I’ve been putting melodies to Yeats’ poetry since my leaving cert and I’ve been lucky to perform some of those works around Ireland, England Denmark, India, Tokyo and now at Irish festivals in the USA.
Album cover for the new WB Yeats album
My WB Yeats collaborations have been with Stephen James Smith, Cathal Quinn, Guthanna Binne Síoraí, Gabriel and Tristan Rosenstock, The Mongrels, Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabhán and Mary Tyler. I thank them all for the insights I gained while working with them.
To The Waters and The Wild is a selection from all those projects some of which you may have heard on the Bandcamp-only release Whorls. Others such as September 1913 and The Lake Isle of Innishfree have been added by popular demand and a new one The Faery Song with bodhrán is in there to freshen it up a bit!
I think it makes for a stimulating 30min listen and hopefully it will open the door for you to the world of WB Yeats if you aren’t familiar with him, or give you a different perspective if you are already familiar.
Add to your playlists on Spotify, share and enjoy, thanks! For the CD and download go to the Album page!
I’ve been asked for a CD of the WB Yeats compositions for a long time. Finally I’ve gotten around to it. It will be available on Streaming platforms too. For fans of Whorls there’ll be some remixes from that source The Stolen Child and The Wild Swans at Coole and The Everlasting Voices and also it will include September 1913 and The Lake Isle of Innishfree and a brand new one A Faery Song. Available on streaming platforms from September the 3oth and on CD by 1st September.
Happy Bloomsday to you! I have a confession – I’ve never read all of Ulysees, but to make up for that literary failure I’ll sing a poem of Joyce’s for you! My friend, poet and renowned translator of works to the Irish language, Gabriel Rosenstock sent this poem of Joyce’s my way a few weeks back and we thought it’d be something interesting to let blossom for Bloomsday. So as usual I let the words guide me to a melody and arranged a piece on guitar which I think works well. The original English language version, Gabriel’s translation and the instrumental guitar version ) for all you krazy karaoke fans! 🙂 ) are available on my Bandcamp page and here below.
Tar go dtí an fhuinneog
(Aistriúchán ar Lean out of the Window le James Joyce)
Tar go dtí an fhuinneog
‘Niamh Chinn Óir.
Chuala tú ’canadh
I do bhinnghlór.
Dhúnas an leabhar.
Ní léim níos mó.
Breathnaím ar lasracha
Ó óró.
D’fhágas an leabhar.
Is an seomra d’fhág
Mar chuala mé amhrán
Tríd an scáil.
Ag canadh os ard
I do bhinnghlór.
Tar go dtí an fhuinneog
’Niamh Chinn Óir.
Lean out of the window
Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair,
I heard you singing
A merry air.
My book is closed;
I read no more,
Watching the fire dance
On the floor.
I have left my book,
I have left my room,
For I heard you singing
Through the gloom,
Singing and singing
A merry air.
Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair.
This week I decided to sing compositions of mine which are poems of WB Yeats pulled off the page. It’s been quite a while since I sang these WB Yeats poem-songs so I really got a kick out of performing them for you yesterday. If you missed it then the shortcuts for the poems are all here and under in the YouTube description/comments. The Album Whorls is available exclusively on Bandcamp as a download at the moment. The album versions have lots of extra instruments and there are some extra Yeats poems which I did not play live on this occasion. So do check it out.
After a successful tour round the UK in October we begin an Irish tour this week.
Between the 7th & 24th of Nov the poet Stephen James Smith and I will be doing 14 gigs across the country. I’m delighted to be supporting him and hope to see yis at the gigs!
There’ll be a mix of his poetry from his new book Fear Not, my original songs and the collaborative stuff we do with some older poetry. Plus there’ll be some other performers joining us too. Ag tnúth go mór leis.
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