"People can be obsessive about it." He has stuck with the Alexander Technique (a postural and breathing programme), which has given him confidence, and has used the I Ching for 18 years.įrom the beginning, the loves of Jimmy MacCarthy's life were horses and music. But he can take them and then leave them. He has also run through various gurus, people such as Louise L Hay (healing yourself), John Bradshaw (the inner child), and a slew of 12-step programmes.
Post-AA, he is interested in healthy living, alternative medicine, healing and meditation.
In his kitchen he makes me tea and has Kombucha, the health drink, himself. What is missing in the rambling mini-mansion is untidiness or evidence of the heavy usage it needs to breathe properly. About five years ago he bought the house and land in Wicklow, spent a few years working on it so that outside it is a model stable yard and inside has a spartan bachelor's comfort. It is a time of anticipation and of anxiety: "I am not in the whole of myself at the moment because the 'What if I should fail?' is here again and the 'What if I should fail?' is part of that caution which I believe is the prerequisite for success."Īpart from his distracted playing with a big bunch of keys, there is every reason to believe MacCarthy when he says that this is the best time of his life. And, what fun, Angel's Wings, a song he co-wrote for Westlife's new album, is to be released as a single. The venerable company Waltons is about to issue a songbook, No Frontiers: The Songs of Jimmy MacCarthy. A new label, Ride On Records, has been launched with promoter Pat Egan to record up-and-coming singers doing new material of his.
A new studio in a converted cowshed at his Wicklow home is being set up to record his third album. But this one marks a moment of transition. "The best of my language will never get out."Īlthough MacCarthy keeps a low profile, every year he does a handful of gigs, one of which takes place at Dublin's HQ tonight. He knows this himself because he says that out of the 1,000-odd songs he has written, more than half are too complex, too personal or too biting to become public. While his best songs are complete in a way that is rare and satisfying, sometimes he wanders dangerously close to utter self-absorption. He calls some of what he does "sean nós pop". His melodies manage to be both complicated and catchy. He is intense, romantic and in love with dense semantic, syllabic and symbolic structures. From his songs, Jimmy MacCarthy is clearly particular. "And lines like: 'Run the claw along my gut one last time,' which is the correct line in Ride On, whereas Christy has 'run your claw' it was never 'your claw'." A lot of things that people would take out I would let it go, like 'the geek with the alchemist's stone'. He is explaining how writing songs while drinking alcoholically can make you emotionally reckless: "You do it so that it's finished and you can go and have a drink and the editing faculty is eliminated completely. JIMMY MacCarthy is making one observation but ends up illustrating another one entirely, which is that is he is a pernickety fellow. He tells Patricia Deevy about this moment of transition But he's not bothered after troubled times, he's having the best time of his life. And yet it's other people Christy Moore, Mary Black who get to sing his memorable melodies. Jimmy McCarthy is responsible for some of the most famous and popular songs of contemporary times.
0 kommentar(er)
