Performed and arranged by Aaron McMullan, written by Johnny Marr and Morrissey.

The most recent of the covers I've been toying about with as I've been pulling the next set of my own songs together. Obviously there's a deep uneasiness that comes with engaging with The Smiths in 2021, knowing now what we know about Morrissey's politics, knowing that people were right when they told us that his empathy only extended so far, knowing that all the time we spent defending this particularly "difficult" song or that particularly problematic outburst was time spent setting ourselves up for a colossal kicking down the line, but to the me that those songs meant so much to when I needed them, they still mean what they meant. What they mean to this me, in the present, I'm not so sure. Lots of Smiths songs are about feeling that one cannot return home, that "home" has been emptied of meaning, that home isn't ours any more. Given how much like "home" these songs once felt, I suppose it's entirely fitting that Morrissey has since made any return to them as they once existed absolutely impossible. They're still there, the songs, you can still hear them, but they're not the same. You can wander in and around them, you can brush with your fingers the edges of things, and those things might yet gesture towards the home that those songs used to be, but really those gestures only reinforce the feeling that whatever they were before, those songs, they're not that now.

Reel Around The Fountain (Smiths Cover)

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)

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.

Reel Around The Fountain (Smiths Cover)

Aaron McMullan

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