Described as “one of Ireland’s most exceptional musicians” by the Irish Times, Patrick O’Laoghaire is releasing his beautiful new single ‘Teddy’s Song ’ on Thursday, 24th November 2022 – his first new music to be released under his I Have A Tribe moniker since his acclaimed debut album.
The release of ‘Teddy’s Song’ comes on foot of O’Laoghaire having joined Grammy Award winning brass player CARM to open for Bon Iver at London’s Wembley Arena and Dublin’s Three Arena in October, and supporting Villagers earlier in November. The single features Patrick O’Laoghaire on vocals and piano, Conor O’Brien (Villagers) on trumpet, Oisín Walsh-Peelo on harp, Caimin Gilmore on bass and Dominic Mullan on drums.
On ‘Teddy’s Song’, these world-class musicians alchemise their individual instruments, resulting in music that is all at once accessible and transcendental. There is an instinctive intimacy to O’Laoghaire’s relationship with music, prompting fellow musician Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers) to remark: “I feel a sense of commitment from him that goes beyond entertainment. There is an elemental and an ancestral nature to his work” .
O’Laoghaire lives in the west of Ireland, with his partner, and his dog, Teddy, who features regularly in I Have a Tribe music videos. O’Laoghaire names the dog as one of his “most important teachers” given that “the dog’s only concern is what is happening exactly at this moment. Mostly he is concerned with playing and responding.”
“I feel a strong sense that we know when to put up a hand / I feel a strong sense that we know when we went to the top of the land,” he sings on ‘Teddy’s Song’.
‘Teddy’s Song’ is thematically about a sense of togetherness. O’Laoghaire says: “Teddy is my uncle who was very handsome and very gentle and very loved. He had working sheepdogs called Cap and Prince and Sylvie and they always listened to him. Teddy is also the name of my dog, a sheepdog who wandered in the gate one day and stayed. He had that name already, when he arrived. He is very handsome and very loved and he never listens. The dog lives his own way and I learn a lot from the dog. Sometimes he looks at me very deeply for a long time and I wonder if he knows that he’s the teacher and I’m the student. I asked him this once, and he went and got a stick and told me to throw it.”
The single is accompanied by a music video filmed and directed by Emilija Jefremova that takes in the coastal landscape of Co. Mayo from the perspective of Louisburgh, where Patrick brings the eponymous Teddy every morning.
