Northern Irish singer-songwriter, Mark McCambridge (known to us as Arborist) has released ‘Taxi’ from his forthcoming album, A Northern View.

The sheer fact that it’s not called ‘Uber’ marks it out as a retrospective, nostalgic air to a bygone time when German prepositions didn’t rule the road. You have to be a certain age nowadays to refer to a car for hire for short journeys by its original Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Andy Kaufman-related four-letter noun.

‘Taxi’ is a beautiful spoken-word prose poem, originating from McCambridge’s own experiences: “I wanted to do something similar with the Northern Irish voice. It’s a story about a claim from my Dad’s cousin and good friend through his youth, Henry McQuillan, that he conceived the idea of turning a famous Irish traditional song into a rock song.”

The song in question is ‘Whiskey In The Jar’. The story Arborist tells is compelling. If you’re looking for beauty in the everyday, he’s your man, and the release of his album in February will be like putting the clocks forward, but just in musical form.

A Northern View is due out via Rollercoaster Records on 7 February 2020.

Arborist: Official Website / Facebook / Twitter