Brigid Mae Power - Dream From The Deep Well (track by track)
Brigid Mae Power takes us through each of the tracks on her fourth album Dream From The Deep Well
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This week is an edited transcript of my TPOE 274 chat with Brigid Mae Power as we went track by track through her fourth studio album, Dream From The Deep Well. She’s got such a great voice, one that draws out emotion from just one word, lingering on it and playing it out in as much time as it deserves. Musically, she gets labelled with a ‘folk’ tag, but like the press release says, it’s the essence of reimagined folk music. You can buy Dream From The Deep Well on Bandcamp. Brigid Mae Power also begins her tour TONIGHT in England.
Brigid Mae Power tour dates
September 22: Brewery Arts, Kendal
September 23: Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek
September 24: Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
September 25: Moth Club, London
September 26: Norwich Arts Centre
October 5: Whelan’s, Dublin
October 6: The Chapel, Griffith College, Cork
October 22: Roisin Dubh, Galway
Listen to Dream From The Deep Well here
Listen to the full interview with Brigid Mae Power on episode 274 of the TPOE podcast. (Just search for ‘The Point of Everything’ wherever you get your pods to subscribe)
I Know Who Is Sick
Let's go through Dream from the Deep Well track by track and we'll talk about the various bits and pieces that go with it. You start off with a cover, 'I Know Who is Sick', by the Clancy Brothers - I think; I mean, is that the version that you heard originally, the Clancy Brothers?
No and I haven't heard that version. There's a version by Peg Clancy Power. I think she is a Clancy, or she's married to a Clancy, I can never remember. My version is heavily influenced by her one. Her one's just her singing unaccompanied, but it has that strange little melody. Someone only told me the other day she sings a version that is different as well but for some reason, the main one, if you put it on, it will come up. It's similar to my one, the version I did. It's just really got an unusual - I just think the line "I know who is sick" is just really weird.
I think I heard two different versions this morning, just while I was like, 'let's see if I can find this track'. One is kind of very diddly-eye kind of music and then it was the Clancy Brothers' song. And then yours sounds, I don't know, of a different era almost. Is that what you wanted, something that sounds like it's from the 50s or 60s rather than something that was made in 2022?
I think that's probably because they're recorded on my four-track cassette. That instantly just made it really old and spooky sounding. I did that in like 15 minutes. Basically, I had the album [done] and I just felt like it was missing something. And so I'd been singing that song in the car and I was just like, 'I'll just give that a go'. And I plugged in my mellotron and just recorded that directly into the cassette recorder and that just sounded so weird. It already just had a weird little vibe. And yeah, it's just the really lofi of the cassette that makes it sound really old.
Counting Down
This seems like a song that's about being a mother - maybe one of the themes of the album and the various fears that come with it? Am I right in thinking along those lines?
Yes. It's a very, very simple, obvious song. It's a bit about being a mother - just with touring and everything. I think I was just feeling confused about the lifestyle of music and having your friends all scattered over the globe. And looking for kind of a home, feeling settled somewhere, but it's hard to do when you travel for a year for your work. But yeah, also just that it's really hard to leave a kid, but it's also hard to bring them with [you[] once they're in a school system. It's a very simple song; it just came up in a bit of a splurge of how I was feeling at the time. Whether I be a mother or not, actually, probably, it's just hard to fit the music life into a normal - like, all the other stuff you have to do.
You've got a line in 'Counting Down' - "I'm considering a new career, but all I can do is play music by ear," which seems like that very Irish thing of like, it's quite a funny line, but I'm guessing that there's also real pathos and real stuff behind it, as well?
I'm glad you got the humour in that because recently, I read somewhere, someone saying that I was, like, selling myself short. And I was like, 'No, I was just joking'. But it is a half truth. It's what I can do the best.
Maybe It’s Just Lightning
It sounds like there's quite a big story behind this. Do you want to talk about that?
It's semi-autobiographical, inspired by different women I'd met, and thinking about all the different things that women go through. Not just mothers, but you know... There's so many mothers and women out there who have been left doing a lot of invisible work, just a lot of stuff that isn't valued by our world. But it takes a lot of work and a lot of energy. And we are all dependent on all this, this work that women do. I guess it was inspired just thinking of my own life and then other single mothers' lives that I've met over the years. But also I had this woman from Ukraine and her daughter come to stay with me last year. I just was in awe of the mother. She was still helping me out, though she'd just gone through such trauma. And then on top of that, you're helping a child or a teenager with the trauma from war, but her herself as well. It's such a lot to carry. So yeah, I was thinking and writing about women who aren't recognised, but go through a lot.
I Must Have Been Blind
This is a cover of a Tim Buckley song. Is this like on your covers EP Burning Your Light, where you covered Dylan and Aretha and others - you're just a big fan and you're like, let's see what I can do with this one?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I love Tim Buckley. I probably covered him too much at this point. I love the way he sings. There's something really resonant, for me, about how he sings. It's almost like he's singing the melody. I always imagined it like the melody's this big moving line and then the words are going around the melody, whereas some people sing, it's very focused on the words. And they'll put the words in tune, but he's got the tune. I dunno if that makes any sense. But I just love his way of singing. So yeah, I'm just a huge Tim Buckley fan.
The Waterford Song
This seems like it's another side of family. It's about your grandfather and where he's from.
Yeah, well, my dad's from Waterford. So yeah, one half of my family, the Power - everyone in Waterford's Power - they're from Waterford. I spent a lot of time down there last year, and then I was at All Together Now festival. It's such a beautiful place, and there's all these trees. I didn't realise this, but my auntie was saying that my granddad actually planted all those trees that overlook that estate. He worked with the forestry in Waterford and planted most of those trees. I just thought that was really cool. I never met him or anything. It's more like a bit of an ode to the rural Waterford where my family are from. I just think it's beautiful down there.
