Galway musician’s new album features trad tunes – beautifully arranged for acoustic guitar
String Theory is a new collection of twelve Irish traditional tunes arranged for acoustic guitars, orchestrated by well-known Galway guitarist Gerrard Coffey, whose previous work includes Mary Coughlan’s seminal album, Tired and Emotional, back in 1985.
The album is collection of Irish, Breton, Scottish and English traditional tunes arranged for guitars, augmented by fiddle, bazouki and mandolin.
“The arrangements feature imaginative use of acoustic, electric, twelve-string, six-string and four string guitars,” explains Gerrard.
“Some of the tunes are session favourites and others are a little less well known.”
Gerrard himself plays all guitars and created the arrangements – but he’s also joined by three well-known artists, with whom he has worked so well in the past.
Brendan O'Regan plays Mandolin and Bazouki on several tracks. A popular figure on the Irish traditional music, he himself released two successful solo albums in the past and has featured on albums by many trad players, including Martin O'Connor, Matt Malloy and others.
Jimmy Fitzgerald plays bass guitar on several tracks – a resumption of a musical connection that also stretches into the sands of time, because Jimmy and Gerrard released an album together, entitled No Man's Land, in 1988.
A collection of traditional music from various countries around the world, it was produced by Dutch musician and producer Eric Visser – synonymous with so much of Mary Coughlan’s body of work and in particular with Tired and Emotional – it featured many of Ireland's best session musicians.
Jimmy himself has led two very successful bands – the Little Fish and the Screaming Blue Cats as well as playing every style from Cajun with the Mamin Cajun Band to jazz with the Galway Big Band. His current band, The Screaming Blue Cats, play raucous Rockabilly.
Completing the line-up on String Theory is Kevin Lees, a fiddle player and folk musician, teacher, composer, audio producer and creator in Celtic and Scandinavian folk music.
Gerrard Coffey himself played and toured extensively with Mary Coughlan in her formative years in Galway and played guitar on her debut album, Tired and Emotional.
In addition, he has played session guitar on albums by Brendan O'Regan, John Falkner, Jimmy Fitzgerald and Brendan Larrissey.
String Theory is currently streaming on Spotify, Bandcamp, Amazon Music and iTunes.
Pictured: Gerard Coffey... new album.