WRAPPING UP 2012 with Seamus Fogarty

As December rolls in, time to catch up with some artists who’ve made an impression on me this year, to find out what they themselves made of the last twelve months. First up the nomadic Mr Seamus Fogarty.

As a subscriber to Fence Record’s Chart Ruse EP series, I was offered the extra benefit of purchasing new label signing Seamus Fogarty’s debut LP at a modest discount. I think I only needed to listen to one of the preview tracks available to know this was a done deal (and whilst the discount was a nice ‘thank you’ hardly essential to the transaction). Seamus’s induction into the Fence Records family began with meeting James Yorkston in Kilkenny in early 2009 (as recounted in this Q&A between the two) followed by an appearance at Homegame Festival in Fife that year.

The album “God Damn You Mountain” was released in April this year and I fell almost instantly for its “wayward folky sounds formed on guitar, banjo, fiddle and cello with the added curious spaciness of analog synthesisers, laptop interventions and sea-shell percussion; a mixture the traditional and the experimental, of the DIY and accidental”. I particularly like this from The List: "This is folk music that nods towards Irish tradition but with a dreamy, mesmerising feel all of its own; echoes of Scotland and rural Americana haunting everything... while the stripped-down tracks in the middle display Fogarty’s songwriting chops, it’s the more experimental beginning and ending that really demonstrate an exciting talent".I was then lucky enough to catch Seamus three times this year – supporting James Yorkston in May then at No Direction Home in June and at Green Man in August.

Here’s his take on 2012:

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
That it was the year I released my debut album and there was a lot of sport on TV.

What should be forgotten about 2012...
Ireland's performance at Euro 2012, although I suppose it was nice to be there for a change.

The best gig I played was...
On the main stage at Green Man. It pissed rain all morning, as it tends to do at Green Man, only to stop around 5 minutes before we started to play. I was in no fit state to be playing anywhere but it was unforgettable. [A video of 'The Wind' from the day here]



The best gig I saw was...
Tricky, not the man, the question…a tie between Jonathan Richman at aforementioned Green Man Festival and Hardsparrow at Away Game on Eigg

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
I'm kinda stuck in the past musically (see next question) but I reckon I'll still be listening James Yorkston's new one, “I Was A Cat From A Book”, timeless songs. And Lau's new one “Race The Loser”.

Overlooked in 2012?
I spend most of my time sat in front of my computer listening to Gregorian chant so quite out of touch with the world…I shared a few festival bills with Euros Childs this summer, he's not really overlooked but I can't believe he's not playing bigger venues, a consistently amazing songwriter.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Seamus Fogarty?
I've given myself until Christmas to write and record an EP, its going well, lots of Gregorian Chant. I'm also hoping to take some friends into a nice studio before the summer to record an album. And what else… I'm also doing a big UK tour with aforementioned James Yorkston and The Pictish Trail which I'm really looking forward to, that's happening in March/April time.

An EP influenced by Gregorian chant?! Can’t wait. “God Damn You Mountain” was a vinyl only (with download) physical release. If that put you off, there is a limited CD version in the Fence Shop if you’re quick. And for Londoners you can see Seamus Fogarty this week on Wednesday supporting Colorama before two dates back in Ireland with James Yorkston. Seamus Fogarty live and on record is very different propositions. Whether you get to see him live or not, you should really, really get the album.

Seamus Fogarty - By The Waterside by Fence Records

JAMES YORKSTON @ DEAF INSTITUTE 24 May 2012

Despite the tropical weather earlier the Deaf Institute is quite cool tonight. It’s also a little sparse of audience members as Seamus Fogarty takes to the stage. It’s a shame more weren’t tempted indoors sooner because they missed a treat. I was intrigued to hear how the songs from “God Damn You Mountain” would sound live stripped of the field recordings and unusual, unidentifiable accompaniments on record. Performing seated with just unvarnished acoustic guitar and harmonica, some of songs were uncomplicated folk airs, some were toe-tapping bar-room pleasers like the non-album song from his days playing Chicago bars (“mainly Johnny Cash and Rory Gallagher covers”) and then others like final song ‘The Wind’ captured that haunting, meditative simplicity of his debut album.





He cut an amiable and garrulous figure on the bare stage, cursing himself for overlong tune-ups but also providing some sublime and seductive moments. By the end of his set the Music Hall felt much busier and it was good to see that afterwards large swathes of people were coughing up cash for a copy of that highly recommended album.

