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Mary
McPartlan's
second CD, entitled Petticoat Loose, was
officially launched on February 21, 2008 in the
Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin.
Mary will announce details of her upcoming Petticoat
Loose tour shortly.
Petticoat
Loose
The
latest offering from Mary McPartlan, Petticoat
Loose, was launched on February 21 in the
Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin.
Petticoat
Loose
has been a developmental idea over a period of
two years. The essence of the album is a series
of collaborations where the material now represents
50% of the work. It represents my close associations
with many high profile artists in the traditional
music world, my work in the National University
of Ireland Galway, my lifelong friendship with
Vincent Woods and my ongoing musical collaboration
with Seamie O'Dowd.
The
songs written by poet, playwright and broadcaster
Vincent Woods are testament and fact to our shared
history growing up in Leitrim:
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Sanctuary tells of the childhood growing
up in the townland of Comhalth. The only employment
at a certain time was in the mines of Arigna and
the vision of my father and young brother heading
off on dark winter mornings.
Kiss the Moon is a very personal song,
deeply moving based on a true story of my mother's
lonliness living on the top of a mountain, when
one night when I was three years old I asked her
to lift me up to kiss the moon.
Ultimately Vincent's writing is the language of
beauty and hope. Vincent's third song and the
title track of the CD Petticoat Loose comes
from a book entitled The Blessed and the Damned
by Dr Anne O'Connor. Dr O'Connor, in her book
introduces Petticoat Loose as a very wild woman
who gets up to some dastardly deeds in the region
of Tipperary and Waterford. She was sometimes
presented terrifyingly in children's folklore.
I was specifically attracted to a story of Petticoat
Loose because she represents a whole series of
ghostly tales one of which was about a woman called
Mary Hannigan. It is said Mary Hannigan was a
strong-willed woman who preferred dancing and
drinking and the company of a travelling fiddler
to the company of her husband. When her husband
drowned mysteriously she opened a Sibín and continued
to dance and drink while the people of the town
went to mass. Unconventional that she was she
was despised by the priests and church and was
given to much drinking and dancing so much so
that her petticoat would fall down hence the name
'Petticoat Loose'. There is a great folklore around
Tipperary, Waterford and Limerick attached to
the stories of Petticoat Loose and thus the inspiration
behind the song and title.
There is also a piping tune called Petticoat
Loose which was given to me by the great piper
Mickey Dunne.
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This CD also contains two very special pieces
of collected song from the area of Drumkeerin,
where I grew up. These songs were researched and
collected in a Masters dissertation completed
by Stiofán Ó'Cheilleachair in 1950. He collected
any remaining Irish from the area and gathered
a great deal of music including songs, stories
and sayings from Aodh Mac Conshnámha.
I chose two pieces, which depicted a devastated
region in famine times in Ireland with a local
dialect. The songs were a means of bringing me
closer to my ancestors, with the help of new beautiful
melodies especially written by Brendan O'Regan.
Another original piece on the CD is a song called
Cúmha (Translated means Parting Sorrow),
written with words and lyrics by Pádraig Ó hÁoláin.
Cúmha is an extraordinary, vivid and heartfelt
song depicting a history of immigration in Connemara
in the 1970s and 1980s,which was also a wider
expression of immigration in the West of Ireland
at this time. The song tells the story of the
departure from the sea, the land and life as they
knew it and into the dark factories where life
stopped for them and finally exit from Ireland.
Impeccably translated into English by Tim Dennehy
from County Kerry, Cúmha tells the story of a
situation which affected a large number of families
in most households in the West of Ireland though
its central theme has a universal impact for many
people. Other tracks on the CD are deeply personal
in their lyrics and are autobiographical, representing
my life up to the present day in their poetic
and political expression.
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Some
of the songs include Barbara Allen (dedicated
to the memory of Tom Munnelly), Victor Yara
and Lowlands.
