Anglo-Irish masters of folk improvisation The Haar release new single, My Sweet Wild Rose, a 5 part improvisation featuring poet Jessie Summerhayes (BBC Radio 4’s Power Lines).

The Haar – Molly Donnery (vocal), Adam Summerhayes (violin – father to Jessie), Cormac Byrne (bodhrán), and Murray Grainger (accordion) – team up with Jessie Summerhayes (poet) on an epic tale that’s brought to life with a sensitive and restrained execution and a reverent sense of atmosphere.

The close to ten-minute funerary poem was written as a spontaneous response by Jessie to encounters with wild roses on a hot summer’s day and imagery of the death of a child from tuberculosis. Images of roses, riverbanks, and hawthorns combine with with those of the stricken girl whilst the soundtrack of violin, accordion and bodhran provide a backdrop for singer Molly Donnery (All-Ireland Scór na nÓg winner) and Summerhayes’ spoken-word. Listen out for the lovely parts where the singing/spoken voices combine.

The poems and narrative storytelling of Jessie Summerhayes, a distinguished Medievalist with a Masters degree to her name, are well known for connecting to the past and resonating within the landscapes of today, whilst Molly Donnery’s vocals have been recognised as some of the most expressive amongst contemporary folk music.

The piece, recorded by Murray Grainger, and mastered by Sam Proctor at Lismore Mastering, is very reminiscent of the work of the LYR project with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. Perhaps more understated though, with the breathy vocals adding a fragile quality.

“It was the hottest of June days,” explains Jessie of the track’s gestation. “I’d left the house early and driven through miles of green shade and brightness to York, which was slowly baking in the heat. The river, dubious as it is, was too appealing to resist and I ended up dustily half slipping down the bank. From in the water, the wild roses looked nearly monumental, like tangled memorials to that first flush of early spring.“

“I drove back to the moors to find The Haar in the garden, Molly humming nearly to herself as they all tried out the sound for a track. There, in the shade by the wall at the bottom of the garden was another wild rose, melancholic in its fragile beauty. The poem combines these images with the image of a child lost to consumption, the same kind of pale and fragile beauty blooming pink-red in the heat.

“We recorded this poem, or perhaps it is a song, in one take, Molly and I alternating voices, speaking and singing interwoven, and the musicians crafting melodies and rhythms with us – a 5-part improvisatory whole. And then it was done, the roses only last so long, and the evening closed in around them and us.”

We recently caught The Haar in a mouthwatering showcase at the English Folk Expo and are certainly looking forward to catching a full performance on the tour.

THE TOUR

Fri 2nd Feb – The Talbot Theatre, Whitchurch

Sat 3rd Feb – The Browfoot Room, Ulpha

Sun 4th Feb – The John Peel Theatre, Wigton

Mon 5th Feb – Tyneside Irish Cultural Society, Newcastle

Tue 6th Feb – Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre, Barnoldswick

Wed 7th Feb – Norden Farm Centre For The Arts, Maidenhead

Fri 9th Feb – Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury

Sat 10th Feb – The David Hall, South Petherton

Fri 19th Apr – The Met, Bury

Sat 27th - Apr – The Ropewalk, Barton Upon Humber

The Haar online: Website / Facebook / X – formerly Twitter

Jessie Summerhayes online: Website / Instagram

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