John Spillane

Announcing my New Album – Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough, a Gaelic Folk Opera

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 09:00:36 +0000

JOHN SPILLANE Announces His Most Artistically Ambitious Work To Date FÍORUISCE – THE LEGEND OF THE LOUGH

A Folk Opera Composed by John Spillane

Featuring: John Spillane, Ríoghnach Connolly, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin,
Niamh Farrell, Nell Ní Chróinín, and more.

Release Date: Friday, 13th September 2024
Formats Available: CD and Digital
Pre-order: fioruisce.ie

Launch Event: Sunday, 15th September 2024, The Lough, Cork

John Spillane will share his most artistically ambitious work to date: Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough, on Friday 13th September 2024. The concept album, to be released on double CD and digital, features John alongside a stellar cast of collaborators: Ríoghnach Connolly, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Niamh Farrell, Nell Ní Chróinín, and more.

Audiences are invited to experience the world of Fíoruisce at the launch of the site-responsive art exhibition created by artist Megan Clancy at The Lough in Cork City, 4pm Sunday 15th September, followed by a listening party at MTU Cork School of Music. Admission is free however booking is essential. Book via Eventbrite.

Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough is a three-act Gaelic folk opera composed by Irish artist John Spillane. It is a macaronic or bilingual work. The work is an imagined re-Gaelicisation of the Victorian Cork fairytale Fior-usga collected by Thomas Crofton Croker in the 1800s and published in his book Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1828). The story is a surreal tale culminating in a drowned kingdom, which as lore tells us, becomes The Lough in Cork city as we know it today. They say, you can see the tops of the underworld towers on a clear day and hear the music of their big party on Midsummer’s night.

Enter this world through Spillane’s hugely ambitious concept album recorded at Wavefield Recordings, Clonakilty, which features the voices of some of the most talented folk and sean nós singers of the age including Ríoghnach Connolly, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Niamh Farrell, Nell Ní Chróinín, John Spillane himself of course, and more.

Described by Spillane as his “magnum opus,” this project draws on his lifelong dedication to storytelling, the Irish language, and music. The text is inspired by the wonderful richness of the literary and oral Gaelic storytelling tradition. The influences of an t-Athair Peadar Ó Laoghaire and the stories concerning the Fiannaíocht are evident in this work. Other inspirations include Seán Ó Tuama’s work through Compántas Chorcaí, an Irish theatre production company, his inspiring lectures on poetry at UCC and his An Duanaire 1600 – 1900 Poems of the Dispossessed. Other inspirations include the poem Sprid an Locha by Torna, a deep love of The Lough, and a fascination with the older Gaelic story that shines tantalisingly under the original Victorian Thomas Croker fairytale.

Using these elements, Spillane crafts an Irish-speaking ancient world. The album weaves common threads of Irish mythology, depicting scenes of war, curses, lullabies, lamentations, shapeshifting tricksters, scenes of love, a great fleadh, and eventually the climax – the drowning of the kingdom.

“I’m so thrilled to present this album in honour of the Lough of Cork. The Lough is a hidden gem and a natural place of healing. Fíoruisce means springwater. This Gaelic folk opera has been a labour of love over many years.” says John, “This story is based on the Victorian Cork fairytale Fior-usga by Thomas Cofton Croker which can be seen on a placard at the Lough. Crofton Croker’s version was first published in Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland 1825-28. It was translated to German by the Brothers Grimm as ‘Springwasser’. My epic saga is a re-Gaelicized folk-opera version of that story. I’m thrilled with the singers on this record. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed performing it.”

Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough, a folk opera by John Spillane, will be available on CD and digital, Friday, 13th September 2024. Pre-order: fioruisce.ie

John Spillane launches Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough by unveiling a site-responsive art exhibition by artist Megan Clancy at The Lough in Cork City, 4pm Sunday 15th September, followed by a listening party at MTU Cork School of Music. Admission is free however booking is essential. Book via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/john-spillane-fioruisce-launch-tickets-936471540587?aff=oddtdtcreator

Fógraíonn JOHN SPILLANE a Thionscadal Ceoil is Uaillmhianaí go dtí seo FÍORUISCE – THE LEGEND OF THE LOUGH Ceoldráma Gaelach trí ghníomh cumtha ag John Spillane.

Le Ríoghnach Connolly, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Niamh Farrell, Nell Ní Chróinín agus eile.

Dáta seolta: 13ú Meán Fomhair 2024.

Ar fáil ar CD agus réamh-ordú digiteach: fioruisce.ie

Seoladh ar an 15ú Meán Fomhair ag Loch Chorcaí.

Roinnfidh John Spillane an saothar is uaillmhianaí ealaíne a dhein sé riamh linn ar an 13ú Meán Fomhair 2024: Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough. Cloisfear ar an dlúthdhiosca coincheapa seo sár-ghuthanna na n-amhránaithe móra Ríoghnach Connolly, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Niamh Farrell, Nell Ní Chróinín agus eile.

Beidh fáilte roimh an bpobal uile teacht isteach sa domhan seo Fíoruisce ag seoladh an taispeántas ealaíne suíomh freagrach an an Loch fhéin i gCorcaigh ag 4 i.n. dé Domhnaigh an 15ú Meán Fomhair.

