Wexford troubadour Gordon Barry brings a salve for weary souls with the release of his new EP All The Live Long Year out October 2, 2020.
Filled with sweet melodies that stand alongside darker lyrics All The Live Long Year deals with life, love and loss. Using vivid imagery and a deft turn of phrase Barry has created a considered and relatable collection of songs. Embracing country, folk and Americana, incorporating inflections of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, the songs encapsulate Barry’s experiences to date, while simultaneously capturing the mood of today. With layers of Banjo, Hammond Organ, Violin & Cello, All The Live Long Year is a rich but subtle tapestry of alternative folk songs for the new age.
Recorded between Dublin, Cork, Wexford & Coney Island, New York, this collection leads in with ‘Old Fashioned Morphine’. Written by Jolie Holland, of The Be Good Tanyas, it entwines a hybrid of traditional American gospel standards such as ‘Wade in The Water’ & ‘Old Time Religion’ with Barry bringing the sound of a swampy New Orleans funeral anthem.
The remaining self-penned tracks feature an array of established Irish musicians; Christian Best (Drums), Conor Brady (Guitar) & Cian Boylan (Piano, Keys). ‘My Name is Never’ is a bittersweet ode to what might have been, while the folksy and spectral ‘Ghost of a River’ conjures Johnny Cash and his ‘Long Black Veil’. The stunning arrangement of single ‘Roll With The Punches’ belies its heartbreakingly raw lyrics to the strains of a haunting pedal steel.
Previous releases include 2017’s debut album The Best Way To Kill a Monster mixed by legendary Seattle Producer Steve Fisk, the man responsible for early recordings by Nirvana and Soundgarden. The album’s first single ‘Devil & St. Jesus’ went on to win The 2017 International Songwriting Competition in Nashville joining the ranks of previous ISC winners including Gotye, Passenger, Gregory Porter, Bastille and Cork Songwriters Mick Flannery and Jack O’ Rourke.
In the same year Barry was invited by Steve Earle to take up a scholarship role at his annual songwriting school in Woodstock, New York. Now in its sixth year Earle has since gone on to say:
“Gordon Barry is the best songwriter that’s come out of Camp Copperhead, but make no mistake he was already a special songwriter when he got there”. – Steve Earle
‘All The Live Long Year’ is out October 2, 2020 and available for purchase at http://gordonbarrymusic.com
