"Bridie's Eyes"

I wrote the song "Bridie's Eyes" with Don Dixon. He delivered the beautiful melody and I filled in the words. Bridie used to live up the road from me here in Ireland. She lived in a small cottage with marginal plumbing and only a fireplace for heat. Her story is rich and sad and very Irish. I wish I could have written a book about her. A song just doesn't cover it. Everyday she would grab her walking stick, a burlap sack and her little dog Rose, and hike down the old cliff road to the sea to gather driftwood for her fire. She lived in another time. Bridie time. Like I've said before, she is a "walking song". Her eyes actually TWINKLE blue. She had a contagious laugh and spoke with wild Celtic wisdom. She no longer lives in the cottage by the sea. She's since moved into a nursing home, up the road. I actually went to visit her the other day and ended up playing some music for her and friends. Let me just say, I have had some pretty exotic and mind-blowing experiences playing music in my.....life, and THIS was NO exception. I could not get it out of my head. So I decided to document what is left of the life she used to have, on the cliff at the edge of the sea, with my trustee flip video camera. I got a little obsessed, taking videos of everything and anything that I thought she would have seen on her daily walk. I only have the one, blurry photo of her that I shot through my car window one day a few years ago as she headed down our road. She's doing well, where she lives now. But I think I'll choose to remember her the way she was when she lived in her little place by the sea. She is a hero of mine.