Earlier this year, The Haar, featuring Adam Summerhayes, Cormac Byrne, Murray Grainger and Molly Donnery released their self-titled debut and were also our Artist of the Month. As well as reviewing the album, Glenn Kimpton also interviewed them during which they revealed how Adam and Cormac, during the launch of their duo album Stone Soup, came to meet Molly Donnery – a serendipitous moment in a pub on Inis Oírr, an island off the west coast of Galway (you can read it here).
Not even a year along the way and we have a new single to share for that classic traditional song ‘The Parting Glass’ ahead of a new album planned for Autumn 2021. Despite many being familiar with this song, it always manages to touch hearts when sung. Here, the added light musical touches of Adam Summerhayes, Murray Grainger and Cormac Byrne alongside the exquisite vocals of Molly Dunnery make this an unforgettable moving moment, you cannot listen to this and not pause for thought…an outstanding new single that bodes incredibly well for their forthcoming album.
The Haar should have been enjoying a year of live gigs, playing together and exploring the extraordinary connection they found recording their eponymous first album which they released in June this year.
Instead, Adam Summerhayes, Murray Grainger and Cormac Byrne found they could not even meet up with Molly Donnery without either her or them having to spend a month in quarantine – not a great time to be an Anglo-Irish band!
Nevertheless they were keen to release something new, and to find a way to make it just flow – improvised and unplanned – as with their previous tracks. True to form they came up with a mad plan: Molly would send Cormac a rough vocal track, he’d find a groove that lit up the music and send her his bodhrán track – recorded in one take to video. Molly would then sing over it, leaving space for what she imagined Adam and Murray would do. Over to Murray to add his accordion improvisation. And finally it came to Adam, who listened through a couple of times before adding the final layer.
Murray lined up the audios and Adam pulled together the separate videos into one. Somehow the connection was as strong as ever and the improvisations meshed perfectly, despite the distance. It’s a Haar track and could not be anything else.
We need more music like this; spontaneous, alive and affecting, The Haar will take you on a journey and have you appreciating the purest of life’s pleasures. Wonderful stuff.
Glenn Kimpton, Folk Radio UK
The single will be available on Bandcamp from 27th November 2020.