"Patrick Kavanagh: Almost Everything..." - Various Artists

Album

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Full Track Listing

Read by Guests:

  • On Raglan Road (read by Bono)
  • Stony Grey Soil (read by Michael D. Higgins)
  • Memory of My Father (read by Liam Neeson)
  • Canal Bank Walk (read by Imelda May)
  • Peace (read by Hozier)
  • Inniskeen Road: July Evening (read by Lisa McGee)
  • In Memory of my Mother (read by Kathleen Watkins)
  • The Hospital (read by Lisa Hannigan)
  • Pegasus (read by Rachael Blackmore)
  • October (read by Christy Moore)
  • Shancoduff (read by Aisling Bea)
  • Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin (read by Evanna Lynch)
  • Extract from ‘The Great Hunger’ (read by Aidan GIllen)
  • A Christmas Childhood (read by Sharon Corr)
  • Epic (read by Jessie Buckley)

Read by Patrick Kavanagh

  • Autobiographical Prose
  • The Same Again
  • Jungle
  • Narcissus and the Women
  • Epic
  • God in Woman
  • Kerr’s Ass
  • Peace
  • The Hospital
  • On the Death of Jim Larkin
  • Extract from ‘The Great Hunger’
  • Living in the Country: Part One
  • Dear Folks
  • Miss Universe
  • About Reason, Maybe
  • To Hell With Commonsense
  • October
  • Come Dance With Kitty Stobling
  • Prelude
  • Having Confessed

Background Information

Patrick Kavanagh released an album of poems in 1964 on Claddagh Records. This album re-releases that 1964 album with an additional disc of guests reading Kavanagh’s poems. Bono is the first artist on the new material, reading “On Raglan Road” for this collection. The poems are set to music recorded by Cormac Butler. For the Bono reading, the poem is read by Bono with backing noises of the waves crashing against the shore.

“On Raglan Road”, the poem that Bono is performing, was made famous when released by The Dubliners on their 1972 album Hometown! and earlier as a B-Side to “Scorn Not His Simplicity”. The poem had originally been published in The Irish Press in 1946 under Kavanagh’s original title “Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away”. The song has been covered by Van Morrison, Ed Sheeran, Sinead O’Connor and many others. This is the first time Bono has covered the song for a release. And it is confirmed that Bono is reading his contribution, and has not contributed a song. The poem is described as an ode to a love affair with a younger woman that had broken Kavanagh’s heart.

The album release was done through Claddagh Records, which released the Kavanagh album initially in 1964. The album is available as a double CD set, or a double vinyl set, and also on digital services, including high resolution versions at 24-bit and 44.1kHz. The album was released on September 23, 2022. The physical copies of the album include a booklet of the poetry featured on the album. James Morrissey, chairman of Claddagh Records shared, “The Irish know Kavanagh but he is not so well known overseas. To reimagine Kavanagh we invited well-known people to read their own favourite poem.

The press release states, “Originally released on Claddagh Records in 1964, the double album also features the only recording of the revered Irish poet reading his most celebrated poems. Now remastered and reimagined this new two-part album features the original recordings and Kavanagh’s poetry read by Bono, Hozier, Imelda May, Liam Neeson, Jessie Buckley, Aidan Gillen, Lisa McGee, Lisa Hannigan, President Michael D. Higgins, Evanna Lynch, Sharon Corr, Kathleen Watkins, Christy Moore, Rachael Blackmore and Aisling Beaset to a truly wonderful music composition. The music on this record is recorded by Cormac Butler, producer extraordinaire, songwriter and mix engineer of Faction Records. Cormac has an extensive and wide-ranging discography from All Tvvins to James Vincent McMorrow to Sorcha Richardson to The Academic to Gavin James and The Coronas. The physical formats of this album include a booklet containing all the poetry one will hear on the album. The vinyl format of this release contains two unique vinyl sleeves. The first hosts a printed collage of sketches of all the celebrated readers around Patrick Kavanagh, with Kavanagh himself visible through the gold-foil cut-out square on the cover itself. The second vinyl sleeve is an exact replica of the original 1964 release.”

The album can be ordered directly via Claddagh Records:

Liner Notes

On Raglan Road:
Vocal: Bono, Producer: Duncan Stewart, Author: Patrick Kavanagh, Composer: Cormac Butler

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