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Roy Buckley to Release Pete St John Original

March 29, 2021

No less a musical giant than the legendary Pete St John has written a song called ‘Tara Tansey (Ram Dee Da)’ and called upon Cork performer Roy Buckley to sing it, the single will be released on all platforms this Friday, April 2nd, 2021.

What’s more, the man who penned all time classics ‘The Fields Of Athenry’, ‘Dublin In The Rare Old Times’, and many others, personally requested that Buckley would perform the song.

They first met in 2015, when Roy Buckley attended a special showcase gig dedicated to Pete St John’s work in Dublin, not long afterwards, he asked Roy to perform ‘Tara Tansey’.

Roy’s last two releases, ‘Devil Rose’ & ‘Dark Rosaleen’ both went to No.1, while ‘The Old Man On Patrick’s Street’ went before GRAMMY Award judges in two categories.

On being asked by one of the all-time greats to sing his song, Roy Buckley says, “that’s an incredible thrill. I’ve admired the work of Pete St. John since I got my first guitar as a small boy.

Pete St John himself has spoken of Roy Buckley as “a Master Balladeer” predicting that when the single is released this Easter it will be an instant winner with Irish audiences the world over.

So, who was Tara Tansey?

Pete explains the backstory: “She was a young, beautiful, red haired girl, part of the insurgent garrison during the 1916 Easter Rising. She worked with the medics to help the wounded.

As the story goes, when Pádraig Pearse stepped out to read the Proclamation, the sound of a fiddle could be heard coming from inside the GPO.” The fiddle player was Tara Tansey!

And what of “Ram Dee Da”?

Well, Roy Buckley explains, “that comes from Pete’s deep love of the Irish language. It stands for “Rud Álainn Macánta – Draíocht Eolas Éireann – Dóchas Arís.

Translated to English it means “Something beautiful and honest – The magic intellect of Ireland – Hope again”.

Roy Buckley is a singer, songwriter, musician, entertainer & recording artist from Cork City, Ireland. 

Since childhood he has “collected” Irish music & song, and in 2012 established the hugely successful “Song Collector Sessions” concert series, with fifty concerts under his belt in that time.

Guests at the concerts have included Aslan’s Christy Dignam, Bagatelle’s Liam Reilly, Stocktons Wing’s Mike Hanrahan and international song writing legend Phil Coulter to name a few.

The concerts also led to a podcast, interviews with leading lights in Irish music, the “Song Collector Podcast” is available on all platforms.

Internationally, Roy Buckley spends several months of the year touring and performing at festivals and events all over the world. He looks forward to touring again when the Covid-19 pandemic is at an end.

‘Tara Tansey (Ram Dee Da)’ was recorded with the late Lawrence White at Wood Street studio in Cork, and finished at Kitten Lane studios in Cork, under the watchful eye of Aidan O’ Mahony and Keith Clancy.

A host of top class musicians contributed, and the finished track was mastered by GRAMMY Award winner Adam Ayan in the USA. It is scheduled for release on all platforms on Friday, April 2nd, 2021.

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