No Fixed Abode is the debut album from Ulster trio TRÚ and also one of our Featured Albums of the Month. In his review of the album, which you can read here, Thomas Blake closes his review:
The album’s finale provides one of its most magical moments. Ay Waukin O is an old song rewritten and popularised by Robert Burns. TRÚ’s stunning a cappella version stimulates and lulls in equal measure, its dreamlike harmonies falling on the ear with an almost preternatural assurance. It is this kind of assurance, presumably honed over the last four years of recording and preparation, that makes No Fixed Abode such a remarkable debut: while it has all the energy befitting a first offering, it bears the stamp of quality usually reserved for seasoned artists.
Today, we have this brilliant exclusive in-depth track-by-track guide to the album written by the band’s guitarist and singer Zach Trouton and Dónal Kearney, a folk singer brought up in the Irish language tradition who has a day job as a composer of music for computer games.
You can also listen to the album in full below which I strongly encourage you to buy here (also available on vinyl): https://truband3.bandcamp.com/album/no-fixed-abode-2
Track by Track: No Fixed Abode
NEWRY BOAT SONG
A song from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides that appeared during our research of songs about the Newry and Mourne area (County Down). Being a Scottish song, the outsider’s perspective of Ireland is a fitting metaphor for the album.
This song nearly didn’t make it on the album, but I’m glad it did. The unison singing and mix of English and Scots Gaelic, inspired by Cran’s version, serve as a good introduction. We wanted the listener to feel like they’re on the boat with us, travelling across calm misty waters at the beginning of our journey. ZT
DÚLAMÁN
In the 18th century, vendors of seaweed (dúlamán) farmed the shores of Dundalk bay and Carlingford Lough, gathering dulce in fishing villages like Omeath. Known as the ‘seaweed men’ (na dúlamáin), they used to bring their wares to the markets of Belfast and Newry. Newry (An Iúir) was one of the biggest market towns in 18th century Ireland.
When they arrived to the market, they would keep an eye out for local farmers likely to purchase their goods. They would keep the other eye out for the farmer’s daughters. It was not unusual for a seaweed merchant to blackmail local farmers into buying seaweed with the threat of eloping back to the coast with his daughter. Unfortunately, this was a threat bold enough to guarantee seaweed sales.
This disgusting behaviour was all too common, and the behaviour of the song’s eponymous villains is certainly nothing to be proud of. It is worth remembering, though. Thanks to the phenomenal research of Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, so many songs like this have survived. May it live on for centuries to come. DK
THE BLACKSMITH
Deeply connected to the South of England, the melody for this popular ballad was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1904 from a Mrs Verrall of Horsham, Sussex. A song with many ‘definitive versions’, a line can be drawn directly from these to the singing of English Traveller Phoebe Smith whose version was collected by a Peter Kennedy in 1969, which inspired the great Shirley Collins to record her own interpretation.
Although very much considered an English Song, Planxty’s treatment of the song in the 70s served as a touchstone for our arrangement. As they had altered the song harmonically and rhythmically, so we wanted to in our own way. A continuation of the tradition. I love Michael’s cold and metallic production which adds an almost industrial feel and brings the elusive Blacksmith character to life. ZT
AR A DHUL GO BAILE ÁTHA CLIATH DOMH
With the demise of the bardic order in the 17th century, whereby Irish clan chiefs could no longer maintain family bards, the market for praise poetry dried up and poets had to write in simpler forms. They began to use (and master) the colloquial Gaelic language of the common people, who were now their only audience. One of this new breed in the early 1700s was Colla MacSeáin of Mourne, who wrote this story to regale and entertain local listeners.
As the story goes, a man is on his way to Dublin on the first day of the week. He meets a fair young woman who asks about his wife. The man explains that his wife is ill – in bed with the fever – and he mentions the expense of the medicine. The woman then tells the man that if his wife dies, he’ll get a new, younger wife with a dowry. The man tells the woman that he has a weak family and that he would leave them for neither gold nor a young woman. He thus resists the temptation of the younger wife. It turns out that the woman he has met on the way to Dublin is actually his real wife, but he does not recognise her at first due to a faery spell. During their conversation at the roadside, he realises who he is speaking to and the spell lifts to reveal his healthy wife. The faeries had stolen her and replaced her with a sickly faery.