Beidh Cóisir Éisteachta ina dhiaidh sin i gCeolscoil Chorcaí MTU. Cead isteach saor in aisce ach caithfear bookáil ar Eventbrite.

Ceoldráma trí ghníomh is ea Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough cumtha ag an gceoltóir Éireannach John Spillane. Saothar dá-theangach is ea é. Ath-Ghaelú síofrúil ar an síscéal Victeoiriach Corcaíoch a bhailigh Thomas Crofton Croker agus a foilsíodh sa leabhar Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland 1828. Finscéal osréalach agus loch-mhaidhm ollmhór tragóideach ag an deireadh a bheireann an Loch so atá anois againn i gCorcaigh an lae inniu. Deirtear fós gur féidir díon an chaisleáin a fheiscint faoi uisce an Locha.

Tar thar tairseach isteach sa spás draíochta so leis an gceirnín síofrúil uaillmhianach coincheap so ó Spillane. Deineadh é a thaifead i stiúideo Wavefield i gCloch na Coillte agus na sár-ghuthanna is binne in Éirinn sa Ghaelainn fite fuaite anso ann. Ríoghnach Connolly, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Niamh Farrell, John é fhéin agus eile.

Is é seo an saothar is mó ón Spealánach go dtí seo nó a magum opus mar a thugann sé féin air. Tar éis a shaol a chaitheamh le scéalaíocht, le ceol Gaelach agus le cumadóireacht is é an duine ceart chun na hoibre seo é. Tá saibhreas na scéalaíochta Gaelainne ón mbéaloideas agus ón litríocht á láimhseáil le ceol anso. Tá anáil scéalta an Athar Peadar Ó Laoghaire le brath sna liricí so chomh maith le Fiannaíocht agus Rúraíocht. Faoi thionchar Sheáin Uí Thuama agus Compántas Chorcaí, An Duanaire – Poems of the Dispossessed, dáinín diamhair le Torna dar teideal Sprid an Locha, tá John faoi dhraíocht ag scéal Croker le fada agus thug sé faoin ath-Ghaelú ceolmhar so fé mar a bheadh an ceol faoi loch samhlaithe aige mar a chifeá barraí na dtúr sa chaisleán báite fén loch.

Tá domhan-thógáil déanta anso le béaloideas, le scéalaíocht agus le grá agus aithneofar téamaí móra na scéalta Gaelainne ar nós an Mhallacht, an Suantraí, Buaileam Sciath agus amhráin cogaidh, Fleadh agus Féasta agus a mheascán pearsanta fhéin déanta ag an údar de sheoda álainne na seana scéalta go dtugtar ag an deireadh sinn chun báite an ghleanna agus breith ár Locha féin.

“Tá lúcháir orm an saothar so in onóir do Loch Chorcaí a chur os bhúr gcomhair faoi dheireadh thiar thall. Seoid álainn is ea an Loch agus láthair nádúrtha leighis. Ó mo chroí amach a thugas faoin Opera Gaelainne so. Tá sé bunaithe ar an síscéal Victeoiriach Corcaíoch Fior-usga le Thomas Crofton Croker óna leabhar Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland 1825-28. Tá an scéal le léamh ar fhógra ar imeall an Locha. D’aistrigh ne Brothers Grimm chun na Gearmáinise faoin teideal Springwasser é. Is leagan ath-Ghaelaithe ceolmhar canta den scéal san an ceirnín so. Táim ana-bhuíoch go bhfuaireas na sár-amhránaithe áirithe seo a chuir lán a gcroí isteach sna liricí agus beocht sa cheol. Tá súil agam go mbainfidh sibh sult as a chairde.“

Beidh Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough, Ceoldráma Gaelach le John Spillane ar fáil ar CD agus íoslódáil digiteach,

Dé hAoine 13ú Meán Fomhair 2024. Réamh-ordú: fioruisce.ie

Seolann John Spillane Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough le taispeántas ealaíne suíomh freagrach leis an ealaíontóir Megan Clancy ag an Loch i gCorcaigh ag 4 i.n. dé Domhnaigh an 15ú Meán Fomhair.

Beidh Cóisir Éisteachta ina dhiaidh sin i gCeolscoil Chorcaí MTU. Cead isteach saor in aisce ach caithfear bookáil ar Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/john-spillane-fioruisce-launch-tickets-936471540587?aff=oddtdtcreator

In Another Light – Out Now

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 11:28:54 +0000

Renowned Irish songwriter, John Spillane, is set to release his latest album, In Another Light, recorded live with Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra on October 14, 2022. The live album includes performances by John Spillane and Pauline Scanlon with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra and conducted by John O’Brien and orchestrated by Kevin Codd.

In Another Light is a career spanning album, the songs ranging from 1983 right up to John’s most recent release in 2020. This album is a result of a live concert with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra in November 2021 as part of the Right Here Right Now festival. Every person involved with the concert experienced these songs in a different way. For John and Pauline, who have been performing these pieces for years, it meant learning them anew, in collaboration with the orchestra. For the orchestra, playing newly orchestrated pieces brings new challenges and excitement. For the audience members, they could sit back and experience these well known and much loved songs as they have never heard them before.

