Another leaf on a family tree
Brought up on dirt
An heirloom was handed down to me
Of empty worth

An incapable love
I will never be enough for
A broken star at the window
Left in the dark of the family home

Another storm and the branches break
A river takes them to the sea
Pulled under waves they try to escape
And come upon a shore eventually

Their past lives they drowned
With new roots growing underground
And no history written yet
With no memories to forget
Flowers bloom at the window
As a new life starts to grow
Birds on branches sing
Another new beginning

Another New Beginning

Léirmheas déanta ag Darragh Mac Dónaill ar cheolchoirm speisialta i mBéal Feirste darb ainm ‘Tinteán Féin’ á eagrú ag Brendan Loughran.

Buíochas le Méabh Ní Dhoibhlin as an ghriangraf.

Tinteán Féin - Sraith Ceolcoirmeacha Tí i mBéal Feirste

A Million Love Songs (Take That cover)

There's a video you can see, if you'd like: https://youtu.be/yq6WvelRjPE?si=acpzVVRgGapyE55B

This is the first thing I've put out to do with the EP I'm working on and hoping to have finished shortly, even though this song isn't on there. But it could be, for it's a set of traditional songs that I've pulled together because there are certain thematic things going on across them that I got all excited about when the notion of doing something like that hit me earlier in the year. Eerie sort of supernatural rumble to most of them, and all of them fairly queer in their stew. And at least two of them I first learned from recordings made by Shirley Collins, as with this song here. So this could easily have been part of it all, but it isn't. Nonetheless I've recorded a bunch of different versions of it since the project got going because I love playing the song, and this was one of the first proper takes, recorded back in October. I've since added a few more guitar lines and some of those embellishments I've arrived at because of what I heard going on around me when I've performed this song in recent times with the wonderful folks of the Sailortown Folk Club in Belfast. Some of that stuck and is in there mangled up a bit but not too much mangled up sometimes. Wee nod and a thank you to them ones, anyway, who've made me feel very welcome any time I've passed though, and to whom I'm indebted for some of the pickin' in the pickin' patterns. 

In any case, I hope you like it, and hopefully if you do well then maybe you'll like the EP too, when that appears.

Hares On The Mountain (From The Singing Of Shirley Collins)

The first recorded demo of Cinema, recorded on Ethan's Taylor in my living room, May 24th 2023.

Cinema - a living room demo

Unhappy Halloween from The Smithsfits!  - a parody band in which Misfits songs are done in the style of The Smiths and vice-versa. 

https://www.facebook.com/thesmithsfits/

"I want the Skulls I can't have"  

the sample at the end is from AMHS season 3.  

Concept and art is by Scott Allen at Freaky Tiki Tatoo in Kenner, LA

arrangement and performance by Travis Shuler

The Smithsfits - I Want The Skulls I Can't Have

I dream between two worlds

This circus is dangerous
Too frightful to water
I tip-toe on embers
How do I get outta this place?

A spark neglected can suddenly roar
There are visions in fire
Fuelling desire
I need to get outta this space

I dream between two worlds

Turn and burn
Burn and turn
Turn and burn
Heads up!
Storm clouds starting to churn

The rain don't cool things down
Just makes the heat wet
Sunrise sunset
Living under constant threat
In a state of perma-fret
Always covered in a cold sweat
You hit the ground
Can't make a sound
Someday
You might not come round

I dream between two worlds
Sunrise sunset
I dream between two worlds
While I listen for lightning

Chest is tightening
Knuckles are whitening
I'm duckin'and diving
While... I'm struck by lightning
Chest is tightening
Knuckles are whitening
I'm duckin'and diving
Don't know how I'm surviving

I dream between two worlds

No more laying on of hands
No more laying on of hands
Leave these shadowlands
Cut a dash with a counterflash

I keep moving
But lookin' over my shoulder
I keep moving
While I listen for lightning

Shadowlands

Throw some clothes on and get ready for the party
Call all my friends up to see if they will come with me
No-one answers so I'm heading out on my own
But I'm not worried 'cause I'm guessing nobody is free

I keep falling so I leave it all behind
I'm see-sawing as I go along just for the ride
And I'm crawling as I watch the water swell
Instead of finding higher ground I put my faith into the wishing well

As I'm driving I am turning up the music
Singing as loud as I can through the empty streets
I don't worry 'cause nobody can hear or see
So if I forget the words the meaning's still not lost on me

I keep falling so I leave it all behind
I'm see-sawing as I go along just for the ride
And I'm crawling as I watch the water swell
Instead of finding higher ground I put my faith into the wishing well

My phone has died and I've been heading the wrong way
Lost my direction as I was following the stars
Suddenly the lights are shining down upon me
I don't know what is happening but I have somewhere to be

I keep falling so I'm leaving it behind
I'm see-sawing so I go along just for the ride
And I'm crawling as I watch the water swell
Instead of finding higher ground I put my faith into the wishing well

And something's calling me to open up my mind
I've been tractor-beamed all the way up into the sky
Thought I was falling but in fact I never fell
And now I'm up above the ground I can see down into the wishing well

William Nein - Wishing Well (2025)

Heavenly Blue/Mourning Prayer

The first episode of the Sailortown Folk Club, Belfast. Featuring songs and chats with myself Joshua Burnside, Kate Barry, Mark Loughrey and Jonathan Brennan.

Episode 1 - Pink Whistles and Olaf the King Maker

Northern Irish Alt Folk / Folk Punk Singer-Songwriter.

Hares On The Mountain (From The Singing Of Shirley Collins)

Aaron McMullan

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