“I originally intended ‘Love in these Times’ to be a 15 song album but was reliably informed that you can’t get that much music onto 2 sides of vinyl which is how I primarily wanted to release it! Who knew? Lots of people apparently… So I then briefly toyed with the idea of a double album but in the end had to make the difficult decision to leave these 4 songs to another time. Now on the 1st anniversary of the albums release it seems like the perfect moment to put the remaining songs out as a kind of bonus EP and finally complete the set. These 4 songs are very much part of the albums vision musically and thematically.

‘Together’ was written as a kind of promissory note as I waited for the birth of my first daughter and features Dave Carmody, ex French Horn player with the National Concert Orchestra and Ray Martin on Flugelhorn and Piccolo trumpet solo. The solo was scored by Fintan Jones and Fintan and Ray also added brass to ‘Under Winter Skies’ and ’Not Coming Back in my World’.

The piano on ‘Not Coming Back in My World’ was played by Derek Cronin. Derek played keyboards with Jack L, In Tua Nua, lectured in BIM and was a pillar of generosity and wisdom in the Irish musical community. The two of us recorded this live together on a beautiful sunny, summer afternoon in my apartment with the windows wide open. A vivid memory and song that has taken on a whole new meaning with his sudden passing in February of this year.

I’m excited to present the natural follow up to ‘Love in these Times’…”