The resulting recordings are a perfect marriage of true lyrical and melodical brilliance of the songs, lifted by the perfect accompaniment of a professional orchestra. There is a true sense of family and community around this album, how many people does it take to put a show of this scale on a stage? How many people does a musician such as John meet on his journey? We want to welcome everyone into this community, experience these songs with us, hear these tracks that you know and love, In Another Light. Of the album John says, “We have tried to weave this narrative of community and progression into every element of this project, from the artwork with Megan, the mixing with Brian & Sarah at Wavefield to the video projects with Al. Hearing the mixes brought the whole community of the concert back together for us in the most exciting way.”

Two-time Meteor award winner John Spillane is a musician, songwriter, performer, recording artist, storyteller, poet and dreamer. Rooted in people, place and story, his music transports the listener and his live performances captivate audiences around the world. John’s extensive back catalogue begins with the 1997 album The Wells of the World.

The focus single ‘Princes Street’ is accompanied by an imaginative video, directed by former member of Gráda, Alan Doherty and is the second instalment in a triology of films telling a unique story. Speaking on the series John says, “As In Another Light is a career spanning album including songs I have written between the years 1983 – 2021, we wanted to create the videos in a similar vein. We wanted to work with one videographer across all three videos to have a consistency in the vision, Al Doherty who created these videos has a really wonderful point of view and a great eye, so it had to be him.”

Tour dates are being updated all the time. To find out more and to order a copy of the album visit: https://johnspillane.ie

My Dark Rosaleen and the Island of Dreams – Behind the Work

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:14:44 +0000

My Dark Rosaleen and the Island of Dreams was an album that I released on the EMI label in the spring of 2008. It was in a way a fore-runner to the album I will be releasing this year called 100 Snow White Horses in that the album was dedicated to my mother Mary who passed away that year and I was also exploring the theme of Ireland being a woman, and the bardic themes of the female personification of the island in the form of Dark Rosaleen, Róisín Dubh, Éire, Banba and Fodhla and the other Goddesses that have been associated with Ireland in the Gaelic literary tradition.

The title track was my own musical setting of a famous poem by James Clarence Mangan which is his translation of the big Gaelic song Róisín Dubh. The other big songs on the album were my big love song There Was A Man, Rise Up Lovely Molly, which is composed of the names of Irish traditional tunes, and Gortatagort (The Farm) which was covered widely by my hero Chisty Moore and has been widely used by associations interested in the field and place names of Ireland. There’s a song there called Christmas Day which I’ve had the pleasure of hearing on the radio on that special day. And a song called Ireland Free where I’m joined by Damien Dempsey, that champion chanter. This song calling for Irish unity is much loved by many people but was attacked in the Irish Times as being “doggerel verse’!

2008 was the year of the crash when the Celtic Tiger hit the invisible iceberg. There was much turmoil, huge emigration, suicide, bankruptcy. Through a series of complicated events I released a second album that same year called Irish Songs We Learned At School which became a huge seller and My Dark Rosaleen and the Island of Dreams got overshadowed by this success.

Here’s the track listing. I look forward to singing all these songs this Thursday March 4th in de Barras Folk Club, Clonakilty.

There Was A Man
Rise Up Lovely Molly
Ireland Free
Not My Love
Gortatagort (The Farm)
One Morning In May
Dark Rosaleen
When You And I Were True
Who Will Burn Brightly
The Ghost Of Billy Mulville
Christmas Day
Beautiful Ballincollig

New Single ‘We Come In The Wind’ Out Today

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:05:51 +0000

My first single ‘We Come In The Wind’ from my forthcoming album ‘100 Snow White Horses’ is out today! I got a great thrill when I heard my new single premiered on Simply Folk with Ruth Smith last Sunday.

Recorded and produced by John Reynolds in London and featuring the gossamer vocals of Pauline Scanlon it feels like a lifetime ago now.

‘We Come In The Wind’ is based on the 3 Imramma or Wonder Voyages of Irish Literature; The Voyage of Bran, The Voyage of Maeldun and The Voyage of St. Brendan. It’s like my version of ‘Been Through the Desert on a Horse With no Name’ with no desert, no horses, only a load of water, islands and boats. It’s a dream journey.

I love these stories, especially Bran and the Silver Branch and Maeldun. I spent a whole summer writing the verses for this fairy tale number about the journey through the islands, but it was the night I played in Abbeyfeale and I was waiting to go on in the Glorach Theatre and I was sitting in a theatre set with a bookshelf and I said I’d pick a random book and blindly pick a line and I did and it said ‘Go tell my lady’ and I put that in the song, and driving home i came out with the chorus ‘We come in the wind, we leave in the wind’. I only say this because these are the best moments of life, things like this.

There is a penny drop vibe in this song, in the chorus, the band have seen it, I’ve felt it, it’s when people go from thinking it’s about a sweet dream to this is about birth and death.

