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Seamus Heaney, the Derry poet, holder of the Nobel Laureate for Literature, and Liam O'Flynn, the internationally acclaimed uilleann piper have collaborated to produce an album of poetry and music, with Heaney (a great reader) reciting his own lines and O Flynn playing the uilleann pipes. Not just a number of poems and tunes thrown together, the two artists laboured hard to achieve a coherent piece of work, and they succeeded. It’s a graceful, skilful performance that deserves to be listened to again and again.
Personel:
Seamus Heaney: poetry reading
Liam O'Flynn: uilleann pipes, whistle
Rod McVey: harmonium
Stephen Cooney: guitar
Music producer: Liam O'Flynn,
Poetry producer: Seamus Heaney
Recorded at The Old Mill Nass, Co Kildare & Westland and Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin
Review:
“One is a probably Ireland's greatest living poet, the other a piper of the highest renown. Each is a master of his own genre. When they combine on this unique CD, they are far greater than the sum of their parts. The blend of emotional poetry and haunting playing is electric.
Seldom have I found a collaboration that works so well.
I will be the first to admit that I prefer my poetry in the form of song lyrics. Perhaps I am too lazy to read poems. My excuse is that no one can read a poem with the inflections required to bring the poet's thoughts to life.
Here Seamus Heaney takes the work out of it. He reads his poetry and we find new insights in his vocalisation. Liam O'Flynn adds a new dimension with pipes or whistle.
The only poems of Seamus Heaney that were familiar to me were "Requiem for the Croppy" and the stark, moving and very real "Midterm Break" that describes a young boy going home from boarding school to attend the funeral of his brother. The former is not included here but has been used to introduce the song "Boolavogue" by other artists.
On this CD he introduces us to a wide range of his work. The poem "At the Wellhead" is a revelation as he speaks of a blind neighbour.
Liam O'Flynn provides a beautiful haunting short tune on the whistle in "Ardai Chuain." "Tollund Man" recalls the body found in a peat bog in Denmark. (Hearing the poem, I realised that this is the body that I saw in a museum over a decade ago.)
Heaney's poetry has that nostalgic sense. He writes of things many ordinary people have experienced. Here he writes of digging potatoes, an elderly relative nearing death, romance and "The Troubles." But there are also myths as in "The Annals Say" as a ship appears over an altar in medieval Ireland.
The music, the voice and the words interweave and draw us into a mystical but at the same time real world. Here are events we can all experience. Here a master poet and player give the ordinary a new coat.
This is a must-have CD if you like good music and great literature.” - Rambles
Track listing:
1. The Given Note / Port na bPúcaí
2. Digging
3. Bogland
4. Árdaí Chuain
5. At the Wellhead
6. The Otter
7. The Rolling Wave / The Hag's Money
8. The Yellow Bittern (An Bonnán Buí)
9. The Yellow Bittern / The Broken Pledge
10. The Glamoured (Gile na Gile)
11. Aisling Gheal
12. The Tollund Man
13. Midterm Break
14. Sliabh Gallon's Brae
15. Clearances 3
16. Clearances 5
17. Cronán na Máthar
18. Two Lorries
19. The Humours of Castlebernard / The Bank of Turf
20. A Call
21. Seeing Things - Section 3
22. Fáinne Geal an Lae
23. St. Kevin and the Blackbird
24. Open the Door for Three
25. The Annals Say
26. Postscript
27. Garret Barry's Reel / Seán Reid's Favourite
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