Dear Potato, welcome.
Here, traditions are alive and thriving, and printed media is revered. I built this site to share my research and insight into the folk songs and folk traditions of of Irish America. I wanted to share my expertise without publishing it on some platform owned by the billionaire tech oligarchs. When you support my work here, you are supported a living breathing working class artist with a deep love for humankind and huge faith that together we are stronger than any human or technological authority.
If you like what the internet used to be -- an addition to real life, not an addiction to replace real living -- you will be at home here. I will always lead you back to the sensual tangible world. You will find a lot of Irish themed material, but you don't need to be Irish to love what you find. I share from the lens of Irish America because that's my own background. But Irishness, as the prototype of an erased and colonized identity on the modern earth, is a universal starting point for understanding why so many traditional music, dance, and expression styles are threatened today.
I am proud to share where local, regional and traditional cultures are flourishing. I love celebrating cultural fortitude between people in the digital age. I love expanding the idea of what "folk" expression means. I do this by creating old school punk zines with a kind of Celtic bent. I create accompanying digital resources for my physical written products. In my shop you will also find prints, stickers, and whatever else I feel like creating to share the Potato Lifestyle.
I know we're just getting to know each other, so please have a look around. When you fall in love with the stuff here, and I think you will, you can become a paid subscriber to my monthly letter (in the mail) and the exclusive content on this site.
My main passion is collecting rare Irish American songs and bringing them back from the crypt. You will find me rambling around the following topics:
Ghosts, Anarchy, Femmes, Irish America, Fire, The Senses, History, Ghosts, NYC, Being Hot, Men, New York City, and Folk Music.
Whether you consider yourself a Gael, a Girl, a Ghost or a Gremlin, you are home. Welcome. I hope you find haven here.
-Melanie