Released digitally on Bandcamp and available to stream on all streaming services.

Get it on Bandcamp here.

Pre-order the album 100 Snow White Horses here.

The Artwork for 100 Snow White Horses

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 21:22:30 +0000

I am thrilled to share the album artwork for my upcoming album 100 Snow White Horses with you all. The photo for this cover was taken by one of my all time heroes Brian Eno – I know like, Eno! The image was then worked into the album cover by the incredibly talented Mushroom Designs.

Let’s go back to 2018…I am walking in Hyde Park in London with my friend and producer John Reynolds and his friend Brian Eno, the great artist and musician, on the daily morning walk with the dogs. “I’m calling the album 100 Snow White Horses” I say. “How lovely” says Brian. “Thank you!” I say “Some artwork arrived today, and it shows one white horse.” “Maybe you shouldn’t be so literal” suggests Brian, “Stand there and take a picture of your shadow” he says indicating a sunny grassy patch all covered in daisies. “Send it to me and I’ll workshop it.” A few weeks later this incredible artwork arrives from Eno, one of the greatest artists of our time. I am transported back to my friend’s house and I am 20 years old and a bass player in a rock band and we are listening to an album called ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ by Brian Eno and David Byrne. This album blows my 20 year old mind. It’s not Rock and Roll, it’s art. And here I am walking with Brian in London and he’s just designed my album cover. I have gone through the looking glass and I’m walking in the bush of ghosts with Eno and John in Hyde Park, London.

Pre-order your copy of 100 Snow White Horses on CD or Vinyl from my shop here.

Hey Dreamer – The Dream Behind the Work

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 20:22:58 +0000

Hey Dreamer was an album I released on EMI Records Ireland in 2005.

It was my third solo album and the second on the EMI label following on from ‘Will We Be Brilliant Or What?’ in 2002.

Yes lads I was on a roll and had the ammunition to make another deadly album with a diverse range of songs. I was still buzzing from the fact that in my forties, long after many of the others had given up on the Rock and Roll dream, that I had been signed to EMI, the greatest record company in the world and the same label as my heroes, the greatest Irish band ever: The Beatles! Things were happening now that might not have happened at all. The dream was alive and kicking.

The previous album had been very difficult, with two different producers, one who was ‘let go’ half way through, and about 5 different recording studios over a few years of recording. That was a record that was designed by a committee. Having signed to a ‘major’, they had no problem designing all kinds of hoops for me to jump through, which I did as best I could. I watched as an expert professional man got shafted by a man who was not fit to tie his shoe-laces. I let this happen as I had relinquished control of the record. This was my first glimpse after many years into the ‘corporate world’ since I had left the Bank of Ireland at the age of twenty. With the bank you relinquish control to the point where you cannot live where you want to live but in the part of Ireland where you are placed.

On my travels around Ireland I have met a fair few musicians who have been crushed by major labels. I was lucky, maybe because I was a bit older. Overall my experience with EMI was good and I emerged 10 years later fairly intact, having sold 100,000 records in Ireland. 50,000 of those were in the Irish language. Who would have thought that would happen?

Although I was grateful to be working with EMI, when I saw the circus was beginning to start again for the next record, I quietly slipped away to London against the wishes of the company and recorded three songs with John Reynolds in London. My friend Pauline Scanlon had made a record over with John already and recorded my ‘All The Ways You Wander’ there, so that was a good introduction. We did more in five days in London than I had done in many months on the previous record and the three tracks were in fairness, pretty stunning. When EMI heard the tracks they went for it and I got to make a lovely album with John in London. It was quick, painless and great fun. I was hanging with some great musos there; Caroline Dale on Cello, Justin Adams on electric guitar, Clare Kenny on bass. Making records does not have to be long and tortuous and involve stabbing people in the back. It can be lovely! We walked the dogs in Hyde Park every morning and sometimes went to The Cow for a pint when we’d finished work.

London felt liberating and I felt new when I was there.

Some of the songs I had had in my back pocket for many years, like Ghosts and The Only One For Me and I also had some brand new songs like Hey Dreamer, Beautiful Tears and The Moon Going Home.

The Madwoman of Cork I adapted from a poem by my hero Paddy Galvin, and this and The Dunnes Stores Girl made quite a splash.

People were saying that The Wild Flowers was my finest song and “the one that will live after you”.

I’ve met people down the years who have told me that the song Hey Dreamer changed their lives. That it made them think about themselves in a way that led to them giving up their jobs and going back to college, or becoming a musician, or returning to some dream they had left behind. It’s amazing for me to hear stories about people saying they stopped the car when they heard the song, or they just cried. How lovely to be part of the healing power of music.

I’ve also written the stories behind many of these songs in my book Will We Be Brilliant Or What? The Collins Press 2016. You Can purchase that on my shop here.

Hey Dreamer Track List

I’m Moving On
Ghosts
Hey Dreamer
Beautiful Tears
The Dunnes Stores Girl
The Only One For Me
A Song For Rory Gallagher
The Song of Lies
The Wild Flowers
The Madwoman of Cork
The Moon Going Home

A Song about Crowley’s Music Shop

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:07:27 +0000

CROWLEYS MUSIC SHOP – How I went back to write the song.

