JOHN HEGARTY - Daydreaming - CD [SEP 20]

CD 

As a songwriter, John Hegarty has made his name with collections of songs written on open-tuned folky guitar with broad, ambitious musical arrangements featuring strings and woodwind on albums like Twilight and Into the Great Unknown.
His latest record, Daydreaming reprieves his trademark classic songwriting style and weaves a rich tapestry of pastoral landscapes, hazy summer days and happy sad memories.

The new songs are written on piano with strong musical narratives that also have the freedom to wonder, that kind of imaginative drift is summed up by the album’s title track “Daydreaming”, an Impressionistic song based on childhood summer days lying in fields of long grass staring at clouds.

The song lifts off with strings that seems to float into the sky and soar back to the ground, backed by a light improvised piano and the expansive, soulful drumming of Dave Hingerty. John plays a mini-grand piano accompanied by a string quartet comprising the talents of violinists, Kenneth Rice and Maria Ryan, viola player, Gawain Usher and cellist, Orlaith Ni Challanain.

With an adventurous song structure and the warm acoustic glow of albums of the early 1970s, Marty Whelan immediately got the song and played it on his show, Marty in the Morning on Lyric FM describing “Daydreaming” as “very fine”.

The albums was recorded in 2023 in The Barn Studio and Twilight Studio in Kilkenny and
produced by Leo Pearson and John Hegarty. String arrangements were written by the talented cellist and songwriter, Mary Barnecutt and John Hegarty, and the project was part funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Daydreaming is Kilkenny based Record label, Rollercoaster Records newest release and reinforces the labels continuing commitment to Independent music with a roster of artists that includes Aborist, Malojian and Dave Murphy.

Tracklist: