Dublin Opinion

Haven’t posted much up here recently - the wi-fi signal up my own arse isn’t the strongest, I suppose. Probably also due to the fact I should be looking for a job - but I’m miserably failing in that endeavour too. So what better way to melt away the blues than a bit of well-crafted folk. To this end, I’ve come across two criminally-neglected artists from back there that I will attempt to bring to your attention forthwith.

First we’re off to Cork - home to Ger Wolfe who has been plying his trade for the last 10 years or so. Last time I was home in Dublin (April), I could have caught up with him and his New Skylarks band in the Cobblestone but instead chose to listen to another great Cork singer of a previous generation (John Lyons, in the Goilín club on the same night). I note that GW got a more than favourable mention a while back from yet another great Cork singer, Cathal Coughlan, on the latter’s website. Ger is currently on his fourth album and from the evidence of his Myspace site Ger Wolfe Myspace , is one of the country’s most accomplished songwriters. I particularly like the singing in his own native accent and the magical ‘universal in the particular’ of ‘The Curra Road’. Ger also has his own site Ger Wolfe Homepage . However, attempts to find him on YouTube will only come up with a poorly recorded soundcheck version of an early song and some sort of bizarre satellite link-up to space..

Which brings us to Pat Barrett. I should declare my vested interest here - I was once the short-lived singer in a sort of ‘garage’ band (that practised in a converted pigeon loft rather than a garage) in which Pat was the bassist.

I had sort of lost track of Pat when he was a member of Ten Speed Racer shortly after I left Ireland. I was therefore fairly chuffed to come across his Myspace site (a good bit down the Google pecking order from various sites dedicated to a wrestler blessed with the same name) Pat Barrett - the Singer not the Wrestler. Pat is the same age as me, or possibly a year older - but he has clearly distilled his influences far better than I have. Mine have ended up a bit like homebrew dregs the morning after but Pats’ make for a far more palatable mix - just listen to his MySpace tracks if you need proof (or to the album mentioned in passing on the same site).
Am also glad to notice that Pat is finally in a group with a decent name - ‘The Hedge Schools’ - sure beats the hell out of ‘the Wrycatchers’, Pat ! As I recall, we attended the same hedge school, well, it would have been a hedge, were it not for those pesky knacker-drinking pre-teens with arsonist tendencies that left it horribly charred each and every weekend.

In the Irish song tradition, the ‘hedge school’ songs are those slightly awkward ones that aren’t quite traditional and betray the (half)learned author behind clumsily trying to show off his erudition. Pat’s songs are just good folk songs and the name is just a bloody good name.
End of story.
I just hope that you lot will go out and listen to him the next time he’s up on stage with a few heads in immaculate jerseys.

Oh, and did I mention Appolo’s chariot ???