The mythology behind this story is that of An Iarlais or The Changeling. The faeries who lived in the raths and forests of Ireland would sometimes steal a human child for themselves and replace the child with a faery. Humans would often perceive a changeling as sick, impaired or disabled in some way – especially in the event of a sudden downturn in their health. Sometimes an elderly faery would be swapped for a human baby so that the old faery could live in the comfort afforded a human baby. Indeed, some changelings were believed to be old faeries who were sent by their own to the human world to die. DK
JENNY BLACK’S HILL
An original song about a witch from Warrenpoint, County Down. As a young Warrenpoint native, Dónal heard the rumours and set out to find this Jenny Black against all advice. He saw many strange things, but never Jenny Black herself.
This is our ‘rock’ song. The production of the chorus puts me in mind of Elliot Smith whilst the layered vocal outro is something a kin to Biffy Clyro, a band we all loved in our younger years. ZT
COUNTY DOWN
The first song we ever learnt as a band from the great Sands family. A modern song of homesickness which is so pertinent in today’s climate.
We’ve performed this song at every gig we’ve played and so it has transformed naturally on the stage, leading us to re-record it for the album. It’s such a simple song, but its power continues to connect with audiences all over. Thank you Tommy. ZT
BONNY PORTMORE
Bonny Portmore is one of the oldest songs in our repertoire, dating from the 1600s. I grew up just 10 miles from the source of the song, but funnily enough, only heard the song a few years ago whilst listening to Bert Jansch’s ‘The Ornament Tree’. Its simple beauty caught my ear.
The story goes that one of the greatest oak trees ever recorded ‘The Ornament Tree’ resided at Portmore Lough, County Antrim. In the 1600s an extensive castle was erected at Portmore, by Lord Conway, on the site of a more ancient fortress belonging to the O’Neill’s of Ballinderry. Declining fortunes had probably forced their hands to sell the land to Conway.
In the great windstorm of 1760, The Ornament Tree fell and was subsequently cut up and sold off to England for shipbuilding. The song laments the decimation of Ireland’s oak forests but also has a broader message about Anglo-Irish relations.
The song has also taken on a life as an environmental anthem for many TRÚ listeners. The sacred forests of the earth are extremely vulnerable and we believe in the urgent need to protect and celebrate the natural environment we so treasure. ZT
THE WOODSMAN
Two woodcutters take refuge in a fisherman’s hut during a snowstorm. As they cower, a yuki-onna (snow spirit) appears before them, seemingly out of thin air. The spirit kills the master woodcutter, and as she turns to the apprentice, she remarks that because of his youthful good looks she will spare his life. However, the Yuki-onna warns him to never tell a soul what he has seen or she will find him and kill him…
‘The Woman of the Snow’ from 1965 horror film ‘Kwaidan’ by Masaki Kobayashi was the inspiration behind ‘The Woodsman’, another original song from the album. The juxtaposition of this horrific tale taking place in the snowy mountains of Japan, provided the inspiration to how we would approach the music. Something pastoral and pleasant sounding to contrast with the gruesome tale. We looked to The Beatles, and Paul McCartney in particular for that musical spark and reimagined the story from the yuki-onna’s perspective.
The reverence for the otherworld present in both Irish and Japanese culture, and the similarities that exist between the Yuki-Onna and the Irish faeries provided us the necessary entry point to tell this tale in our own way. The harmonies in the ‘yuki-onna’ bridge section is a highlight of the album for me. ZT
THE BALLAD OF ELLIE HANLEY / AN CAILÍN BÁN
I first came across the story of Ellie Hanley in Rónán Geróid Ó Domhnaill’s book ‘Fadó, a collection of lesser-known tales from Irish history.’
