Tunes for a Monday Morning

While daily news remains disheartening, I'm starting the week with lively music to lift the spirits....and some charming donkeys.

Above: "Leads" by Moxie, an alt-trad band from Sligo and Limerick, Ireland. The band members are Cillian Doheny, Jos Kelly, Darren Roche, Ted Kelly, and Paddy Hazel. The song is from their first album, Planted.

Below: "The Bonny Ship, the Diamond," recorded by Beoga for their seventh album, Before We Change our Mind.  The band members are Liam Bradley, Sean Og Graham, Damian McKee, Eamon Murray, and singer/fiddler Niamh Dunne. They're from County Kerry, Ireland.

Above: "The Greenland Whale," recorded by Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys for their new album, Pretty Peggy. Kelly (from Norfolk, England) is backed by Ciaran Algar, Evan Carson, Graham Coe, and Jamie Francis.

Below: The video for "Chasing Shadows," another song from Pretty Peggy.

One more tune to end with:

"Wet Field Day" by Elephant Sessions, from the Scottish highlands. The band members are Greg Barry, Mark Bruce, Euan Smillie, Alasdair Taylor, and Seth Tinsley. The young man in the video is Shaun Somerville. 

The donkey sketches are by Dutch genre painter Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681), and English illustrator Sean Briggs. For more donkeys, check out the webcams at the Donkey Sanctuary on Devon's south coast.  There are other lovely creatures at the Miniature Pony Centre just up the road from us: ponies, shire horses, and more.