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‘The Emigrants’ Blues’ – New Single from Tommy Keyes

August 19, 2021

‘The Emigrants’ Blues’ is the new single from veteran singer-songwriter Tommy Keyes, officially releasing on 26 August but available for immediate airplay.  It’s the third single from the forthcoming album ‘Radio Days’ – the first two singles, ‘Any Other World’ and ‘Radio Days’ both made no 1 in the iTunes singer-songwriter charts and got hundreds of radio plays.

‘The Emigrants’ Blues’ has a strong folk influence in both style and subject matter.  According to Jackie Hayden of Hot Press, “the banjofied, folksy ‘The Emigrants’ Blues’ evokes the gutsy honesty of Luke Kelly and the harmonica adds a touch of St Bob.”

The song evokes the hard lives of the Irishmen who worked on construction sites throughout the world in the 20th century, their “days filled with sweat and nights filled with booze”.

Its waltz-like rhythm and memorable chorus make this an ideal song for radio play.

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