Steve Earle reveals the old Irish pal who can claim to be the true 'Galway Girl'
American singer and songwriter Steve Earle says that one of his most famous songs, The Galway Girl, is likely to be remembered long after he's forgotten.
It's one of my all-time favourite songs and Steve, who will play The Helix in Dublin next October 25 on his Fifty Years Of Songs And Stories tour, says he wrote it while living in Galway back in the late 1990s.
It wasn't written about a particular Galway girl, but Steve says he's happy for his Dublin-born friend Joyce Redmond to claim it.
'It's a composite character, but one of my dearest friends, a woman called Joyce Redmond, absolutely has my permission to go around saying she's The Galway Girl,' Steve says.
'We've never been romantically involved. Joyce grew up in Howth, but her grandmother is from Aran and she went to Galway years ago and she sings in sessions.
'The part of the song about meeting someone on 'The Long Walk' in Galway was her. She used to go for a walk there every morning and feed the swans, and I was just wandering around and we met. She was the one showing me around the pubs and where the good sessions were and all that stuff, so if anyone gets to be The Galway Girl it's Joyce.'
Steve Earle
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Steve, whose hits include Copperhead Road, first recorded The Galway Girl with Sharon Shannon, but he credits Irish singer songwriter Mundy with making it a major hit.
'The Galway Girl will be remembered in at least one place in the world long after I'm gone. It's become part of culture there (in Ireland). And I have the Mundy version to thank for that – that's when it really happened (became a hit).'
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