Anyone that heard or saw the accompanying live performances for Gerry Diver’s last album The Speech Project will be more than familiar of his innate ability of not just lending music to spoken word but in so doing, transforming the very experience of listening to speech. For his latest single, he has put music to the words of Brother Richard Hendrick’s poem “Lockdown” which went viral in Ireland after the Capuchin Franciscan monk published it on Facebook.
The single includes a moving finale choir, taken from ‘field recordings’ of the recent Italian lockdown rooftop singing.
The single is available on bandcamp (https://gerrydiver.bandcamp.com) and that all proceeds go to Age UK. He adds “Many thanks to Br Richard for allowing me to use his moving poem. Video by the ever-talented Will McConnell.”
Lockdown is also our Song of the Day.
Order it here: https://gerrydiver.bandcamp.com