Well, today is a rather special edition of Item of the Week because the item in question is in fact A BAND! I know right?! Thrilling! As a matter of fact, this is my cousin's band - I come from a MASSIVELY talented family you know, we're gonna take over the world. Maybe. So, please read on and lend your support to some homegrown talent:
WICKER BONES
So, Wicker Bones is made up of Bryan, Boggle (musicians, eh?), Ian, Dylan and Keelan, who all hail from various parts of Leinster. The music the band makes is traditional/folk but with an experimental feel. The band came together through mutual friendships, old jobs, college and post-party sessions at 4am which eventually turned into a regular stint in The Pint in dublin and from there festivals and now, the world! The name of the band comes from the idea held by the Celts that the spirits of the dead rose into the willow saplings
they planted by graves, thereby keeping the essence of the departed ones alive. As such Wicker Bones represents
a strong core essence containing the spirit of our culture with the potential
for it to develop into new bodies and forms.
They recently released a short album entitled The Martry Sessions, named for the house where the album was recorded (Martry House in Meath). Recorded byTony O'Brien of Empty Riff Productions (http://www.emptyriff.com/) it is a mixture of old and new with three arrangements and three original songs included; a representation of where the band were at the time.
The first track "Planxty Irwin/The Parting Glass" is a medley of a traditional Irish tune and a traditional ballad. The dissonant transition between the two songs is in stark contrast to the pleasantly consonant atmosphere set up by Planxty Irwin. Bryan wrote the second track "One Man On James' St." in response to what he saw around Dublin every day when walking and busking. Focusing on a man who sat on the Centra window ledge on James' St.) it was also inspired by a lot of other people that he talked to when busking or just walking through town. Bryan also wrote The Pieces Fit, "the first love song I ever wrote", aw bless! The chorus refers to previous bad experiences in relationships and that they were now relegated to distant history. Dylan Curran wrote "The Landlord" when himself and his girlfriend were evicted overnight from their apartment. This was an example of a landlord abusing their position, something they were all familiar with, and Dylan decided to write a song about it. One reviewer drew links between the narrative of the song and Ireland's state of affairs over the last few years. The next track on the CD is another tune/ballad medley... It was originally fast paced and written for the uilleann pipes but Dylan slowed it down and arranged it. "We felt that this tune would be a suitable prelude to Follow Me Up To Carlow which we interpreted as a fast paced rousing stomper. This one is a great tune to play live and always gets people up dancing. This was one of the reasons we chose this song to play in front of 25,000 people when we were in China recently for the Heluo Cultural Festival in Luoyang City." The final track on the CD is a cover of Masters of War by Bob Dylan. "We recorded this in one take at the very end of our weekend recording session and were so happy with the unsettling atmosphere it created and power of it that we felt we had to include it."
The album was launched in October this year in The Mercantile Venue on Dame Street with performances from Let's Set Sail (http://www.facebook.com/le
The band have been playing regularly in pubs in Dublin and Kildare (The Pint on Eden Quay, The Ball Alley in Lucan and The Courtyard in Leixlip) since 2009 and in festivals all over the country in 2010 and 2011. In September of this year they were the first Irish band to be invited to play at World Culture Festival, Louyang, China. They will be playing there again next year and at another in Shanghai in 2012.
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