A collection of some of my favorite music on soundcloud.

On Repeat

Music & Lyrics Phil Dale
Guitar & Vocal Finn Eces @finn_eces

Watch the lyric video https://youtu.be/OD9hOQeyims

The true tale of Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant. (1761–1783)
Charles' "gentle, likeable nature inspired an immense public fondness, and his celebrity life was constantly splashed across the newspapers of the day. Byrne's great height was the result of a then-undiscovered growth disorder.
Byrne was living in London at the same time as the pre-eminent surgeon and anatomist John Hunter. Hunter had a reputation for collecting unusual specimens for his private museum, and Hunter had offered to pay Byrne for his corpse. As Byrne's health deteriorated, and knowing that Hunter wanted his body for dissection (a fate reserved at that time for executed criminals) and probable display, Byrne devised a plan. He made express arrangements with friends that when he died his body would be sealed in a lead coffin and taken to the coastal town of Margate and then to a ship for burial at sea. Byrne's wishes were thwarted and his worst fears realised when Hunter arranged for the cadaver to be snatched on its way to Margate."

Bandcamp

The Irish Giant (feat. Finn Eces)

For you was written for my wife to let her know that there is no room for anyone else in my heart except her from the moment we met, through our lives together and until the end of time and into eternity. For you is a promise and a pledge of everlasting love. 

the song was an idea a seed with lyrics, music and a sort of a structure and once again the amazing talent of my Friend Finn Eces has helped to bring this beautiful tune to life with his unique voice and production talents. Finns is a master at capturing the magic of a song and helping to release it's full potential. Thank you once again Finn for your input into FOR YOU . Finn can be found @finn_eces. Hope you enjoy the song 

Written by: Johnny McFarlane 
Guitars: Johnny 
Strings  : Johnny & Finn
Bass, Percussion and other backing: Finn Eces 
Mixing & Production : Finn Eces 
Mastering : Finn Eces

For You ( Featuring Finn Eces )

Dance in the glow of the fire, and let your spirits fly like embers on the wind.

Embers Dance

A Cajun two-step dance tune I'm dedicating to Al Berard, an all-around great Cajun musician who passed on a couple of years ago. I took a week of guitar lessons from Al at Balfa Camp in 2006, near Ville Platte, LA when I was playing in a semi-Cajun band, the Fresneaux Ramblers. Al also wanted to make an album of Cajun music with the mandolin so this is my nod to that unfinished project. On mandolin, guitar, acoustic bass, harmonica, banjo, brushes and the traditional percussion instrument, the triangle. A mudbug is Cajun slang for crawfish.

Mud Bug (for Al Berard)

I've been in awe of Debra Buesking's music for a while, so what a joy and pleasure its been to collaborate with her on this track.  Debra took my simple little composition and dressed it up in the finest of clothes with some beautiful playing.  I was half tempted to release just the piano track!

Composed by Philip Dale & Debra Buesking

https://soundcloud.com/debra_buesking

Aysgarth Falls are located in Yorkshire, England

Photo by Zo Razafindramamba - Unsplash

SONGWHIP

Aysgarth Falls (feat. Debra Buesking)

Does the world need another Raglan Road?  Yes!!  
So happy and proud to have produced this track with Finn and Debra.  One of my favorite Irish ballads, based on the traditional tune The Dawning of the Day, with words by Paddy Kavanagh.

Vocals - @Finn_Eces
Piano - @Debra_Buesking
Whistles - Philleann

Arranged by Debra, Finn & Phil. 
Mixed and Mastered by Phil

Photo by Mojtaba Mosayebzadeh  via unsplash.com

Raglan Road (feat. Finn Eces & Debra Buesking)

William Tyndale 1494 - 1536  Killed as a heretic for translating and printing the Bible into English.

Tyndale's March

So thrilled to have been able to work with the wonderful Suzanne Ledwith @suzanne-ledwith on this song.  What a beautiful and captivating voice!!
I also have to thank Peter @user-264930040 for collaborating with me on the lyrics. He has a masterful way with words, and imbued the lyrics with poetry and life!

