The Old Bog Road is the new single by folk singer and songwriter Lewis Barfoot (out 8 November 2024). It follows recent singles Eileen McMahon and Blow The Wind Southerly (all can be heard below) and is the title track from her forthcoming EP, a collection of a capella folk songs from Ireland and Britain that explore the themes of love, longing, and lament. Lewis is touring across the UK in November 2024 (details below).
The Old Bog Road was initially composed as a poem by writer Teresa Brayton, who was born in 1868 in County Kildare, Ireland and wrote under the pseudonym of T.B. Kilbrook. The poem was set to music by Madeline King O’Farrelly from Westmeath, and it was first published in Brayton’s “Songs of the Dawn and Irish Dittys” in New York in 1913. Lewis learned The Old Bog Road from the elders at Dunmanway Hospital in West Cork, where she ran music sessions with patients; as she explains, “The Elders would share fragments of songs and send me home with a long list to learn. The experience of singing with and learning from these Elders was liminal; it is an honour to breathe new life into the songs and keep them alive for future generations”. Lewis is thrilled to be performing her renditions of these wonderful songs alongside her own repertoire, for audiences all across the UK, as she explains, “I’m a collector of old songs, a tradition bearer of sorts and keeping the songs alive and hopefully making them accessible for younger and new audiences is really important to me as an artist“.
The Old Bog Road follows Lewis’s debut album, Glenaphuca, released in 2021 and sophomore album, HOME, released in 2023, for which she received great accolades. The Old Bog Road was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Giles Barrett at Lightship 95 in London and produced by Lewis. Starting on 7 November at the Green Note in London, Lewis has an eleven-date solo UK tour throughout November, kindly supported by Culture Ireland.
Lewis Barfoot – The Old Bog Road Solo UK Tour November 2024
7.11 – Green Note – London
9.11 – London Welsh Centre – London (with Côr Meibion Gwalia Choir)
10.11 – The White Horse – Bicester
12.11 – The Kitchen Garden Cafe – Birmingham
15.11 – The Seagull Theatre – Lowestoft
17.11 – Hanks Dirty – Cambridge
18.11 – Tonbridge Folk Club – Tonbridge
19.11 – The Bell Inn – Bath
20.11 – Llantrisant Folk Club – Pontyclun
21.11 – CWRW – Carmarthen
22.11 – Cwtch Coffee – Pembroke Dock