Ye Vagabonds - On Sitric Road
Ye Vagabonds - On Sitric Road
And I remember that first evening
Singing John Prine till dawn
Round the iron stove on Sitric Road
With my big wool coat on
Feet upon the chair
Curled up like a newborn child
Peaking out under your hair
I felt lucky for a while
Having loved and followed Ye Vagabonds for a few years, I finally got to see and hear them sing live in 2025. It was on my first night in Cork, in the Opera House that sits alongside the River Lea, the water that moves slowly and weightily right through the heart of the city. The river moved that way on that night. The rain fell and then gave way to a pink-sky sunset, as we gathered inside to hear and watch a tribute to Ye Vagabond's friend Eoin French, the musician known as Talos.
I didn't know Eoin, but I loved his music, and I've come to love it more in the time since that performance on that night. I think of him when I think of that river, a body of water I've been writing about in the time since. Words and voices and weather and song, all tied together somehow.
All Tied Together is the name of Ye Vagabond's new album, the latest collection of songs shared by brothers Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn. Their fourth LP, it was recorded live in a house in Galway and the sharp imagery conjured in those few words runs right through its core. There's real heart to it, a sense of time and place that catches the back of your throat even without the learned familiarity that the band are pulling from.
Opening track 'On Sitric Road' reveals these things. It draws a picture, sets a tone and holds you in it. It's beautiful in its quietness. There's a confidence to it that runs through all twelve songs. It's not a showiness but a balance, a sense that it's also saying something in the things it holds back, the space it leaves in the shadows. The guitars are softly played, voices meet in the air: "I had it all right from the start / Only to watch it fall apart / I thought that nothing was hard to lose / If only I knew," those voices sing, like dust settling. They draw us in.
The playing here is restrained, and it remains tempered and considered throughout. The record was produced by Philip Weinrobe, a constant collaborator of Adrianne Lenker, and sometimes it rises up to gather in other elements, often it just lets the songs speak for themselves. The album also features contributions from the likes of Shahzad Ismaily and Sam Amidon, as well as more friends from far and near who lend their craft. All a family for a while.
From that subtle, striking beginning point of 'On Sitric Road', All Tied Together both drifts and builds, climbs and falls. It takes inspiration from George Saunders and Claire Keegan to sing of people and places; then and now, past and present, the little things that make up a house, that make a home. All come rushing in. We sit and listen to the quiet sounds they make.
