Biography, press release, photos BIOGRAPHY Download PDF Jubilee Allstars, Barry's former band, were once aptly described as equal parts Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen and Brendan Behan; the records Barry played on before leaving the band were influenced by, and showed the influence of, the Irish song and literary traditions and American roots and punk rock. It was the former influences that were brought to the fore on Barry's debut solo album We Drank Our Tears (2003), which was critically lauded for eschewing the introspective, soul searching approach of most singer-songwriters in favour of songs inspired by the Irish storytelling tradition. Hot Press magazine called it 'A melting pot of Brendan Behan, Bob Dylan and Shane MacGowan...McCormack has created an album of contemporary folk songs rooted in a tradition that goes back generations.' Perhaps ironically, it was encounters Barry had with American musicians, touring as support with 'Alt Folk/Country' acts like The Handsome Family, Adam Snyder and Joe Pernice, that made him eager to explore the song tradition of his own country, just as Americans have been doing for years. The influence of The Dubliners and the Dublin street-singing tradition are apparent on Barry's latest record, Last Night, as I was Wandering (2006), as well as that of more contemporary singers and songwriters, 'His city is a purgatorial stripmall facade of Nightown' said Hot Press, 'populated by ghosts who walk: Kelly, Kavanagh, Behan, Dylan, MacGowan, the brothers Palace and Louvin and James Clarence Mangan.' After years of indolent scrounging, Barry has earned a modest, but honest, living as, amongst other things, a shop assistant (stationery supplies), postboy for a life assurance company, office temp, TEFL teacher and guest arts columnist with the Irish edition of The Sunday Times. Barry self-releases his records on the Hag's Head label, which is a sister company to Hag's Head Press, a publishing company run by his wife, Marsha Swan. Since its inception in 2005, Hag's Head Press has published three novels by young Irish writers. PRESS RELEASE (March 2006) Download PDF Last Night, as I was Wandering, the second solo album from former Jubilee Allstar Barry McCormack, is a collection of strange ballads and comic story-songs inspired by the Irish song tradition. It’s a picaresque journey through a murky, noir Dublin that features characters from the town’s past who encounter a disparate group of narrators—verbose drunks, repentant gamblers and recalcitrant office-workers. The album’s title is plundered from a sean-nos song, a nod to Barry’s desire for these songs, though imbued with a strong sense of place, to be timeless stories dealing with the vagaries of humanity rather than a fleeting comment on contemporary Dublin. The album was recorded on Capel Street using instrumentation more familiar to ballad records of the sixties than contemporary Irish folk records. Last Night, as I was Wandering is a raw, untreated record that is, perhaps, something of an anomaly these days, when contemporary music is awash with anodyne acoustic acts parading as authentic and challenging. Barry says: ‘The last record I made—We Drank Our Tears—was largely concerned with themes of loss and grief, where the characters were trying to find some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. I wanted to make a record that retained an element of darkness but was lighter and more comic in tone. I became fascinated by the ribald world conjured up in songs sung by The Dubliners like "Monto" or "The Mero" and this record is an attempt to capture the spirit of these songs and to use it to portray a world more familiar to me.’ We Drank Our Tears was Barry’s first solo record after leaving the acclaimed Jubilee Allstars. Hot Press said, ‘The finest acoustic album of 2003 is Barry McCormack’s We Drank Our Tears, an album that owes less to this songwriting nation’s all too well-thumbed canon of Dylan/Drake/Buckley and more to the Irish storytelling tradition: timeless and placeless, but at the same time very specifically observed and honestly rendered universal, local, music.’ PHOTOS Click on the photographer's name to download a high-resolution jpg and please credit the photographer when reproducing this image. photo by Adrian Crowley(1) photo by Adrian Crowley(2) photo by Adrian Crowley(3)