#269
In Their Thousands – Woodcutter (In Session)
Tuesday 1st March 2016
They Say: "My Granda built boats and was a fisherman for all of his life. Some of the trawlers he built are not only floating, but fishing daily with a crew of men employed to this day. There's a lot of history, culture, and stories there. Like relics or monuments that are hidden and disguised inside everyday life.
To a lot of people a piece of wood is just wood. Designed to do a job. Other people see it as art. It's not lost on me that I ended up with timber in my hands too - when I'm at work holding a guitar. There's a Seamus Heaney 'Digging' notion there somewhere.
There's more to the song than the man and woman love story, the loss, and the grief for me. These emotions happen with other things too. Ideas, dreams, desires, hopes, feelings etcetera, and when they stop, they often leave a hole. Filling that void with a creation of some sort is surely a victory of sorts?
These thoughts cased in memories of where and how I grew up are what wrote the song. There's no bells and whistles or intrusive repetitive melodic hooks in the first 30 seconds but it's honest and simple. In that way I guess it represents my romantic idea of rural life.”
We Say: “Donegal’s In Their Thousands have stripped down a little for the new single - and subsequently their session was notably gentle. But the charm, the lyrical intrigue, the essence of deepest, darkest Donegal and the earworm melodies were present and correct.”
Two of the band’s three members - Ruairi Friel and Declan Mc Clafferty performed in a stripped down acoustic session for us & the band will play Whelan’s, Dublin on 9th March.
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