So I’ve just written a song called Crowleys Music Shop. It took me 7 days to write it and Sheena Crowley has asked me to describe those 7 days during which I flew out the window and landed back in the past and found myself in Crowleys, after all these years, back to write the song.

Yes I was asked to write a few lines for an article in the Examiner about the shop on Michael Crowley’s 10th anniversary, but I wasn’t really on fire with the writing. I just touched on a few early memories – how there was often some guys in the shop playing Stairway to Heaven to show off and a few memories like that.

It wasn’t until I heard Declan Sinnott’s new original song about Crowleys, which I loved, that I felt a twinge – ‘Hey I should have written a song about Crowleys myself’, and ‘Hey that’s not what I would have said’, and ‘Hey I think I could do better than that.’ Thanks Declan for the inspiration! To add to that ‘Hey you gotta love Sheena Crowley. She’s been like a mammy figure for loads of musicians for years.’

Day 1 : So it was one spoonful of guilt and a half spoonful of competitiveness as well as a world of memories and a lot of love that got me going on this song and the first thing I did was pick up a guitar and came out with this really deadly cool guitar riff. I swear. I can’t believe it. I’m being given it. I am on fire.

I am in the shop. It is towards the end of time and Mick, the man of the house, surprises me with the gift of a music book. It was written by his father Tadhg. I’ve just realised that I have the name of the book wrong in the song. Let’s not panic. In the song I refer to The Tunes of the Munster Pipers but I’ve just now checked it out and realised the book was called Crowley’s Collection of Music for the Highland or Irish Bagpipes … Compiled & arranged by Tadhg O’Crowley, Book One 1940. We don’t necessarily have to turn this into a problem, however, like, do we? It feels so good to sing the words The Tunes of the Munster Pipers.

Anyway I picked up my guitar and started playing this riff which might be like some notes from a piping march perhaps, I did try out a few of the tunes in the book at the time, this could be one of those. This is an Irish Trad riff but it’s Rock and Roll as well. I love the place where Gaelic Music meets African Music. Trad music is just so unbelievably cool and the scales are just different from mainstream ‘Western’ music. This is like Tinariwen/ Rory Gallagher/ Munster Pipers. Might be a phrase from some reel. We’ll have to call the music police as to what it is. Meanwhile I’m rocking. I’m going on a journey. Out the gap.

I’ve been fascinated about a place that is supposed to have existed in Cork City called The One Bright Spot. I believe it was on the corner of Parnell Place and Lower Oliver Plunket Street. It may have been a café. It’s a sex shop now. I’ve always liked the name of this mythical place. The past is the best mythology of all time. I’ve decided to start the song at The One Bright Spot and by claiming Crowleys Music Shop was shinier, I’m boldly moving the One Bright Spot across the river to MacCurtain Street. Mad or what? I’m going –

“If ever there was in Cork, that One Bright Spot,

It was Crowleys Music Shop,

Shop of dreams, cave of wonders, palace of musical delight.

CHORUS; There are ten stars that shine so bright above MacCurtain Street tonight,

Remembering Michael Crowley, and Crowleys Music Shop.”

I got a very sweet chorus going on! So happy with that. Major chord. The Chord of C. Doe a deer. Home.

It feels lovely to sing “MacCurtain Street’ on this year, the 100th anniversary of the murder of Tomás MacCurtain. It was called King Street before that. It was out of the Police Barracks on this street that they came to kill him in Blackpool.

Songwriting is about making up stuff and making lots of little decisions. I had used the numbers of stars to denote the number of years in another song, where I said

“One hundred stars are burning bright above the old Slieve Bloom tonight, One hundred snow white horses in the March of the Kings of Laois”

I hear voices. They say things like “You can’t use that cos….”. The voices are negative and must be fiercely defended against. It means I’m flying and I’m getting attacked. It’s a good sign really. Ah well I thought let’s use ten stars for the ten years since Mick passed away and continue this in any number of songs. Don’t turn it into a problem, turn it into a motif, a pattern. If I go for it, this song is gonna be mad.

Writing the song I think about two crowds of people, those who will know the people and places in the song and the other crowd who won’t. I’m not catering for either crowd. I’m going through the gap.

We gotta bow down to Rory Gallagher whose mother bought him his Stratocaster in Crowleys. They lived near there. Read Mark MacAvoy’s Book of Cork Rock for the full story. Will I say Gallagher or just Rory. It’s day 2 of the song and it’s late August and the weather is brilliant. It’s the Covid. I am out swimming at the Hell-hole and talking to two old Cork boys and I ask them if they ever heard of the One Bright Spot. “Naw” is the answer “Ná”. I try out a verse of the song on them. There’s no need to say Rory Gallagher, we know it’s him, they say.

You better not come in my way on day 2 of a song or you’re gonna get it tried out on you. I think I’m cool going “Some kid from the northside of the river, he came in with his mother.” It’s kind of nice not to spell it out, about Rory, let it out slowly. Who knows? Who cares? Pick one way or the other, you can always come back and change it later. Sing it and go with what feels right.

