Julie Feeney – “Julia”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I picked a song by one incredibly versatile and original Irish artist. She is a classically trained composer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer hailing from Galway, and she composes, arranges, orchestrates and produces all of her music, playing most of the instruments. Which is something I really like, and I’ve already said it many times on here how much I love and appreciate listening to music which someone has made all or mostly by themselves, because it feels so genuine, consistent and authentic, and can give you a good idea of the workings of the mind behind it all, and human minds are so interesting.

 

I don’t even remember anymore how it happened that I first came across Julie Feeney but it was quite early on in my exploration of Irish music, when I was still mostly into traditional Irish folk and not much else Irish. Which makes me think it must have happened via Anúna – an Irish choral ensemble – with whom she used to sing. And while Clocks – the album from which the song Julia comes from – has been her last album to date, which came out in 2012, it was her first album that I heard, and I think if I were forced to choose my favourite album by her, it would be this one.

 

Clocks is loosely themed around Julie’s extended family and her Galway roots, and this song is a tribute to her grandmother – Julia. – It is written from the perspective of Julie’s grandfather, about whom she has said that, after his wife’s passing, he stopped singing because he no longer had anything to sing about. I’ve always found this song strangely captivating.