The Crafting and development of the songs musically
comes from my collaborations with ConTempo (the
Romanian string quartet at NUIG), the Orbsen Choir
(NUIG), with great musicians and friends Mairtín
O'Connor, Brendan O'Regan, Gary O'Briain, Frankie
Gavin, Cathal Hayden, Eddie Lynch and ultimately
with my musical director Seamie O'Dowd (multi-instrumentalist).
The voices of the women who sing with me whether
it is on Barbara Allen or The Sisters of Mercy
are warm and full of empathy for the songs not
to mention their beautiful voices in harmony on
both of these two songs. I gratefully acknowledge
the Deis award from the Arts Council and thank
them for their support.
The
tracks on the CD are:
Sanctury,
Síos faoi braoch, Loch Aileann, Generous
lover, Kiss the Moon, Barbara Allen, Wild Mountain
Side, Cúmha (a parting sorrow), Sisters
of Mercy, Caoine Sheáin Mhic Searraigh,
Petticoat Loose, Lumé Lumé (Romania),
Victor Yara Lowlands Away.
See
media
section for the Petticoat Loose press release
and CD cover image.
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The
Holland Handkerchief, the album, has been
warmly welcomed by critics and public alike, both
in Ireland and in Britain and is distributed by
the prestigious labels RMG in Ireland and Proper
in the UK. It is available from all good record
shops as well as online through the Dervish
on-line store.
The
CD The
Holland Handkerchief was nominated in
the Irish Meteor Awards in the Traditional Folk
section. Other nominees in the category are Planxty
and Kila. The Meteor Awards take place in the
Point Depot on February 24th 2005 and Televised
by RTE. Other nominees include Bell x, EMINEM
and Bic Runga. A British tour will take place
in the summer 2005.
The
Holland Handkerchief was voted #1 Folk album in
MOJO magazine. It continues to get airplay all
around the UK.
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Biography
Mary McPartlan is one of the most talented
singers to come out of the Irish scene in recent
years. Born in Drumkeeran, Co. Leitrim and now
living in Galway, she started singing in the early
70s but it wasn't until 2003 that she decided
to make music her full time career.
She has been working for the last 12 years in
the arts and entertainment industry, having been
producer and director of many music and theatre
projects. She developed the concept of the TG4
National Traditional Music Awards, and was co-producer
of the award-winning music series FLOSC, also
for TG4. She is founding member and the producer
of the Galway-based theatre company Skehana. Mary,
however, didn't come out of the shadows until
January 2004 when she released the critically-acclaimed
album The
Holland Handkerchief.
The release of her new single Rainy Night in
Soho on July 15 2004 coincided with the launch
of her new website www.marymcpartlan.com.
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Pictured
in Galway... Mary McPartlan with Shane MacGowan.
Mary's new single Rainy night in Soho
was written by MacGowan.
pic: Mike Shaughnessy
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The
single Rainy Night in Soho, written by
Shane MacGowan, receives a superb treatment. Mary
produces here a radical transformation of this
song about life, love and moving on and makes
of it one of the most surprising covers of modern
music in recent times. It has received widespread
critical acclaim both in Ireland and Great Britain.
The dramatic poem and title track of the album
'The Holland Handkerchief' is also included in
the single.
Mary appeared at the Galway
Arts Festival on Monday the 19th 2004 at The
Warwick Hotel which was also the official launch
of both her new single Rainy Night in Soho
and her web site. In Galway, Mary was accompanied
on stage by a hugely talented bunch of musicians
who took part in the recording of the album 'The
Holland Handkerchief'. The line up included
Seamie O'Dowd, Liam Kelly and Tom Morrow (members
of Dervish), Eddie Lynch and Danny Byrt and featured
the legendary accordionist Mairtín
O'Connor as a special guest.
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Pictured
with her band... Mary McPartlan with Eddie
Lynch and Seamie O'Dowd.
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Tour
dates
2008
tour dates coming soon
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Contact
You can contact Mary directly at macpproductions@eircom.net.
Tel: +353 (91) 591456 or +353 (0) 87 2206629 or
Mary's London publicist, Alan O'Leary (Copperplate)
at +00 44 2075850357.
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