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Well-known as a singer-songwriter and no stranger to traditional singing, Ger Wolfe takes to the Song-road this Spring  with his 10^th full album, this time with a bit of a twist, a casadh.

Here we have songs from ‘The Ballyvourney Collection’ gathered in 1913-14 in Gaeltacht Múscraí, North West Cork by A.Martin Freeman, published in 1920-21 in the journal of ‘The Folksong Society’. The collection remained largely obscure until unearthed again by Seán Ó Riada in the 1960’s while a little later the song ‘Aisling Geal’ was made famous by his son Peadar O’ Riada with Iarla Ó Lionáird.

This beautiful album is the fruit of the last 7 years learning with Ger delving deeper into the melody and poetry of the rich heritage of traditional song with some great encouragement along the way from other singers from Múscraí, his home for almost 30 years.

Ger shares his own take on some well-known and other rarely-heard songs including ‘Fáinnín Geal An Lae’, ‘Réidh Cnoc Mná Duíbh’ agus ‘An Clár Bog Deal’. On the recording itself fellow musicians Paul Frost (bass), Edel Sullivan (fiddle), Mick O’ Brien (pipes/whistle), Richard Lucey (accordeon) and Kevin Murphy (cello) bring subtle and sublime accompaniment.

The first single from the album “Fáinnin Geal an Lae” will be released on Raggedy Records on March 14^th followed by the full album release on April 25^th.

i nGaolainn– Aithnítear go maith mar amhránaí is cumadóir agus anois is arís don amhránaíocht thraidisiúnta, buaileann Ger Wolfe an bóthar an t-Earrach seo le h-albam iomlán úrnua, a deichú ceann ar fad, atá le seoladh ar an 25ú Aibreán, agus idir an dá linn beidh an amhráin singil ón albam “Fáinnín Geal an Lae’ á seoladh ar an 14ú lá de Márta.

Seo linn amhráin ó ‘The Ballyvourney Collection’ bailithe i 1913-14 i nGaeltacht Mhúscraí, le A.Martin Freeman, a foilsíodh i 1920-21 san iris ‘Journal of The Folksong Society’. D’fhan an cnuasach doiléir go mór go dtí gur thángthas air arís ag Seán Ó Riada sna 1960idí agus tamall ina dhiaidh sin do chuir a mhac Peadar O’ Riada agus Iarla Ó Lionáird chlú agus cáil ar an t-amhráin ‘Aisling Geal’, bailithe aige Freeman ó Peig ní Dhonchadha, do chuireann Ger béim ar roinnt amhráin Peig insan taifead seo.

Is toradh é an t-albam álainn seo ar thaighde Ger agus é ag cur níos doimhne isteach ar an tséis agus ar an bhfiliocht a bhaineann le hoidhreacht shaibhir na hamhráinaíochta traidisiúnta, le cabhair agus spreagadh ó chuid d’amhránaithe Mhúscraí, áit atá cónaí air anois le beagnach 30 bhlian.

Tá tionnlacan breá ar an taifead le cheoiltóirí cósúil le Edel Sullivan (fidil), Paul Frost (dord), Mick O’ Brien (píopaí/feadóga), Richard Lucey (bosca) agus Kevin Murphy (dord-fhidil). Casann siad roinnt amhráin ar an taifead ón cnuasach ná chloisfá ró-mhinic agus cinn eile atá cloiste níos coitíonta, ina measc ‘Fáinnín Geal Aa Lae’, ‘Réidh Cnoc Mná Duíbh’ agus ‘An Clár Bog Deal’.

Ar chamchuairt aonarach an Earraigh seo beidh amhráin agus foinn ón albam seo ag Ger in éineacht le saothar óna chuid albam eile lena n-áirítear ‘The Curra Road’, ‘The Lark of Mayfield’, ‘Hello Gorgeous’ agus go leor leor eile. Bígí linn chun an amhránaíocht seo a chloisteáil, ceoil binn, breá agus draíochtúil mar ceoil na n-éan ar crainn.

Busy Autumn harvest days here at Raggedy Records with a brand new single release  “The Last Rose of Summer” out on September 6th.

The song is available on Bandcamp as well as in CD format as part of ‘The Morning Star’ and there’s a new video over on our  YouTube page, you can get to it through the Audio/Video link at the top of the page.

Meanwhile ,the touring of various gorgeous venues continues, have a look at the tours page for full details but over the next month I’ll be in all four provinces of the country , from East and West Cork to Kilkenny, Galway to Belfast and several other places.

Work on recording ‘Songs from The Ballyvourney Collection’ is moving along at a nice gentle pace, all is well and I have a few new songs coming down the tracks from downtown Macroom, thankfully, keeping it simple.

It’s been a great year so far with touring songs from ‘The Morning Star’ and the shows have also included songs from my project of sean-nós song – ‘Songs from the Bailebhúirne Collection’ , songs gathered by A.M Freeman in 1913-14 from people like Conchubhair o cochlán agus Peig ui Dhonchadha. We are busy recording a selection from the collection at the moment , hoping to have it all sorted for the Autumn, its been a long time in the pipeline but will see the light of day after another short season.

In the meantime there are plenty upcoming shows around Ireland this Summer and into the Autumn.

