The next Album “Terrible Beauty” will be released on Nov 1st 2024.
I’ve been gigging some of the songs of late, a few more are straining at the leash. It’s always a challenge trying to slip new verses into the set…
Over the past months I’ve been slipping them in, hither and thither, hoping that no one would notice…
It has been a very diverse and enjoyable process…recording in different locations, making the best of what was available… David Meade always willing to have a go, Johnny Meade always ready to make it work…. Memories of earlier albums are always linked with different studios…. You had to go to a studio to make an album, all the studios were excessively expensive and totally controlled by music business honchos…. a different buzz these days…. the tide turned when Michelle Shocked recorded an album on her “Walkman” …the cat was well and truly out of the basket…. I recorded the album “Traveller” in our Garden Shed.
Here are the songs we’ve been recording in recent times:
1. Boy in The Wild
The last song Wally Page sent me, a few months before he died. These are the words he shared;
“Hiya Christy, just a kernel of an idea. Might be shite. See if it connects. Wal x”
Wally wrote like no other. A unique wordsmith and melody maker. Working with him was always a pleasure…. He shared generously and collaborated with sensitivity. I loved those precious hours we spent together. Always remembered.
This song means a lot to me – distant memories of my own Father who died when I was 11. In his few brief lines Wally paints a picture that will resound with many. I tagged on the middle 8 but never got to run it past my good Companero.
You can watch the video for “Boy in the Wild” by clicking HERE
2. Sunflowers
“Sunflowers” comes from Mike Harding of Crumpsall, Manchester. He sent it to me for a Concert in support of Red Cross in Ukraine… I read it at the gig in Vicar St. Dublin… tried it again in Gavin Murphy’s studio. He created a beautiful setting. Looking out the window of Gavin’s studio I could see Downings House across the fields – Where we recorded the “Prosperous” album 52 years ago.
3. Black and Amber
Says it all…. Briany Brannigan nails it – dysfunction, family abuse, alcoholism, selfishness, cruelty – all wrapped in this fine song. A grand chorus that helps to render the suffering (perhaps) more palatable… it only takes a few verses for the message to sink in…. this is great writing…. after a few months the chorus is already being sung… always a good sign.
4. Lemon Sevens
I’m at a Whelan’s Gig in Dublin…. A Lazarus Soul are playing a stormer…I’m immersed in the sounds of guitar, bass, drums… Briany’s giving it loads but I’m not getting all the words…then I hear him sing: “here’s me head me arse is comin down the Straffan Road” … That sets me off… I gotta read and hear all the words of this song…. I go to the merch table to purchase their albums and bootlegs…. I get home and start to copy down the words of this great song…. it’s a classic ballad, it’s a big song….in my repertoire it sits beside “The Well Below The Valley” “Little Musgrave” and “Gortatagort’… one of the very best of songs…this song will live on – a stark reminder of the times we live in .. and Briany gave me his blessing to proceed.
5. Broomielaw
I was miserably working in The National Bank by day, happily following the songs at night…. There were numerous Music sessions scattered around the city in the mid-1960s – Al O’Donnell, Jessie Owens, Maeve Mulvanney, The Dubliners, Dolly MacMahon, The Ludlows and Danny Doyle were a few of the numerous singers and players that could be heard around Dublin back then…. I followed The Parnell Folk for a time. Mick Moloney, Donal Lunny and Dan Maher were the main players. Mick Moloney used to sing this song. I slept on his floor in Rathmines and we swopped songs. For almost 60 years I’ve had this beautiful song in my repertoire, never gigged or recorded it. Mick died last year in a far-off land…. I sing it in his memory…he was The Rambler from Limerick.
6. Cumann na Mná
This song started out when Mick Blake sent me a few verses that were inspired by Rob Wotton of Sky TV. I played it for Joxer… He was like a terrier onto a badger… I’ve kicked it around for a while and now it’s gaining traction. Various teachers and Gael Goers have already pointed out grammatical incorrections in the brilliant refrain.