The Glimmering Shore

They married in haste on a bright winter’s day 
Knowing the next tide would sail him away 
But he pledged his return come the warmth of the May
 And to wait for him there on the glimmering shore

High masted whaler, fading from view 
Beyond her horizon of shimmering blue 
Steeling her heart, through tearful adieu 
Set to wait for her love by that glimmering shore

May’s softness as swallows came dancing on air 
July blessed her life with his daughter so fair 
Then autumn winds rising, whispering despair 
While she waits for her love on that glimmering shore

Darklings of winter, snow blankets the sand.
 Earth forged to ice, life stripped from the land. 
Daily returning, the horizon to scan 
To wait for her love on that glimmering shore

Weeks swelled to months that folded to years
 Hope’s light expiring, extinguished by fears 
And the salty sea roared and it crashed like her tears
As she waits for her love on that glimmering shore

Like a ship gripped by tempest ne’er to break free
 Her heart imprisoned on a turbulent sea. 
No lighthouse of guidance to lead her to lee. 
She'd wait for her love on that glimmering shore

Vocal - Suzanne Ledwith 
Guitar - Philip Hitt
Lyrics - Philip Dale & Peter Keenan 
Music - Philip Dale

Picture by Lukas Robertson via unsplash.com

The Glimmering Shore (feat. Suzanne Ledwith)

My soundtrack for a Sunrise.  Watch the video https://youtu.be/d4uzsUIdEr8
The calm pre-dawn with its promise of the new day to come is broken by the sun piercing the horizon.  Light streaks across the sky, kissing all it touches with gold.  Mundane objects are transformed into works of art by the beauty of this first light. Then the majesty and power of the suns slow warming ascent. 

...and yes I went there, I used tubular bells!

Photo by Wes Hicks https://unsplash.com/@sickhews

Watch the Video

Hope Shines Forth

Another waltz!   3/4 seems to be my compositional default. 
I was imagining the dance of the Moon and Earth as these celestial bodies twirl around the Sun.

Perigee Moon

This was a tune I posted briefly in the past but was not happy with it.  Just felt it needed something else.  That something else was violin, and with the help of the amazing Tatiana it now feels complete! @rosindust
Photo by Fabrice Villard via unsplash.com

Violin - Tatiana Makarova
Accordion & everything else - Philleann
Composed by Philip Dale

Wintertide (with Rosin Dust)

I'll let you all decide what this one is about.

Recorded in Reason 11 Suite using Reason synths
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Spitfire Abbey Road One & Fragile Strings
Orchestral Tools Baltic Voices

STREAMING LINKS

After the End

Well we have been working on this little number for a while!  
I sent a rough, very basic track to Finn last summer, just some chords really.  @finn_eces weaved his magic, wrote the lyrics, and a song within a song, and sent back this amazing folk-rock opera.  
We spent some time, shooting it back and forth, grappling with it's size, but we finally realised it needed to get bigger or go home.  So we turned to @dairv-dubbleyew and he helped rev it up all the way to 11!!

Music & Production: Finn Eces & Philleann
Electric Guitars: Dairv Dubbeyew
Lyrics: Finn Eces
Mixed: Philleann

Photo by Isaak Alexandre Karslian courtesy of unsplash.com

From a Queen Falls a Crown (Finn Eces, Philleann & Dairv Dubbleyew)

This one is a bit of a glitter fest.  Inspired by the Cinderella story and my 7 year old daughter who loves to play dress up.  
I'm so grateful to Tatiana and her beautiful musicianship, helping again to class up my simple melodies with the warm tones of her bow and fiddle! @rosindust

Illustration by Harry Clarke (1889–1931)

The Glass Slipper (feat. Rosin Dust)

Vocals Oddrun Eikli @oddrun-eikli
Piano  Debra Buesking @debra_buesking
Accordion, Pipes & Whistle Philleann
Mixed and Mastered Phil Dale

Well, how lucky am I !  So thrilled to have been able to collaborate with Oddrun and Debra on this classic folk ballad.  Its always been one of my favorites.  Oddrun's tender vocal really captures the regret of the poem, and Debra's piano arrangement is the perfect companion to that wonderful voice.  I do hope you'll like our folk jazz rendition. 

