There are ten songs in total and musically this album has been very absorbing, as I’ve spent time learning to play new instruments: bouzouki (made specially for the project), chromatic concertina, and dulcimer. The songs (ballads) themselves paint a picture that is influenced by traditional Irish and American folks song motifs and melodies. You’ll hear fragments of traditional songs throughout from both sides of the pond. The narrative is not completely linear but it does begin in Corcoran’s place of birth , Balbriggan with ‘A Man After My Own Heart’ (adapted from a New York Times article of the same title), and then briefly moves to New Orleans (‘Creole Girl’), and then on to the Five Points in New York City. Corcoran soon moves up to 40th street, and is the first to settle a shanty town on a high ridge of ground known as Goat's Hill (‘King Corcoran’). This soon becomes a home for over 100 Irish families newly immigrated. It’s where the Tudor City is today, and there’s even a Gothic inscription to Corcoran that says, “Here was Corcoran’s Roost till the year 1877.”