DESCRIPTION:
Desmond Cahalan noted, "this is a strange and eerie traditional English song which, with its questions, bears a strong ritualistic tone. It appears to be a very spare form of the Child Ballad 'The Twa Brothers'. Bob Stewart, the Scottish musician, writer, and folklore expert, has argued that this song type is extremely old and shot through with pagan imagery. They seem to contain a memory of pre-Christian ritual human sacrifice, conjuring up images of the Corn King, the Wicker Man, and bog-bodies, etc. It is in that spirit that I have treated this song." (First heard from a recording of the English band Blowzabella.)

The Rolling Of The Stones
(Desmond Cahalan - trad arrangement & vocals; John Byrne - vocals; Martin Byrne - vocals; Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - vocals; Bianca Rohleder - vocals; Éamon De Barra - flute; Eoin Dillon - uilleann pipes; Trevor Hutchinson - double bass; Steve Larkin - fiddle; Tomás Ó Brian - button accordion; Rónán Ó Snodaigh - percussion)

Will you go to the rolling of the stones?
The tossing of the ball?
And will you go to see pretty Suzie
Dance among them all?

Suzie charmed the birds from the sky,
The fish from out of the bay,
But when she lay in her true love's arms
There was content to stay.

Well they had not danced one single dance
Not half the floor around
When the sword that hung from her brother's side
It gave him a dreadful wound.

Well they picked him up and carried him along,
And laid him out on the ground,
And there he lay till the break of the day,
But made not a single sound.

And will you drink of the blood?
The white wine and the red?
And will you go to see pretty Suzie
When that I am dead?