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Wild Rover (single release 17​.​02​.​22)

from Where Old Ghosts Meet by The Haar

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    Innovative Anglo-Irish quartet The Haar release their second album. Their debut, eponymous, album was described as “a splendid balance of swirling instrumental magic and beautifully sung narratives” by Folk Radio UK, and Where Old Ghosts Meet promises more magic across eight traditional Irish songs.

    Matching the fresh talent of traditional Irish singer Molly Donnery with three of the most exciting instrumentalists on the folk and traditional music circuit: Cormac Byrne (Uiscedwr, Seth Lakeman), Adam Summerhayes and Murray Grainger (The Ciderhouse Rebellion, Words of a Fiddler’s Daughter), the band’s music is characterised by ‘live reactive composition’ – an improvised space from which Molly’s pure and unadulterated vocals can emerge.

    They take familiar tunes and turn them into something fresh that mysteriously feels as if you have known it forever. As the band themselves say: “We let our imaginations run free with these old favourites.” The result is breathtaking beautiful, audaciously ambitious in its scope and, most importantly, a living document that proves the vitality of these ‘old favourites’.

    A product of free-thinking and intuitive musicians at the very height of their powers. The concept might seem oxymoronic, but if you’re looking for the cutting edge of traditional music, it is here.

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about

The first single release from the album is Wild Rover (out on March 17th) St Patrick’s Day - is a case in point: not for The Haar the bonhomie of The Dubliner. The band were struck by the idea that the prodigal son’s triumphant return, pockets laden with gold, might not be something that endeared him to everyone in the community that he returned to - jealousy, envy and covetousness are easy to imagine. The greedy landlady suddenly gets an extra gleam in her eye in the lamplit gloom of that dockyard tavern. A dark additional verse by Summerhayes gives the final refrains a new poignancy, turning the story on its head. Molly sang a few experimental bars in a minor key, Cormac added a few quietly ominous strikes and the band fell in love with the feel. Adam and Murray found a dark sound, imbued with hints of Arabic and klezmer music. Deciding that Molly would start alone, they hit record, and this is the result.

The Haar’s Wild Rover serves as a potent lesson to our extravagantly consuming society in the wake of current global environmental destruction. We meet the Wild Rover as he reaches a critical time, faced with the opportunity to turn his back on excessive consumption and face up to his past before he loses everything. Vowing to change, and knowing he must, the lure of excess proves too strong a lust. But continuing profligacy and extravagance come at a cost. He succumbs once again when so close to change, and the prodigal son pays the ultimate price for his ways. An opportunity has been missed, never to return… “never no more."

This is just one example of several in the forthcoming album (out April 29th) where the band, who feature not one but two FATEA Instrumentalists of the Year Award winners, take a familiar tune and turn into something fresh that mysteriously feels as if you have known it forever.
For more information, interviews, hi res photos contact katie@fromthewhitehouse.com 07832 200980

credits

from Where Old Ghosts Meet, track released March 17, 2022
Trad. arr (except for final verse written by Adam Summerhayes)

Adam Summerhayes - fiddle

Murray Grainger - accordion and vibrandoneon 

Cormac Byrne - bodhrán
Molly Donnery - vocal

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The Haar

The Haar combines the fresh talent of traditional Irish singer Molly Donnery with three of the most exciting instrumentalists on the folk and traditional music circuit: Cormac Byrne (Instrumentalist of the Year 2019, FATEA Magazine Music Awards), Adam Summerhayes (‘a Paganini of the traditional violin’ fROOTS) and Murray Grainger (‘Gorgeous stuff’ BBC Radio 3). ... more

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