Ye Vagabonds Share New Single ‘An Island’ & Announce Irish Tour Dates

May 5, 2022

Ye Vagabonds today share a new single ‘An Island’, taken from their forthcoming album for Rough Trade’s River Lea label, ‘Nine Waves’ which is to be released on May 13^th.

Speaking of the song, Vagabond Diarmuid MacGloinn says “An Island was written in a time of isolation. I sat in the same chair day after day with a guitar, looking out the same window. It was one of the first songs I showed to Brían in March 2021 when we got together to write at his place in Wicklow. I was actually kind of nervous. I didn’t know if it would work. He got me to play it a few times then he took the lyric sheet and played the song back to me with his guitar in a big open tuning. It was wild, hearing it in his voice for the first time. It made sense. It’s funny that, even though we were more cut off from each other than ever, our process was the most collaborative it’s ever been.”

Nine Waves was recorded in the Dublin Mountains at Hellfire Studios, produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy (whose previous work includes records by black midi, Lankum and caroline). The album features 11 tracks of both traditional and original songs and tunes. This new album follows in the wake of the duo’s standalone single I’m A Rover, which won them an RTE Radio One Folk Award for Best Traditional Folk Track. Ye Vagabonds were also named Best Folk Group for the second time at the 2021 ceremony, where they hold the record for most awarded artists.

The brotherly harmonies and multi-instrumental abilities of Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn were joined on Nine Waves by Kate Ellis (cello) and Caimin Gilmore (double bass), both members of the Irish contemporary classical group Crash Ensemble, and Ryan Hargadon (Anna Mieke, Rachael Lavelle, Kojaque) on piano and saxophone. The record also features concertina from Cormac Begley and harmonium from regular touring member of Ye Vagabonds, Alain McFadden.

Pre-order ‘Nine Waves’, the new album from Ye Vagabonds, at https://ffm.to/ninewaves