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Colum Sands
	Year:	2003
	Album:	THE NOTE THAT LINGERS ON
	Song:	Sweeney the fiddler
Words & Music Colum Sands, Elm Grove Music Colum Sands: vocals, guitar, tin wistle, Ben Sands: backing vocals John Sheehan: Fiddle
I walked the length of Hill Street but no hill could I see Time levels out the great and small in a game it plays with glee But somewhere in the distance I heard a fiddle call And I thought about Frank Sweeney, the man who taught us all. Frank loved to play the fiddle he knew that from the start, But the chemist's shop he ran as well, it nearly broke his heart And when a tune came to his heard, he'd take the fiddle down And customers' above themselves' were soon brought to the ground Chorus: And of all the shops in Newry, did you have to come to mine? Can't you see I'm playing the fiddle and I haven't got the time For trying to read prescriptions, for ills you haven't got And time will cure you anyway, sure the dogs in the street know that (2x) His place was near the pawnshop where dreams are bought and sold Frank traded in a different coin from the heart to the common cold From bunions, corns and chilblains to the pimple on the crown But the cure that Sweeney favoured most was to take the fiddle down Chorus Magic bottles lined the shelves, the blue, the green, the brown When sun came through the window, the light would play around, And through the door the fiddlers came, as word got round the town And the music flowed like medicine as the bows went up and down. Now plastic bottles line the shelves, the coloured glass is gone The fiddler sleeps but memory keeps a tune that lingers on And somewhere deep inside the heart, it's waiting for the call Frank found a way to play his tune and so he taught us all. Chorus