‘An Cailín Bán’ was the name given to murder victim Ellen (Ellie) Hanley. It comes from the Irish phrase meaning literally “The White Girl”, suggesting purity or innocence. Her remains washed ashore in Moneypoint, County Clare in early autumn 1819. She was 15 years of age. This song, written 200 years later, is a tribute to her and the countless other young women remembered in the traditional murder ballads of Ireland. ZT
GAOL ISE GAOL I
My great-grandfather was a boatman from Skye, so it felt appropriate to do this. ‘Gaol Ise Gaol I’ is a walking song, a work song traditionally sung by women preparing tweed. The lyrics, subservient to the rhythm, are a mixture of nonsense syllables and non-consequential phrases.
This was a last minute addition to the album, but I think it adds a nice lift and a bit of craic. We had the best fun recording this. Big drones and harmonies, and a wee bit of throat singing if you listen carefully. The tune that appears throughout is a segment of a tune called, ’Three Little Steps’, played by my friend Gary. ZT
REBEL SONG
True to the ancient folk process, Rebel Song is a patchwork of other songs.
“The Patriot Game” is an Irish ballad whose lyrics were written by Dominic Behan, who set his text to the air of traditional tune “The Merry Month of May” (also known as “The Nightingale”). It is a pro-republican, anti-British song telling the story of Fergal O’Hanlon, an IRA Volunteer from Monaghan Town. Interestingly, Christy Moore has said that British soldiers often request the song at his gigs.
The Clancy Brothers made this song internationally famous during the 1960s folk revival, but chose not to sing the verses condoning the murders of Irish police officers. They also omitted the lines criticising Éamon de Valera. Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “God On Our Side” is based on the version he heard from the Clancy Brothers, and a few of Dylan’s lines make their way into Rebel Song too.
In our song, we’ve added a totally new chorus to the traditional strophic form. The chorus phrase “with the speed of a flame” is taken directly from Behan’s text, while the second verse sings of “a beauty born terrible / and worse was the cost” providing a direct reference to “Easter 1916” by W.B. Yeats, a momentous poem itself in the history of Irish republicanism.
This is a beautiful melody with a text we’ve updated for 2021, written for a post-Brexit Northern Ireland. DK
AY WAUKIN O
I first heard this song on Burns Night in Walsh’s pub in Stoneybatter. It was sung by Brían Mac Gloinn, one half of Ye Vagabonds. He lifted his acoustic guitar, sat in the corner of the bar, and within two verses, he had the whole place in silence. It is a moment I will never forget.
The magic of the words and melody entranced me, and continue to do so. For TRÚ, this insomniac’s lullaby always felt right a cappella.
In modern English, the title roughly means “Always Awake/Watchful”. I’ve heard the song sung from the perspective of a young man lamenting his lover, but it hits me most when I imagine a mother singing for her son. Similar to the saddest song of all time: My bonny lies over the ocean. Is there anything more tragic? Maybe the boy is at war, perhaps he has emigrated, maybe already dead. Burns’ third verse is so moving: Lonely night comes on / All the lave are sleepin / as I think on my bonny lad / And I blear my eyes wi’ weepin.
It is unlikely Robert Burns (1759-1796) penned every word of this poem, but its popularity as a song is due to his work in reviving it. Burns was a pioneer of the literary folk process, similar to Bob Dylan’s role in creating a modern folk tradition in an era of recorded music. Burns pieced together phrases and ideas from the poetry of his native Scots tradition and, through his gregariousness and charm, made it popular. Yes, he was a major celebrity in his time, but his skill is undisputed, even if his authorship may not be certain.
We usually perform Ay Waukin O as an encore, often off-mic, opting for the natural acoustic of a crowded room, to set the tone. When our three voices latch together, the song seems to magnetise and draws the listeners into the unsleeping world of the poet. The magic falls on us every time. DK
Order No Fixed Abode: https://truband3.bandcamp.com/album/no-fixed-abode-2