We've played "Star of the County Down" for YEARS...but never had a proper studio version of it...until now!
The recording of this walked a long path before finally arriving. This was one of our "traditionals rearranged into a straight-up hard rock song" thing we do, but it changed even more when, during a rehearsal, John Michael (lead singer) asked if I (Patrick) wanted to sing the song instead. This was after I started joking around with a baritone delivery of it, a la Iggy Pop. Ever since then, it's been our one song that I sing lead vocals on, with John on backup (esp. during the choruses.)
Well, we played it live at a festival in Northern California, and it seemed to be a big hit. My wife (author Beverly Van Pelt) loved it, and requested that I record a shortened two-minute version of it in 2018 for her cat-walk music in the Big Sur Fashion Show for that year. She was designer, model, AND creative director! So I recorded a shortened version of it, but never finished the full-length version until 2020. My son walked into the studio whilst I was mixing and asked, "Hey, do you think I could lay down some Phil Anselmo (from Pantera, et al.) style vocals down on this?" I said, "Of course!" And we found a spot for him in the song, and he nailed it in one take. (Checked out the screams at the end! And his voice is actually the last one heard on the whole track. Of course he's saying a very self-referential word, i.e., "...Down." If you know, you know...)
And...it wasn't until this past week (running up to Halloween 2021) that I finished the mixing on it.
So...it will be released soon. VERY soon!
Watch this site for more details.