The Mining Co., the musical project of Ireland born, London based singer/songwriter Michael Gallagher, last delivered tinsel to these pages with his Three Kings EP from 2019 in which he attempted to capture Christmas sentiment, nostalgia and melancholy. Most recently he released Phenomenology, on which Folk Radio’s Bob Fish concluded that it was the “sound of a musician seeking to stretch beyond the bounds of expectation. The Mining Co. is taking journeys into the unknown, which is the best that can be said of any artist.”
His new festive offering is written in the style of the Great American Songbook, Last Stop for Tired Reindeer was inspired by Michael’s empathy with those hardworking, reliable, always on time reindeer. The string parts were arranged and performed by Nashville based artist Chris Carmichael, famed for his work for stars such as Josh Rouse, Taylor Swift and Chuck Prophet. Holy Star is a haunting eulogy to the Messiah that knows no boundaries, past, present or future.
Last Stop for Tired Reindeer and Holy Star were written by Michael at home in London throughout 2020 and rehearsed and recorded in Andalucía, Spain in Summer 2021 with his long-term friends and musical collaborators at Paco Loco Studio in El Puerto de Santa María, Spain. The tracks were produced and mixed by Paco Loco, famed producer who is acclaimed for his work with luminaries such as Josh Rouse, Gary Louris (Jayhawks), Josephine Foster and Hinds.
We have the pleasure in sharing the accompanying video to Last Stop for Tired Reindeer below which is sprinkled throughout with vintage technicolour nostalgia. Roger Francis Cook, the videomaker for Last Stop for Tired Reindeer video by The Mining Co had this to say:
“Mike and I had previously made a video for his track Long Way to Christmas, which we made using old black and white, public domain clips from Christmas films to create something that had a nostalgic Dickensian feel to it.
“This time around working on Mike’s latest Christmas track it felt like we should thematically connect it to Longway to Christmas to create a nostalgic feel using public domain footage, but this time using clips from hyper colourful Christmas cartoons and television specials for more of a 60s or 70s feel.
“Because the song has such specific imagery of reindeer I wasn’t sure if we would find clips that would fit the song and I told Mike that we may have to give the video more of a general Christmas feel as a back up. But luckily there were some great public domain films with loads of great Reindeer moments, and we were really able to complement the imagery in the song pretty well in the end.”
Download the single via Bandcamp: https://theminingco.bandcamp.com/album/last-stop-for-tired-reindeer-holy-star
More here: theminingco.co.uk