Keep an eye out on the ‘social media’ including Facebook and Instagram, links are here on the site, for regular updates.

Ar bóthair arís, faoi dheireadh

finally on the road again and playing live music, Had a lovely night in Fermoy on Saturday the 13th at The Richmond Revival and looking forward to Bandon, Crosshaven, Ennistymon, Cahirsiveen, Cork City, Ballydehob, Dublin and beyond over the next few months with other dates t.b.c.

All details including ticket sales are on the tours page

Pentax Digital Camera

https://gerwolfe.com/tour/

I am working on new songs all the time and hope to do something more with ‘The Bright Girl laughing at the sea’ and the six songs on it, It has been removed from youtube for the moment until I do some more work on that project, as soon as I finish the Ballyvourney recording.

Please keep an eye out for more videos and if you haven’t already, maybe you’d consider subscribing to the YouTube channel for the new videos in the pipeline.

Ger.

Ger will be on the road again, finally emerging after some time in the layby.

Kicking off the tour to promote ‘The Morning Star’ album, though made in 2021 during the covid lockdown it never was properly toured and promoted so that is all about to change. To see the tour date’s just click on the link above. Here is a new link, joining all the social media sites together as one, try to catch Ger at a venue near you between now and the Summer

https://linktr.ee/gerwolfe

More music and song to follow, please subscribe to our mailing list if you’d like to be notified of upcoming tours and other releases.

Buachaill

An buachaill ina sheasamh

Ar imeall na trá is na taoide

Lámh le lámh lena sheana mháthair

Cad as a dtáinig an ghrian?

Agus amhráin an faoileán ina chléibh?

Cad as a dtáining an uisce

Ag cogair gan stad ina bhéil?

Cad as a dtáining an báisteach

Cár imeoidh an scamaill ina diadh?

Ní fheadair ar fhreagair an cailleach

Tá bád ar an farraige thiar.

The boy is resolute standing

On the edge the sand and the tide

Hand in hand with his old grandmother

Where  does the sun come from

With  the song of the gull in her breast?

Where does the sea come from

Whispering nonstop  with a salty mouth?

Where does the rain come from

And the clouds disappear after it?

I don’t know if his nanny replied

There’s a boat on the sea to the west.

I’m looking forward to getting back to live offline shows this Springtime, lots of dates will be added soon to the TOURS page, It’ll be great to get out on the road again and hope to meet some of the listeners who’ve tuned in over the last few years…

New Livestream Shows Coming up!

New Livestream Shows Coming up!Busy Spring days here at Raggedy Records and hope that you can tune in for New  weekly Livestream Broadcasts, Lunchtime songs each Wednesdays at 12.30 and a full concert every Friday at  7 p.m.  Shows are free but optional tickets are available from the store here and there is also a Paypal link www.paypal.me/gerwolfemusic which helps support the ongoing work in theses days where normal touring is up in the air.

In the pipeline are more videos of songs from the new album ‘The Morning Star’ such as the one for ‘Hello Gorgeous’, still available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoHOx96ZKVQ and on our Youtube Channel  as well as further work on the song cycle ‘The Bright Girl Laughing at The Sea’.

Also, keep an eye out for a very exciting project in Sean -Nós singing that Ger is working on called ‘Ar Imeall’ . Please subscribe to the Mailing list here on the site and look out for Ger’s work on the Social Media channels……More news to follow!

Here is a collection of 6 newly written songs of mine –  “The Bright Girl Laughing at The Sea” released during Covid lockdown

The song cycle is based around the idea of forced migration, an attempt to capture the mix of emotions felt by us when we are forced to leave our home because of trouble, war and strife, hunger, famine , injustice or any of all the myriad reasons people have been forced to flee in past and present times.

The common thread of migration joins all the human race together as victims and perpetrators in one way or another, for better or for worse.

The songs are;

‘The Bright Girl Laughing at The Sea’     ‘The Lonely River’     ‘When You come back home again’   

‘The Child of Hearts’       ‘I turn to see your lovely Face’   and  ‘Who is this that appears like the dawn?’

I had great help with the recording and editing from Amhlaíobh Mc Sweeney, my co-conspirator through much of the strange Covid times.
The video was shot in beautiful West Cork, mostly on ‘The Long Strand’ near Rosscarbery, and  the lake scenes in  Ballinacarriga, near Dunmanway, on two bright wintery days. Thanks to the Arts Council for help with the project.

Please feel free to share the film and the music. Ger

There is great excitement here in Macroom’s RAGGEDY RECORDS with the release today of the brand new full album THE MORNING STAR hot on the heels of last Friday’s single song release ‘Hello Gorgeous’ which is doing the rounds on the social media channels with a beautiful video made in Kerry by Corina van Deventer and Johnathan Kool.
Hello Gorgeous- Video- Ger Wolfe
We’ve had some really joyful positive feedback from the new album and radio play from Cork to Belfast. Get your copy here on the store and look out for the online launch, on youtube, facebook and instagram this coming Friday from Levis’s Corner house bar in Ballydehob, with The New Skylarks and special guests Amhlaíobh Mc Sweeney and Les Salamandas and no audience except all you who tune in!!