Steve Coogan might cover it…
7. The Rock
Five years ago, Cathal Hayden played this at a sound check in Vicar St Dublin…. I’ve never forgotten it. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Banjo… it began one night in Prosperous in 1964 when Barney McKenna rode into County Kildare and joined the session… Ever since my spirits lift when I hear good Banjo playing. Cathal Hayden is a master of both Banjo and Fiddle.
8. Life and Soul
Words spoken (anonymously) at an event in Maynooth University which commemorated the death of young Anne Lovett. Anne died alone, giving birth beneath the stars. Her baby son also perished in that lonely graveyard as Ireland went about its business.
Nigel Rolfe wrote a song for Anne 40 years ago. I recorded that with Sinéad way back…. everybody knew, nobody said (i.e. everybody in Ireland) … Anne Lovett’s death exposed a raw nerve on the Island.
Let us build a loving pagan shrine in her name.
9. Lyra McKee
I tried to write a song in memory of Lyra …. then I received this song from James Cramer. I made contact with him and received his blessing to record it…. I was aware of Lyra before her tragic senseless death…the image of that young murderer firing aimlessly into the crowd still burns darkly…the memory of Lyra shines bright…. a beautiful, courageous and compassionate young woman well remembered in James’ fine song.
10. Darkness Before the Dawn
Pete Kavanagh from Naas wrote this ballad…when he sang it in The Red Hot Music Club in Kilcullen it was heard by my friend Noel Heavey. Noel tipped me off about this song and I set off in pursuit of Pete Kavanagh. Pete sent me the song and allowed me adjust it to “my fit” …. it’s short and complete and describes a reckless and subsequently disastrous IRA raid on the NAAFI store in my home town of Newbridge…. It would have been a justifiable raid on the English Army of occupation had there not been an innocent civilian family asleep upstairs. This awful event took place 100 yards from our home in Moorefield Terrace. Yet I heard nothing of this tragedy until Pete’s fine song came my way.
11. The Big Marquee
Been struggling to get this song into the set…but recently starting singing it rather than rappin it…it has taken to its air…I’ll record it again in due course…with some companeros making a bit of a racket in the background…very happy with this lyric…
Started writing it as Mick Devine and I drove across the Curragh Plains to play The Marquee in Cork. By the time we hit Dunkettle it was well on the way.
12. Palestine
I was Playing a Concert for Medicin San Frontiers in Gaza and received this song from Jim Page in Seattle…I continued to sing it at subsequent gigs and received permission from Jim to make some alterations and to record it. “Palestine” has been well received (overwhelmingly) every time I sing it…. sparse criticism from supporters of Israel’s genocide on the beleaguered people of Palestine…. some accuse me of being antisemitic.
That concert was a response to seeing the acronym *W.C.N.S.F coined in a Gaza Hospital. Days later that same Hospital was bombed by Israeli Airforce and 3 Doctors fromM.S.F. perished. The concert was dedicated to Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, Dr. Ahmad Al Sahar,and Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari who died in the attack on Al Awda Hospital.
*Wounded Child No Surviving Family
13. Snowflakes
Damn blast those cowardly pathetic lonely keyboard warriors, their hatred engenders utter despair, can anyone pray for them? I salute the courage and selfless activism of Martin Leahy. “Everyone Should Have a Home” (YouTube).
So that’s it. There you have it… “Terrible Beauty” is due out Nov 1st. It will be on the Claddagh Label (at Universal) …. A Martin Gale painting graces the sleeve, he titled the painting thus…. A single has been released already. It has gained good airplay and response. The next single will have a music video…my first music video since 1986….it features Liam Cunningham and Ollie West who play Father and Son in Ellius Grace’s video of the song “Boy in The Wild” …This was the last song that Wally Page sent me before he died. A great song from my dear friend and collaborator…
The current gigs are tipping along…. this is year 58 of the tour…. crew in good order, everyone focused and pulling out all the stops.
Thank you all out there for listening …
Christy.
October 2024