I always waiver between whether I prefer seeing James Yorkston solo or with band. I say waiver but probably come down on the side of solo. But playing "Moving Up Country" on its tenth anniversary re-release – surely this dictated a full band? (as in the upcoming shows in Edinburgh and London)? The first ten songs of tonight’s set were a chronological rendition of that 2002 album but that doesn’t do justice to the unfolding journey therein. Just with guitar and harmonica, these slowed down versions of the songs captured their raw emotions but with an added graceful immediacy. I’ve never seen or heard a more engaged audience than the early part of this set. And this was before the emotional journey spread out into the between-song chat. This included farcical tales of stained sheets in B&Bs and punching people on trains, condemnation of David Cameron (“he’s a cunt”) and then joyfully celebrating the imminent conclusion of his three year old daughter’s chemotherapy treatment. These tour tales and deeply personal moments mingled in with the witty asides of ‘Cheating The Game’ or the tense, quivering seven minutes of final album song ‘I Know My Love’.







Seamlessly the set continued – ‘Temptation’ as requested from the crowd, three new songs from this August’s new album "I Was A Cat In A Book" and two more older songs. The emotional swings of the first half of the set continued: the heart-breakingly raw ‘The Fire And The Flame’ about his daughter’s illness drew tears from the singer and left the crowd devastated (no over-statement) but was then followed by a surreal and improvised musical tirade against Bob Dylan, Status Quo and other ropey parts of his older brother’s record collection. This led into an unlikely, unplanned and none-too-serious cover of Motorhead’s ‘The Ace Of Spades’ which then fed into a beautiful rendition of ‘Someplace Simple’.

The emotional depth and range of the evening was beyond compare – from bonhomie and comic asides to raw vulnerability between just two songs was astonishing. I’ve seen James Yorkston many times before but tonight’s gig was one of the best. He’s clearly been through hell but thank God he can still laugh and joke and bawl and cry about it and share these moments. Truly entrancing.





The Set List

In Your Hands
St Patrick
Sweet Jesus
Tender To The Blues
Moving Up Country, Roaring The Gospel
Cheating The Game
I Spy Dogs
6.30 Is Just Way Too Early
Patience Song
I Know My Love
Temptation
Catch
‘Lately I’ve Found I’ve Struggled’
‘The Fire And The Flame’
‘Bob Dylan and Status Quo diss’
Ace Of Spades
Someplace Simple
Steady As She Goes

SEAMUS FOGARTY God Damn You Mountain

County Mayo-born Seamus Fogarty appears to be drawing on particular rural concerns and characters on his debut album: songs about mountains, water, the wind and apple trees plus titles featuring Dinny Phil (and his walking stick) and Rita Jack. But “God Damn You Mountain” never becomes locked to a specific place, country or even single mood - it’s a displaced record creating its own sonic landscape and Fogarty’s neutral even deadpan burr sounds closer to Fife than to Limerick. And Fence Records - headquartered in Cellardyke, Fife - is the faultless home for this release, with its wayward folky sounds formed on guitar, banjo, fiddle and cello with the added curious spaciness of analog synthesisers, laptop interventions and sea-shell percussion; a mixture the traditional and the experimental, of the DIY and accidental with a singular vision.


The elegiac ‘The Wind’ shares the same cathedral-hush baroque sparseness as Smog’s “Red Apple Falls” whereas ‘By The Waterside’, ’The Undertaker’s Daughter’ or the title track have deeper roots with echoes of traditional Irish airs or the pre-war folk-blues of the Harry Smith Anthology but with a distinctly modern crispness (Fogarty cites studio clinicians Tortoise and David Grubbs as inspirations in this interview for The Quietus). ‘By The Waterside’ and others feature some unusual/unidentifiable percussive tics and glitches (‘butter tray’ is cited as one of the instruments on the record) and the opening ‘Appletrees’ hypnotically and deliberately unfolds to the rhythm of what sounds like tightly coiled springs being stroked lovingly – but you’re never quite certain what is being stroked or by what. And at the centre of the album is the disorientating, nine minute ‘Rita Jack’s Lament', a shape-shifting collision of spoken word, finger picked guitar and musique concrète like an Alan Lomax field recording from peat-bog rural Ireland being simultaneously soundtracked by John Fahey and The Orb.

In its closing moments, ‘The Question’ provides a comically bleak and misanthropic moment: “When you’re young you think that life is shit / there must be more, this can’t be it / then the shit becomes your life / taking shelter beneath the trees whilst the rain pissed down on me / this was the question on my mind”. But “God Damn You Mountain” as a whole is an unhurried, life-affirming listen, mixing rough, earthy ruminations with a transcendental other-worldliness. Displaced, nomadic even, but a fine addition to the Fence Collective homestead.





Seamus Fogarty God Damn You Mountain [BUY]