the 78 rpm recording industry.

We begin with a slow air version of the reel The Green Fields of America, and follow with a verse and chorus from the classic emigration song of the same name.That sad Irish social institution, the “American Wake,”was concluded in parts of County Sligo by The Farewell Reel -- and always played“double,” according to Sligo emigrant and flute player Tom Byrne (1920–2001).We follow the reel with a few bars from The Sailor’s Hornpipe and Leaving Tipperary, a song recorded in 1930 by Larry Griffin with Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock Band.

No Irish Need Apply,The Rambling Irishman, Paddy on the Canal and The Hod Carrier's Song present the rural Irish emigrant facing the harsh realities of making a life in an often hostile New World, and we follow “Paddy” through some of the occupations he made his stock-in-trade.

Miss McLeod’s Reel is probably the most widely dispersed of all the great Irish dance tunes in Appalachia (though the Scots can take some credit for its popularity as well). It leads into The Kellys, a McNulty Family favorite which is a veritable potpourri of early 20th century Irish American trades, occupations, and claims to notoriety.The polka linking the verses is known as The Rocks of Cashel.

The jig following has the distinction of being the first tune ever recorded by an Irish woman traditional musician.We name it after the woman who recorded it back in the early 1920s, Mrs. Reidy Johnson.The Likeable Loveable Leitrim Lad, popularised by the great Pete McNulty, is punctuated by the well known Civil War tune Garryowen, and even infused with strains from the Notre Dame Fight Song! We are indebted to Glasgow singer Jimmy Kelly for the two darlin’s of the screen, Nellie O’Morgan and Nellie Kelly.

Wakes and Weddings are represented by The Night That Paddy Murphy Died -- this version from the repertoire of genial 88-year old Mike Flanagan, the first man ever to record Irish music on the tenor banjo -- and The Wedding of Lottie McGrath,learned from Dublin singer Frank Harte.A variation on The Irish Washerwoman provided a quixotic musical link.Then the happy trails of the great Southwest lead us via Bing Crosby to the legendary Celt Two-Shillelagh O’Sullivan.

Finally, as James Joyce would say, through “a commodius vicus of recirculation” we arrive back at our unifying theme,The Green Fields of America, which represents not only the literal reality of the New World but also the symbol of the hope and promise held out to the newly arrived immigrant.We play the jig, the final verse of the song, and end with the reel.