Author Archives: Daniel Kelly

About Daniel Kelly

Daniel Kelly is a singer/songwriter from Yass in Australia.

Happy 156th Birthday Mr Yeats

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Daniel Kelly

For Yeats Birthday this year, I recorded a setting of the poem The Two Trees. I purchased Loreena McKennitt’s album The Mask and Mirror very close to when it came out in 1994, but had never realised the lyrics to … Continue reading →

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Shanty on the High Seas (from your bedroom)

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Daniel Kelly

This year I recorded an album of Harry Potter inspired Sea Shanties, Muggles Ahoy!. This blog post will describe the process and equipment involved in creating an album like this. One of the Harry Potter shanty re-writes that I did … Continue reading →

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Building an Anglo-Saxon Lyre – Prototype I

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Daniel Kelly

For I long time I have had an aspiration to make stringed instruments, but the tools and time required to carve the headstock and neck from solid timber, or steam, set and glue the body in complicated curves has always … Continue reading →

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Four Treasures of Ireland

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Daniel Kelly

I have been working my way through The Secret Rose and Other Stories, which is a compilation of several short stories and essays by William Butler Yeats. As a ballad collector and writer I was very pleased to find many … Continue reading →

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Ye Sons of Australia

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Daniel Kelly

Ned Kelly was executed at Melbourne gaol on 11 November 1880. While I don’t consider myself and Australian songwriter (I was born in New Zealand, and am more drawn to the songs of Ireland and Scotland), it was a little … Continue reading →

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Alistair Hulett Memorial Concert – Sydney 2020

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Daniel Kelly

It would have been just after 9:30pm, some two hours into the concert, which had been ticking along at a good pace, thanks to Margaret Walter’s highly efficient direction. The air conditioning, which probably does a good job cooling the … Continue reading →

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Love in a Tub – Roud#556

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Daniel Kelly

I have been listening to Rachel McDonough’s renditions of ballads from the Francis Child collection for about four years. These ballads are mostly of English/Scotts/Irish origin from the 1600-1700s or earlier. While many of these ballads were revived/re-discovered in the … Continue reading →

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The Fall of Skywalker?

Posted on December 25, 2019 by Daniel Kelly

It is with some trepidation that I take my family to see the final installment in the Star Wars saga that has been running since the year I was born. A New Hope, just Star Wars back then, was the … Continue reading →

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Crazy Christmas Carol Conflation Challenge

Posted on December 22, 2019 by Daniel Kelly

On my YouTube channel I usually do some sort of Christmas challenge. This year I endeavored to find twelve Christmas related songs and sing them to the melody of another Christmas related song. I had a lot of fun doing … Continue reading →

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The Marble Reflecting

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Daniel Kelly

In moments of reflection, does the marble think back to the workshop floor, where its waste parts lie scattered, sawn, chiselled and scraped away? In each finely sculpted finger and lock of hair, does the trauma of the grinding, cutting … Continue reading →

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