Welcome to another installment of Sounds of a Story, a place where I share new original music and the stories and memories that inspire it.
Hello lovely people. It’s been a minute since I published the last installment of Sounds of a Story, mainly due to life with little humans and some very fun gigs with my dear friends in The Here & Now.
We are a four piece Irish traditional band made up of two fiddles, bouzouki, bodhrán (Irish drum) and vocals, living across three states, Texas, Louisiana and Oregon. Two of us are Irish and two are American. All this to say, we are complex! And, when we get the chance to play music together it is all consuming, in the very best way. Playing Irish music is a visceral experience for me, with a distinctive depth in the emotions I feel and the memories that flood my mind, when I play it.
March and April were full of music, food and festivals, and all the while, in the back of my head, I had this melody floating around. Inspired by one of my favorite paintings, I’ve composed a piece of music that reflects the unique landscape of The Burren in Co. Clare, a part of Ireland rich in its music and culture.
As the morning light dapples into our bedroom, I turn and spy the luminous yellow, with it’s curves and layers, it’s edges bringing to my mind the cool grey rocks of The Burren, a unique place on the west coast of Ireland, where limestone rocks meet the Atlantic ocean. I bought this painting from a wonderful artist, Aisling Drennan, a couple of years ago as a 40th birthday present to myself and it brings me such joy every time I look at it.
The Burren is a protected national park on the west coast of County Clare. It is distinctive in its expansive karst landscape created by exposed limestone bedrock, dissolved by acidic rain and groundwater. The resulting rock formations that formed millions of years ago beneath long forgotten, shallow, tropical seas are characterized by its cracks and curves, its sinkholes, underground caves and disappearing streams. The fissures and the curves and layers of rock were formed by a plate tectonic collision almost 300 million years ago.
What seems like an inhospitable landscape is home to some of the most unique and diverse flora and fauna on the island of Ireland. Over 70% of the country’s native flowers are found here and it is the only place Arctic plants and Alpine plants grow beside Mediterranean plants, so like our band, it’s complex!
As well as it being one of the most compelling landscapes, The Burren is steeped in Irish traditional music. I have vivid, childhood memories of sitting in the backseat of the car, traveling down to Co. Clare to the greatest Irish music festival, Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy (Willie Clancy Summer School), playing my tin whistle along to the music of Micho Russell and Máire O’Keeffe.
So many musical memories are tied up in this place, in the landscape and now, as I live on the other side of the Atlantic, a bittersweetness to what I left behind and all that I hold dear here, this piece of music rises up in my mind. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear from you. Is there something you do that floods your being with emotion and memories? Have you left a place that you hold dear?
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Recorded & mixed at Test Tube Audio, Austin, Tx
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