Day 3 There’s an awful lot going on with the song. I add in a new refrain “I think I hear strange music”. I have robbed this line. I have robbed it from myself. It’s from a scene in my Opera Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough. Robbing from yourself is not robbing, it’s just moving stuff around. Look I might as well go mad with this song and let the horse out of the box, the horse of memory. It worked for me with Magic Nights In The Lobby Bar, who would have thought it, here we go again, I can do this. Let’s gather up a big load of the treasure of memory and sort them out later.

I am standing in Crowleys. Mick is telling me that not only are there in existance on this planet such things as silver musical instruments but there is a thing called a Silver Band. They sound lovely to me. Very high and fine. Delicate and lovely must be the sound of a Silver Band. This is a lovely moment. I’m putting it in the song.

I just let the song float around during the day but tonight I’m getting a bottle of wine and I’m going in.

I’m back in the shop. I am eighteen and I work in the Bank of Ireland 125 O’ Connell Street Limerick, but I play in a Rock and Roll band at home in Cork as well. We are called Bootlace and I am going into Crowleys with my paycheck from the bank and I’m buying a brand new Fender Precision Electric Bass Guitar. It is a rainy dark winter’s evening in 1979. MacCurtain Street is shining in the rain. All the lights of the cars, the traffic lights, the streetlights, the lights of the shop windows, are all shining in the black wet tarry rainy road. It’s like Paris at Christmas at the corner at the bottom of Patrick’s Hill.

“I think I hear strange music

The clack of the pleck on the 7th string of the 4th string of a Fender Precision electric bass guitar, played through a Marshall Stack.

The past is gone and it’s not coming back

In the door comes Jimmy Mack, he’s thinking of buying an Ovation

You might think he’s crazy but I say the man is a musical genius

When he walks out the door the music follows him.

There are ten stars that shine so bright above MacCurtain Street tonight

Remembering Michael Crowley, and Crowleys Music Shop”

Ah lads when you get flying along with the writing, and when you find your wings, you can turn this way and that, and you don’t know where you are going. I thought I scored a big goal when I mentioned the Marshall Stack. Who remembers those beautiful amps and speakers? Best bass sound I ever had. But when I hit ‘the past is gone and it’s not coming back’, I think I’m on fire and then I hit Jimmy Mack it’s like wow how did we get here? I am remembering a lecture in praise of rhyme by Sean Lucey I heard in College long ago. I’m the biggest fan of rhyme ever, it’s more than rhyme, it’s how everything in the universe is related to something else, and interconnected.

I was blown away so much and so often by Jimmy MacCarthy it’s great to have this chance to praise him. I’m getting surreal now with my line about the music following him out of the shop. Like you can see it! I’ve just read a book called The Last Days of New Paris and the vibe of the book has snuck into the song. Bring it on.

Still Day 3 of writing the song and I sing it to the MacSweeneys on Fairy Hill when I’m walking my dogs past their gate. They get it! I know it’s working when they get it. They’re good. They see the song even though it’s not a song yet. You got to get the right people to try things out on.

Day 4 and I’m finding it hard to get the vibe right, I can’t seem to make the song sit on top of the riff. I go hey John you know it’s brilliant. Keep chipping away at the old block. Tonight! Tonight!

I keep singing the song again and again and again. I can’t get past the first verse. I can’t get past the second verse. It’s brilliant. I’m memorizing the song. I don’t write anything down. This song has only been sung and belongs to the songs that have never been written down. Cathy says don’t sing ‘baby’ in the As The Crow Flies bit. I was thinking the same myself. Maybe I’m such a Folkie that I can’t sing ‘Baby’ with the Hoochie-Koo?

Having bowed down to my hero Jimmy MacCarthy next I have to mention Dec Sinnott.

“I think I hear strange music

The door slides open and in walks a mountain lion

It’s Declan Sinnott and he’s on the prowl, he gives one low growl

He is reading the shop, he is looking for some shining object

It might be a drum, might be a book, it might be something small that has been overlooked

Even if he got the one note out of it, the wan note, even if he got the one note out of it, the one note!

There are ten stars that shine so bright above MacCurtain Street tonight

Remembering Crowleys, Crowleys Music Shop.”

Well since it was no bother to me to move the One Bright Spot across the river I might as well move the story of ‘The One Note’ just a small bit up MacCurtain Street, from the Swap Shop to Crowleys Music Shop. It was Tony Ryan of the Leeside Music Centre who is reputed to have described Declan coming in there and searching the shop for some strange odd thing that been ignored by everyone else “Even if he got the wan note out of it!” says Tony. Thanks Tony Ryan, I hope you don’t mind me using this gem of Cork folklore. I wonder did you ever say it? Lads I’ll have to track Tony down now in Spain and hope this’ll all be alright!

Hey I can’t believe I got the mountain lion coming in the door, what a laugh. I better clear this with Declan. Hope he won’t mind being called a cat. I get Declan on the phone and he says great, go for it! I’m kind of living this song on day 4 of these days of the song.

