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‘My Sweet Wild Rose’ is our new single - a 5 part improvisation featuring poet Jessie Summerhayes (BBC Radio 4’s ‘Power Lines’).
The funerary poem, which comes in at nearly ten minutes, was written as a spontaneous response to a historical death of a child from tuberculosis. Images of roses, riverbanks, and hawthorns combine with those of the stricken girl whilst the soundtrack on violin, accordion and bodhran provide the backdrop for singer Molly Donnery (All-Ireland Scór na nÓg winner) and Summerhayes’ spoken-word.
A qualified Medievalist, Jessie Summerhayes's poetry is known for its connection to the past and its echoes within the landscapes of today, whilst Donnery’s vocals have been recognised as some of the most expressive amongst contemporary folk music. Along with the multiple-award-winning Adam Summerhayes (violin - father to Jessie), Cormac Byrne (bodhrán), and Murray Grainger (accordion), the epic tale is given form with unbridled execution and reverent sense of atmosphere.
Summerhayes explains: “It was the hottest of June days, I’d left the house early and driven through miles of green shade and brightness to York, which was slowly baking in the heat. The river, dubious as it is, was too appealing to resist and I ended up dustily half slipping down the bank. From in the water, the wild roses looked nearly monumental, like tangled memorials to that first flush of early spring.
“I drove back to the moors to find The Haar in the garden, Molly humming nearly to herself as they all tried out the sound for a track. There, in the shade by the wall at the bottom of the garden was another wild rose, melancholic in its fragile beauty. The poem combines these images with the image of a child lost to consumption, the same kind of pale and fragile beauty blooming pink-red in the heat.
“We recorded this poem, or perhaps it is a song, in one take, Molly and I alternating voices, speaking and singing interwoven, and the musicians crafting melodies and rhythms with us – a 5-part improvisatory whole. And then it was done, the roses only last so long, and the evening closed in around them and us.”
lyrics
My Sweet Wild Rose
Sung:
She walks out from sleepy houses,
a girl, her face so fair –
sweet child with blushing cheeks and
wild roses in her hair.
She is headed for the river,
she walks there all alone
her bright blushes blooming full
her mother’s left at home.
Spoken:
The rose blooms pale, like consumption
rests heavy on its cheeks. Absent minded
petals are trodden into the path, blinded
as they fall – removed from yellow eyes.
It is a wild, stray sort of thing, youthful,
a shy child beside a sturdy hawthorn.
Both:
Oh, my sweet wild rose
with her tangled green hair,
waiting where nobody goes
and blushing, she stares.
Sung:
She is swaying just a little
as she comes down the bank,
the coughing hurts her frail chest,
but the soft air she thanks.
She lays down now, oh so quiet,
and sleeps down by the hedge,
the cold river’s eyes are watching
they peek out from the sedge.
Spoken:
It is growing from the bank, in stops and
starts, reaching out with its tiny green hands
into a wind whispering of its previous
iteration, a child shivers in its voice.
A little girl, a pale green dress – so fair
footsteps falling soft, wild roses in her hair.
Both:
Oh, my sweet wild rose
with her tangled green hair,
waiting where nobody goes
and blushing, she stares.
Sung:
Her sweet cheeks are slowly fading,
the bloom of rushing blush
is banished by her long coughing
her body’s had enough.
Spoken:
Her mother most likely found her, when in
evening she didn’t come home – her little
body abandoned on the bank - all alone,
her resigned tears will’ve fallen, as brittle
as her voice – she’d have held her tight
like the roses clung to her hair, so bright,
and buried her sweet little girl so fair.
Both:
Oh, my sweet wild rose
with her tangled green hair,
waiting where nobody goes
and blushing, she stares.
credits
released January 15, 2024
CREDITS My Sweet Wild Rose
The Haar: Molly Donnery (vocal), Adam Summerhayes (violin - father to Jessie), Cormac Byrne (bodhrán), and Murray Grainger (accordion), the epic tale is given form with unbridled execution and reverent sense of atmosphere.
with Jessie Summerhayes (poet)
recorded by Murray Grainger, Mastered by Sam Proctor at Lismore Mastering.
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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