Raising funds to record a 4 track EP using the Cornish Language, with the International Pan Celtic Song 2023, Oll An Dra as the title track!
THE IDEA
After winning the International Pan Celtic Song Competition in Carlow, Ireland in April 2023 - we are going to be recording a 4 track EP (using the Cornish Language), with the winning song Oll An Dra being the title track.
I have also since been on a Cornish Language Residency to learn the basics of conversation Cornish, and one of the songs from this week will be on this EP.
The tracks will cover political, socioeconomic and philosophical topics, including: general strike, the NHS, Cornish and broader Celtic connections to culture; capturing longing, loss but also the hope and determination of people in 21st Century Britain.
Track Listing:
- Oll An Dra, (Run the Show): the winning song from the competition - capturing the need for a general strike
- Piw A's Dwer? (Who Cares?): written for my Mum, to regonise her life's dedication to working for the NHS, to mark respect for those striking and for all those keeping the service going
- Hireth Rag Caetharlach, (Carlovian): written in memory of our trip in Carlow, Ireland and a sense of feeling at home in a Celtic Nation, a sense of Hireth the Cornish and Welsh word for 'a deep sense of longing and yearning for a place'
- Kartenn Bost, (Postcard) : written during the Cornish Language Residency, giving my perspective of 'What it Means to be Cornish', and my sense of the culture having been born and raised here
THE PLAN
We are going to be recording this EP in February 2024 at Rapunzel Studios in Devon, with George Arnold (who recorded the first EP Darkest Horse).
The band recording will be Alan Pengelly playing accordion (who also plays a big part in the arrangement of the songs), Kevin Brinn on the bouzouki and Jamie Wakeman (both from Cornish Band The Stowes) on banjo. I will be singing the vocals in both Cornish and English, doing the string arrangements, and adding percussion. George will be adding bass and guitar.
I will be using local artist Michelle Mckeown to create the EP artwork and EP booklet with song translations from Cornish to English. Cornish Poet Tim Saunders and Cornish Language specialist Mark Trevethan will be translating the lyrics with me.
We are going to be launching the EP in April, and then touring it through the Spring and Summer of 2024.
This project successfully funded on 11th December 2023