Day 5 of writing the song and I might as well use this as an excuse to talk to Jimmy MacCarthy. I get Jimmy on the phone and sing his verse to him. I call him a musical genius. The thing about ‘thinking of buying an Ovation ‘I think might actually have happened. “That’s lovely John, thanks” says Jimmy. He knows I always bow down to him.

I am in the shop. It’s not like I’m remembering it. It’s like it’s happening now.

“I think I hear strange music.

Brian Calnan has just struck a Zildjian brass riveted ride cymbal, the sound goes on forever, like a great wave crashing and dying on the shore of some distant island.”

It’s day 6 of writing the song and I’m up and down with it. I realize that if I’m gonna pull this off I have to sing it in saucy Rock and Roll high manner. Kind of sing it from a height, proclaim it. Rock and Roll.

It’s day 7 of the song and I’m able to sing it from start to finish. I’m adding a list of names. I’m just going for it, you can’t name everyone, it’s just a sample, a slice of life that came in through my eyes, my story and I’m sticking to it. If there’s any lies in it, they can stay there now and all that. I hope it’s ok to do this. I relish saying those names, Johhny Fang, Philip The Maggot, Handsome Christy Twomey. I wonder should I run it by Mick Daly. I hope he’ll be happy. He’s the only one who’s in it twice. He’s laughing the first time and smiling the second time, loading the van. very bright representation of someone whose named after Depression. -The Black Dog. The best line in the song is the line about “Loading the van.’ That’s a short movie for you if ever there was one.

The song is finished. I could go back and write more. There are other verses that have occured to me, but it’s a bit too mad though going there again and again. Time to leave the shop. Back out the gap. Clean up. Take the money and run.

Day 8 I write the words of the song down on the computer for the first time. Now it has left that great crowd of songs that were sung, and never written down. They belonged only to the air and to those that heard them. They were invisible. There was nothing to see.

Thanks very much to Sheena Crowley and to everyone. Hope you get to hear my song sometime and hope you’ll enjoy it, whether you are in the crowd who knew the place and the people, or whether you are in that other crowd, who didn’t.

Thanks everyone.

John.

The Wells of the World – Looking Back

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 10:07:22 +0000

THE WELLS OF THE WORLD

Ahead of my upcoming live gig with DeBarra’s Clonakilty featuring all the songs from The Wells of the World, I’ve been contemplating on the creation of this album. This was my first solo album and was launched by Philip King in September 1997 in the Lobby Bar in Cork. That was a big night for me.

I was at that time trying to engineer a smooth transition from being a member of the band Nomos to being a solo artist. I was 36 years old and had played in bands since I was sixteen. The Wells of the World had morphed out of a previous attempt at an album called The Tree of Stars which was never released. It was recorded and produced by Declan Sinnott in his home studio in Mahon, Cork. I first visited the studio as a guest on Sinead Lohan’s album Who Do You Think I Am? It was a great education to work with Declan, one of the greatest Irish musicians of our time. He put his heart and soul into it and it was wonderful to see the songs evolve into beautifully arranged, dreamlike musical structures.

After the launch we ended up in the Spailpín Fánach, and then back in Noel Shine and Mary Greene’s house for tunes and craic. I was on a high. It just seemed to have taken so very long to get to this place in my life. The next morning I drove to Fountainstown and threw myself into the sea, rejoicing.

The artwork was based on a drawing called The Blue Princess by my daughter Leslie when she was four and I think it captured the fairytale element of my songwriting. The album title is from a line in the song It Wasn’t To Be – “It wasn’t to be, or we’d be drinking from the wells of the world, or living in each others shadow”.

The album was very well received and I’ll never forget the evening when I was driving my car on Evergreen Road in Cork and PJ Curtis came on the radio raving about the great talent and imagination we have in Ireland and this brilliant new album he had just received and at the end of his spiel it turned out it was my album! The Wells of The World! Wow!

I played a load of gigs in the Lobby in Cork and the Cobblestone in Dublin and Christy Moore started coming regularly and covered Johnny Don’t Go To Ballincollig on his album This Is The Day and again on Live In Vicar Street. This was a double wow! Then Sean Keane came out with a really beautiful version of The Land You Love The Best and the fabulous Pauline Scanlon and Sharon Shannon with a sublime version of All The Ways You Wander. Those three songs made it into the session scene and were sung at many the trad session at home and abroad. The first time I heard that All The Ways You Wander was sung at a funeral kind of shook me a bit. It was played on a harp as this lady from West Cork was lowered into the ground. It turns out that it has been played at many’s the funeral but also at many weddings. I am honoured that my songs have found their way into the people’s hearts in this way.

I gigged on with Nomos until March the following year and I got out of the van for the last time at some airport in the USA, shook hands with the lads and became my own man, at last. That was 22 years ago and I’ve enjoyed a wonderful journey since then, and now I have a brand new album called 100 Snow White Horses ready to come out next year 2021! The dream goes on. Thanks lads!

Do join us for our streamed ticketed gig where we will play the full album of The Wells of the World – Thursday 3rd of September. There will be two gigs – one for my Irish fans, and one timed for my friends across the seas in America.

