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On the one hand, Patsy Watchorn's present
album is a collection of songs which have been on his list for quite
some time; on the other hand, those songs reflect very much what he
stands for as a balladeer and therefore also gives you a glimpse into
the man behind the legend. From the simple wish to add more songs about
his beloved hometown like "Dublin Town In 1962" to his
repertory, to the fact of being very much aware of today's world and
expressing this awareness in a song like "Hearts On Fire", the
CD blends nicely into a consistent work where every piece fits.
Considering the aforementioned
consciousness of the world we live in, it is no wonder that Patsy picked
"Hearts On Fire" as the title track and a few more songs to
shift the weight of the album to a very contemporary statement about the
state of this world. The beautiful "Hearts On Fire" was written
by Frank Hennessy, one of Wales' most prolific singer/songwriters, a
couple of years ago. But, as you will detect while listening, it has
lost no relevance ever since then - on the contrary! The lyrics are
intense and up-to-date like they had been written weeks ago, inspired by
current headlines in the world news.
In our fast moving times, Patsy has always been careful not to forget
the people and events that shaped Ireland's history through the
centuries. So it is not astonishing that one of the tracks of the album,
"Ann Dev-lin", perfectly fits to the 200th anniversary of
Robert Emmet's execution in 1803. Ann Devlin was servant to Robert
Emmet and loyal to her master and his vision, suffering at Kilmainham
Jail as well. No one lesser than Padraic Pearce said about her:
"Whenever the name of Robert Emmet is mentioned in history let the
name of Ann Devlin never be forgotten."
Between these two corner marks, Patsy
has managed to gather a collection of songs telling about life past and
present, about emigration and memories of childhood, about love found
and lost and about the love for his country.
Note:
You may use these liner notes for any publication of any form without
explicit permission by Rare Auld Times Entertainment; in case you use it
online, please set a link to http://www.patsywatchorn.com Get
the press release as a plain
text file here
(4 paragraphs, 27 lines, 352 words, 1993 characters with blanks (1637 without). In case you use it in print, we'd welcome a sample copy. In
any way, we would like to be informed to put it in our news.
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