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Handsome Molly is a beautiful old courtship ballad our father used to sing to us when we were little girls growing up in Georgia. It has its roots in both traditional Irish and Appalachian ballad singing and tells the universal stories longing, leaving, the quest for a homeland, and the perils of love. We sang this song with the lovely Peia as we all crossed the Salish Sea by sail boat, reworking every nautical melody we could find, and coveting the old sea shanties. This one fit perfectly, and you can hear the creaks of the boat in the background. We release this song on the winter solstice to cultivate warmth in the long dark hours with a mystical folk ballad.