Get tickets here for the 9PM IRISH GIG

Get tickets here for the 5PM CT/6PM ET/ 11PM IST AMERICAN TIMED GIG

Here’s the track list:

1. Johnny Don’t Go To Ballincollig

2. Everything’s Turning To Gold Cathy

3. All The Ways You Wander

4. It Wasn’t To Be

5. Seachtain

6. How Beautiful You Are

7. Be True To The Girl

8. The Bank of Ireland Sean-Nós Blues

9. While They’re All Talking

10. The Land You Love The Best

11. My Love Will Not Sing For Me

12. Not Too Bad

Commissions – My Works of Passion

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 13:41:50 +0000

Recently with gigs being off, I have found myself writing a lot of commission pieces. It’s been a really lovely and humbling challenge. Running with an idea and making a piece of art out of it is something I get great pleasure out of. I believe that you can find beauty in just about anything.

I had a real taste of writing songs as commissions for the TG4 series Spillane an Fánaí. Here I wrote songs about Irish towns. This then became an album ‘Life in an Irish Town‘ which I released in 2013. More recently, I was commissioned to write a song for RTÉ’s David Brophy’s Unsung Heroes Choir. I spent a day with the members of the choir – made up of carers from all walks of life. I spent time with them, we chatted, and I made notes. This piece was made up largely of things that the family carers said about their lives, in the same way that Ewan McColl wrote The Shoals of Herring out of things the fishermen said long ‘go. The piece and the two part TV series received an overwhelming reaction, it was very humbling.

As well as these projects, I have really enjoyed writing private commissions for people who have contacted me directly. These can often be quite specific, something to honour a loved one, mark an important deed, or highlight the history of a place. I’ve been asked to write a song by somebody in gratitude to the man who saved him from drowning, another song for an animal rescue centre, a song about star constellations for a dedicated stargazer, the list is endless. Each song is a fresh challenge and takes me on a new journey. I have spent over 30 years writing in the Irish Song Tradition. I draw on this, together with my passion for Irish mythology and poetry to create these songs. There is nothing I love more than locking myself away in my studio with a new song challenge. The marriage of melody and poetry are my pride and joy.

So friends I’m delighted to announce that I will be throwing open the doors of the Hit Factory for the next three months! I put my heart and soul into this work. You never know by what human interaction the big song will come floating down to us!

If you think you’d like to commission me to compose a song for you please contact us at info@johnspillane.ie and we will begin our chat.

Here is a glimpse into the Hit Factory, my rag and bone shop of the heart.

Go dté sibh slán,

John.

A Blast from the Past

Ciara O' Leary Fitzpatrick — Mon, 18 May 2020 15:09:12 +0000

Social media really is a funny thing sometimes! Recently, photographer Marc O’ Sullivan tagged me on instagram with these old photos, I got in contact with him and sent them on. It’s me 22 years ago with my first solo album The Wells Of The World.

I was 36 years old when I released my first solo album the ‘Wells of the World’ and just taking off as a songwriter. I had written a couple of good songs when I was in my early twenties, like ‘Princes Street’ and ‘My Love Will Not Sing For Me’, but I suffered from a writer’s block for nearly ten years after that. Then, I just started writing on a constant basis, song after song. Many of the new songs had titles like ‘I Won’t Be Afraid Any More’ and ‘Will We Be Brilliant Or What?’ Breakthrough kind of songs!

I had made two albums with Nomos by that time and was trying to pull off a smooth transition into being a solo artist. Unfortunately it turned out to be a rocky road and there was a lot of drama around ‘The Wells of the World’. It was in and out of print a few times, but hey that’s rock and roll, it doesn’t always go smooth, but there’s learning in it all. ‘Everything’s Turning To Gold Cathy’ got a lot or airplay as well as ‘All The Ways You Wander’ and I took off on the road around Ireland playing solo gigs, getting to know and making friends with all those people who put gigs on around Ireland.

When I first played the melody to ‘All The Ways You Wander’ I didn’t think I had composed it, but that it was something that had been there before. I asked everyone what it was, but nobody could identify it so it seems I must have written it myself. I had already recorded ‘All The Ways You Wander’ with Nomos featuring Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin on piano, but I decided to put it on the ‘Wells of the World’ as well because it was my big song. It’s still my favourite of my own songs. I wrote it for my daughter when she was small. She was in Spain with her mother and I sent it over to her on a cassette. Over the years, it has been played at a lot of weddings and funerals. One day last summer I met two different sets of people on the same day who had gotten married to one of my songs, it was such an honour!

Although we didn’t realise it then, the music scene was good in Ireland around the turn of the century and people were buying quite a lot of CD’s. Obviously with the rise of online streaming CD’s have been in decline a long time, but you really can’t beat a live gig. I’m lucky that I have a fan base that has built over the years who enjoy coming out time and time again. I think we are all looking forward to those days again! It seems like the music industry has always been constantly changing and will continue to do so. The way things are done disappears, and some new scene arrives in. I will be interested to know how it will turn out, but for now, I am looking forward to heading out on the road again, guitar in hand.

1997 Singer John Spillane Pic: Marc O’Sullivan