We are so excited to bring back this fabulous 11-minute film, especially made in Dublin for ICC Digital, featuring the awesome singer-songwriter Kevin Doherty, who many of you will know as a member of the Irish Supergroup ‘Four Men and A Dog’!
In this film Kevin sings his wonderful song ‘Bloomsday’ which he wrote as a tribute to Dublin and James Joyce. He also sings his song ‘Oh My Love’.
Kevin is without doubt one of the most gifted singer song-writers in Ireland. He has so far produced four fine solo albums, his most recent album was ‘Seeing Things’, ‘Sweet Water’, ‘Telegraph’ and ‘Strange Weather’ which was recorded in Woodstock Studios and featured Levon Helm from’ The Band’. Kevin has worked with many of the greats in Irish music, including Henry McCullough, (from Wings), James Delaney (The Van Morrison Band) Arty McGlynn and Altan.
Kevin’s music inhabits a clandestine world where Roots meets Americana, with a tincture of Irish Trad thrown into the mix.
In this film Kevin is accompanied by the virtuoso Conor Brady, who over the last 25 years, has forged a reputation as one of the greatest Irish guitar players and the most sought-after session musician the country. He has played with many of the greatest names in music, among them The Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood, Mary Coughlan, Bono, Shane McGowan and Sinead O’Connor.
This is what Kevin has to say about his songs, ‘Bloomsday’ and ‘Oh My Love’….
‘Bloomsday’ came about as a happy accident. I had begun reading Ulysses and was engrossed by the ‘Calypso’ episode when I happened to visit James Delaney. James was playing around with a Caribbean type melody which was instantly infectious, it mixed with my calypso, knocked on the door of number 7 and I walked back through the city with a song on my hands. The version here recorded is different from that original one which I recorded with Four men and a Dog and more akin to the version I have been performing recently with my friend Ciaran Tourish and recorded on our album Hotel Fiesta.
‘Oh My Love’ is a mix of the here and now and the then and there. Songs have their own unique genesis. In this case the song resulted from a re-reading of Seamus Heaney’s book Seeing Things. One of the early poems in the collection is called ‘The Journey back’ which open’s: “Larkin’s shade surprised me. He quoted Dante” This line opened me and it was nothing more than impishness that suggested the following (as if addressed to Seamus): “Larkin’s shade surprised me too”. My ghost could not however muster Dante rather he took on a more contemporary aspect and was in fact riding for Deliveroo. Now once the image of Philip Larkin on a mountain bike, delivering buddha bowls to Beggars Bush was firmly established there was no going back. It is in effect an insomniac prayer which ‘latches onto the affirmative’ and ends where hope springs, as evidenced in recent referenda here in Ireland.
Kevin’s songs and albums are available to buy on his website www.kevindoherty.ie/kevin_doherty and also on Spotify and CD Baby.