Ashling
Ashling is kind of the centrepiece of the album. I'm presuming that's kind of intentional as well. It's about Ashling Murphy, the young teacher from Tullamore, who was killed while out for a run last year. Tell me maybe about the idea for a song, how it came to you. Was it almost like an instant reaction to that awful incident? Or was it something that you just couldn't shake, thinking about it and you needed to almost like get it off your chest?
How it came about is that I had that guitar melody and I had the singing melody of the song all written. I just didn't have the words. But I was in London for the week because my granny was passing away sort of thing. There was a vigil for Ashling Murphy in Camden while I was over there, so I went to that. I wasn't really expecting it, but there was so many people, so many Irish emigrants, and then also not Irish people as well, just all there. It was just so moving. So it's literally just written about the experience of being at that. I just came back and I wrote it, and I was just so upset, and I was just so moved. My granny died at that exact time while I was there as well. The whole thing, I was just thinking about - you just saw women from all walks of life out there, crying. It was just such a moving experience. It's a sensitive thing to write about something like that so... I figured out the best way to approach it is just to write about my first-hand experience at the vigil... I just wanted to express how I felt paying my respects. I didn't want to focus on the awful event, out of, respect.
I’ll Wait Outside For You
This is a really lovely Americana-type song. Do you want to talk about the other musicians who are on the album? I'm presuming that there's a good few involved?
Yeah, so 'I'll Wait Outside For You especially, that has a great pedal steel player called Hamilton Belk. David Allred is on trumpet on that one, or just in general anyway. The musicians who contributed to the whole album are: Peter Broderick plays violin and helped mix the record. He does drums as well, bass, a bit of synth - a good few things, David Allred plays trumpet. Hamilton Belk plays the pedal steel. An old friend called Daniel O'Sullivan, he added a tiny bit of piano on 'Maybe It's Just Lightning' and some psychedelic sounds throughout. Conor O'Brien does some flugelhorn. I think that's everyone. But on 'I'll Wait Outside For You', we just recorded the live tracks, me and Peter, in the studio in Glasgow and then we added things afterwards. We sent that track to Hamilton over in America. It just came about really easy. We kept the setup simple. It was great to work like that. That song is funny. I kind of curse the day I wrote it because it's just a bit too long and I never remember the the verses. So I'm in rehearsals now and we haven't been able to get through it once without me messing it up.
Dream From the Deep Well
The title track. Where did it come from - does it mean something to you?
I guess I had the song first and then I named the album after that song. It's funny, because when I wrote that; now I'm just realising it's kind of about someone specific but I didn't realise that really when I wrote it. But it was more like a reaction to the superficiality that has kind of become the norm with a lot of things. I remember seeing that shift, like in the 2000s, where it became a bit more normalised to, rather than doing the thing, be seen doing the thing was enough. And now Instagram or whatever, like politics, everything, it's like sometimes people are aiming just to look like they're, you know, 'peace and 'love' or whatever, insert anything, rather than being it and living it. And it's a reminder to myself as well to go deeper, like to dream and think about things deeper rather than just a very selfish way of living and life. And like me, me, me, me, me - a lot of stuff I see is very like that.
I Don’t Know Your Story
I love the second half of this song, as the music stops and nature and the sounds of birds come in and then the piano starts up again. Was this a fun one to write? Or was the creation of it quite enjoyable?
Yeah it was because I have never really done something like that before from my own idea. I recorded these birds when I was in Malaga... There were just these insane birds so I just stood and recording them for a bit and I always had in my mind that I would maybe add it. So those were two piano parts but I wasn't sure how to bridge them together. So I just kind of put the birds in the middle. Again that's a song that's about something and someone very specific, but I won't really say it out of respect, but I was kind of thinking of someone who had taken their life. So I kind of saw that the end bit was like the peace that you hope someone's at, at least over their struggle,
Some Life You’ve Known
This seems like another family-focused song. It starts with accordion or mellotron?
My accordion, yeah… It's just about someone I love dearly and I just had had a dream. and then I wrote a bit of the dream down. Just feeling grateful for certain family members, and feeling inspired by them. And yeah, just caring about people.
Down by the Glenside
We talked about this earlier - it's your granny's favourite song, it's an Irish republican song from the 1920s but you don't dwell on the politics.
I mean, it’s a hundred years ago. It's funny because it's come up more maybe in the English interviews, they've been like, 'Why are you doing that?' God, like it's 100 years ago.
I think it's just that people see the word 'republican' now and it almost has certain connotations…
I haven't heard any other version, but my granny, who that’s about - I only know her version. I just know it from family. My granny is from Sligo, but her dad is from Ballina. She emigrated to London when she was 16. Her father, my great-grandfather, he was in the old IRA and he was banned from working - oh, I don't remember the details, but when it became the Free State or whatever, he wasn't allowed work in Ireland. So then he had to work in England. She went there when she was 16. He was in jail in Galway and in Mountjoy, for being a messenger when he was 14. When she moved to England, she didn't want any association with that kind of thing. But when I was visiting her, she would always sing that song, and we would have sing-songs and stuff. But when I was visiting her in the home, she had really bad Alzheimer's and she's in her 90s. But she was singing that song at the top of her voice in a very English nursing home. And then she was singing all these other old rebel songs that nobody even recognised them.
I guess it shows the power of music, doesn't it? Like she has Alzheimer's but the songs still shine through. That's great.
Yeah. I mean, it's a different time. Her parents would have horror stories from the Black and Tans and stuff, so they're coming from that perspective. It's nothing to do with now. It's a historical moment. I just really like the song as well.