The last album release from Irish singer and songwriter Peter Doran was in 2014 with his mellow sounding Outlines. On that album, and indeeed on the one before, electric guitar and lap steel was provided by fellow Mullingar resident Brian Murphy.
The good news is that in the intervening two years that partnership has taken on a greater focus with Murphy, who has also been busy working on his own project ‘Arrow in the Sky’ and playing guitar for the band Cronin, co-writting the material for a new project called The Great Trade. Watch them performing their new song Blackberry Wine below (also our Song of the Day), a song inspired by a book about the life of Billie Holiday. It was filmed with the help of Mark Bennett and Darragh Glennon at Kilbeggan Distillery.
Talking about the new joint-project Doran explained:
The first beginnings of this project came when we were on tour in the UK and Holland in 2013. We were both looking for a way to play some shows outside of Ireland and somehow this tour came together. The entire tour lasted about three weeks I think and in that time we spent a lot of time together in vans, trains, hotel rooms, back stage areas and coffee shops. So much of being on tour involves waiting. You’re always waiting for the show to start it seems. Hurry up and wait. We filled these spaces with chatter and dreamings and wandering conversations. Out of some of these conversations came songs, or the beginnings of songs, the outlines of ideas.
It was interesting to be kicking around song and melody ideas with another human being for a change. It was exciting and had a speed and energy that I don’t often encounter when working on my own. This was the first signs of something coming together. There was a feeling, still is, that we could write some good songs together and more importantly enjoy challenging each other to write well.
We hope to be seeing more fruits of this partnership soon.