Several years of toil for Sean

SEVERAL years of effort have led to this week’s launch of The Walker of the Snow, Sean Tyrrell’s sixth solo album.

 

“I’m launching it on May 25 in Galway. The Clare launch will be on May 26 in the Market Tavern in Miltown. There’s a trip around the country and I’m off to the States with it later on in the year, so it’s going to be a busy time,” says the Galway native, who is based in North Clare.
He faced a number of roadblocks but has managed to negotiate them all and he is one of a growing number of artists to use the fundit.ie website.

 

“I was held up by bad health for a while and the finances weren’t too good for a while as a result of that. Then I had another problem with trying to get the copyright for one of the songs on it, that held me up for quite a long time to be honest with you. This album was started about six years ago but, in the interim, I brought out a double CD called Message of Peace; this one is called The Walkers of the Snow.

“I had heard of this thing called fundit.ie through the man who does graphic design for me. You go in there, do a small video telling them what you want and decide on a certain amount of money that will get the album finished and out. You have a certain amount of time, which in my case was seven weeks and if you don’t reach your target you don’t get anything. Luckily enough, I did and I exceeded the target. I finished the process, got it mastered, it’s already printed and ready to go.”

The album is dedicated to his brother and to one very well-known North Clare character.

“My brother died and a very good friend also died in the last year, Anthony Skippy Reid, a Dub who lived in Lisdoonvarna since the 1970s and is beloved in that area and indeed the Clare area. So I dedicated the album to Skippy and my brother, Liam.”

His ideas regarding what songs would make the album changed over time.

“As regards its content, it took a couple of U-turns. One song was very central to the album and I had a problem with the man who held the copyright. There was a difficulty with him and I eventually decided I had to drop it because it had been going on for about three years by then. I dropped it anyway and I was trying to find a replacement. One of the rewards for the people who contributed money was that there would be an EP of five tracks that would never be released commercially. In the process of recording those tracks, it was decided that three songs for the EP would go on the album.

“There are all sorts of connections going back to my earliest days of playing music, when I played in Belfast for a year. One of the songs I learned there called I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound by Tom Paxton is on the album. Another great song I got from a great friend of mine Shane Holden, who had Doolin Pottery. He died a couple of years ago and he used to sing a song called The Sad Gypsy, I would never have sang it while he was alive but I did it in memory. There’s all sorts of connections like that, which is nice.”

He explained the album’s title comes from a 19th century poem. “Many years ago I found a book called A Thousand Years of Irish Poetry, in America. It was laying around the house one night and I took it down one night and I found at least 15-20 poems that I set to music and one of them was The Walker of the Snow by Charles Dawson Shanley, who lived in the 19th century. I set music to it and that’s where the title comes from.”

The album includes a version of John Lennon’s Working Class Hero, traditional instrumental pieces and a lot more. “There are songs that have been part of my live repertoire for years that I wanted to do. They had been recorded but for one reason or another, whatever album I was doing I didn’t like the recording. When I went back and listened to them years later I thought ‘What didn’t I like about it then?’ and we included them. There’s a song in Irish, which was written by Batt O’Connor from Kerry. There’s some beautiful imagery of houses that are no longer lived in and it’s about the atmosphere in Corca Duibhne; it’s a beautiful piece.”

He says he’s looking forward  to the live performances that will follow the album’s release, even though they take a lot out of him.

“When I come down from it, I’m absolutely drained. I was on fishing boats for years but a two-hour set on stage can leave me far more tired. People come out for a night to hear you, and like anything else you have to do your job and play to the best of your ability. I try to do that and I generally do it and it’s draining.”