Oddrun has some nice background info on the song over on her page. Cover design by Debra

Down by the Sally Gardens (with Oddrun Eikli & Debra Buesking)

This is my first collaboration with the very talented Patrick Zelinski @treblemaker who added some sweet guitar work to this track,  it really brought the track to a whole new level!

Partrick Zelinski - Nylon & Electric Guitars
Philleann - Whistle & Everything else.
Mixed by Philip Dale

Photo by Flo Maderebner

Hunters Tor (Philleann & Patrick Zelinski)

I updated this this track with few tweaks and a new mix and master... and a rename too.

Harvest Dance

Harvest Dance (aka better days ahead)

Is it pronounced Athel-flad or Ethel-fled, I'll leave it up to you.  She was the Lady of the Mercians in 900 CE.  Although not crowned as a Queen she was a strong but compassionate ruler according to the historians.

Aethelflaed

Call of the Mountain

I've always loved Leave No Man Behind by Hans Zimmer from his score for the film Black Hawk Down.  Whenever I listened to it, it was just calling out for some pipes to be added.

Its a shame that such a beautiful piece of music is associated with a war film, I'm a pacifist myself, but the idea of leaving no one behind is something that I can fully support.  

This is my little arrangement of the piece.

Written by Hans Zimmer
Performed and Arranged by Philleann

Leave No Man Behind (from "Black Hawk Down")

Leave No Man Behind (from Black Hawk Down)

Here is a new track written with a new collaborator, vocalist Elvya. @elvyadulcimer brings her wonderful heavenly vocals to this Celtic track and Jordi Storm lends his voice on harmony.  We hope Willows Waltz will transport you to a peaceful spring day, laying by a river bank under the gently swaying boughs of a willow tree.

Elvya - Vocals and Harmonies
Philleann - Music and Instruments
Jordi Storm - Harmony Vocal

Written by Philip Dale & Elvya

Willow's Waltz (Philleann & Elvya)

So pleased to have made another track with my friend Michael AKA @finn_eces .  I say made, it is mostly Michael's hard work on display here.  I sent sent some chords and a vague melody idea.  Finn wrote, arranged and produced a beautiful song!

Hey Dad (Finn & Phil)

So happy to be able to share a new track made with the brilliant @debra_buesking

This Scottish inspired Celtic track gets it name from the opening words of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (posted below).  For those unaware, a burn is the Scottish/Northern English word for a small river.  The title also reminds me of the look and feel of  that other Scottish liquid Whiskey!  Have a wee dram while you listen.

Inversnaid

This darksome burn, horseback brown,
His rollrock highroad roaring down,
In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth
Turns and twindles over the broth
Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,
It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.

Degged with dew, dappled with dew
Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,
Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Piano - Debra Buesking
Low Whistles, Uilleann Pipes - Philleann

Darksome Burn (Philleann & Debra Buesking)

So thrilled to be able to collaborate with the amazing cellist Roxane Genot on this track.  When I came up with the music it just felt like a rather solemn wedding march from a far of time. A story of a woman betrothed to a Lord she does not love formed in my head.  I don't know if any of that is conveyed in the music or not, but it was the muse I drew from non-the-less.

The Byzantine Bride

The Byzantine Bride (Philleann & Roxane Genot)

It was so fun to collaborate with @elvyadulcimer on our last track Willows Waltz, and it was a pleasure again to explore her beautiful voice as an instrument in an ensemble piece.  The title Idlewild is borrowed from the irrepressible imagination of Anne of Green Gables, and is fitting I think for a track that seeks to capture a feeling of playful fantasy.

Idlewild

Idlewild (Philleann & Elvya)

A tune that I hope will canter into your ears and rides off with your imagination for a minute or two!

