a r t i s t : Barry Mccormack
t i t l e : Last Night, As I Was Wandering
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Hag's Head
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Mar/2006
t r a c k s : 14
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 56,7 MB
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Last Night, as I was Wandering, the second solo album from
former Jubilee Allstar Barry McCormack, is a collection of
strange ballads and comic story-songs inspired by the Irish
song tradition. ItÆs a picaresque journey through a murky,
noir Dublin that features characters from the townÆs past who
encounter a disparate group of narratorsùverbose drunks,
repentant gamblers and recalcitrant office-workers. The
albumÆs title is plundered from a sean-nos song, a nod to
BarryÆs desire for these songs, though imbued with a strong
sense of place, to be timeless stories dealing with the
vagaries of humanity rather than a fleeting comment on
contemporary Dublin.
The album was recorded on Capel Street using instrumentation
more familiar to ballad records of the sixties than
contemporary Irish folk records. Last Night, as I was
Wandering is a raw, untreated record that is, perhaps,
something of an anomaly these days, when contemporary music is
awash with anodyne acoustic acts parading as authentic and
challenging.
Barry says: æThe last record I madeùWe Drank Our Tearsùwas
largely concerned with themes of loss and grief, where the
characters were trying to find some kind of light at the end
of the tunnel. I wanted to make a record that retained an
element of darkness but was lighter and more comic in tone. I
became fascinated by the ribald world conjured up in songs
sung by The Dubliners like "Monto" or "The Mero" and this
record is an attempt to capture the spirit of these songs and
to use it to portray a world more familiar to me.Æ
We Drank Our Tears was BarryÆs first solo record after leaving
the acclaimed Jubilee Allstars. Hot Press said, æThe finest
acoustic album of 2003 is Barry McCormackÆs We Drank Our
Tears, an album that owes less to this songwriting nationÆs
all too well-thumbed canon of Dylan/Drake/Buckley and more to
the Irish storytelling tradition: timeless and placeless, but
at the same time very specifically observed and honestly
rendered universal, local, music.Æ
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01-Only Jesus Knows [02:42]
02-As I Went Up to Redmond's Hill [03:51]
03-Come All You Young Sinners [05:10]
04-Do Not Revel in Your Woe [02:51]
05-In the Watches of the Night [01:29]
06-Scaldbrother's Ghost [03:04]
07-The Night They Drank the River [01:53]
08-Ballad of Booze and Bedragglement [04:40]
09-Waiting for Joe [03:06]
10-The Debtors' Jail [03:42]
11-I Fell into Old Ways [01:59]
12-Broombridge Incident [00:43]
13-Lament for Black Head [03:54]
14-Goodnight to You, One and All [04:01]
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43:05 min