Promenade consists of traditional songs popular within the Irish traditional music genre. "Lafferty's Reel" is a song that Burke learned from an album recorded in the 1950s by Paddy Canny and P. J. Hayes. "Walsh's Hornpipe" is a song from the southwest of Ireland that Burke learned from Jackie Daly. "The New Mown Meadow" was adapted from a tune called "Silver-Spear", which Burke first heard played by Mary Fahy in Dublin. "
Lord Franklin" tells the story of British explorer Sir
John Franklin, who set off on 18 May 1845 on
an expedition with 129 men to find the
Northwest Passage sea route through the
Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of
North America via waterways through the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the
Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans. They were lost in their attempt and were never heard from again. After Franklin's ship was stuck in the ice for two years, he died in 1847. The ballad writers set the song in the context of a troubled dream by Lady
Jane Franklin, Sir John's widow. "Ar A Ghabháil Go Baile Átha Cliath Domh" tells the story of a man whose wife is carried off by fairies who leave in her place a changeling. When the changeling becomes ill, the man sets off to Dublin to find a doctor, but on the way he meets a beautiful woman who turns out to be his real wife. "Coinleach Ghlas An Fhómhair" is a song of unrequited love from northern Ireland. ==Reception==