The Knight Errant

I hope you like this whimsical little Rabbit song from @elvyadulcimer and myself.

A Rabbits Tale

A Rabbits Tale (Elvya & Philleann)

Delighted to share this new collaboration with my friend Debra!  
Debra's beautiful arrangement breaths new life into the timeless folk ballad.

Debra Buesking - Piano  @debra_buesking
Philleann - Low Whistle

Scarborough Fair (Debra Buesking & Philleann)

Boudicca, or Boadicea, was a queen of the Iceni who led a revolt against Roman rule in Britain.  She became somewhat of a romanticized figure in British folklore as a result.
I'm joined on this track by violinist Rebecca Rovny.

Boudicca

Boudicca (feat. Rebecca Rovny)

Bit of a Viking thing going on with this track.  

To me, Vinland symbolizes the adventurous spirit of the Norse people, and their seafaring skills.  I wanted to compose an adventurous piece that captured that spirit, and imagined the meeting of two tribes; the Norse and the Native Americans, people who both revered thunder gods! With 'Vinland,' I endeavored to capture and convey that sense of adventure and cultural encounter.

Vinland

Watch on Youtube

blind mary o'mealy c sharp

Photography by:
Myles Tan
https://unsplash.com/@mylestan

When you were just kids,
and swung ever so high,
did you sometimes imagine
you could almost Kick the Sky?

Kick The Sky

This is a celebratory jig I composed in honor of the wonderful Forest Park I'm fortunate to live near.  The tunes name, DarkIing Wood, is taken from a poem by William Cullen Bryant called "A Forest Hymn"

Darkling Wood

BANDCAMP

Oddrun Eikli: Vocals and vocal composition
Torbjørn Vagle: Instrumental composition, piano, keyboards and mix https://soundcloud.com/tobbenv/tracks
POEM OF EMILY BRONTË , May 1838
Photo: Oddrun Eikli 
Cover layout: Vetle Vagle
Mastering: Njål Frode Lie www.nflproduksjoner.

Thank you to each and every one for sharing friendship, music and support,  during this very difficult year 2020.
Warm wishes to you all, and a hope for a better New Year in 2021!

Thank you so much Torbjørn, for this collaboration that gives me such peace in a troubled time.
It`s a JOY to work with you Torbjørn, and thank you also to your son Vetle for his great cover art for our song.
...

POEM OF EMILY BRONTË 

This shall be thy lullaby,
Rocking on the stormy sea;
Though it roar in thunder wild,
Sleep, stilly sleep, thou bright-haired child.

When our shuddering boat was crossing
Eldern's lake so rudely tossing,
Then 'twas first my nursling smiled;
Sleep, softly sleep, my fair-browed child.

Waves above thy cradle break,
Foamy tears are on thy cheek,
Yet the ocean's self grows mild
When it bears my slumbering child.

May 1838
( The photo is taken in Grasmere.  A village  in Cumbria, England, in the centre of the Lake District. In my imagination it`s EMILY BRONTË`s  "Eldern's lake" from the poem :)

Lullaby. Torbjørn Vagle og Oddrun Eikli.

Another collaboration with the amazingly talented violinist @rosindust

Inspired by medieval romanticism, and the tragic tale of Tristan & Isolde this composition is named after the Celt Princess.

Violin - Tatiana Makarova
Whistle, Ullieann Pipes, Accordion - Philleann
Composed by Philip Dale

Lady Islode

Follow Me

Lady Isolde  (feat. Rosin Dust) Remaster 2024

Composer/Producer blending folk melodies with neoclassical vibes, and cinematic verve, my work is a mix of original compositions and contemporary arrangements of traditional tunes.  I hope you enjoy the music! 

Philleann (pronouced PHILLY-ENN) is a mash up of my name Phil and one of the instruments I play, the Uilleann Pipes.  I also play the Whistle and Accordion.

I'm a Brit now residing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I'm also a member of Bellow Bridge a traditional celtic folk band.

Philleann

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