Neil keeping the family flame alive with Embers

Neil and his wife Isabelle who now live in England. He has also collaborated with her father, a poet, on a spoken-word album with music.

placeholder image — Neil and his wife Isabelle who now live in England. He has also collaborated with her father, a poet, on a spoken-word album with music.

Arts Week with Dara Bradley

A Gort gran’s voice posthumously features in a poignant song on a new album released by her son – three years after her death. Nancy Garvey (née Farrell), who was based in Peterswell in South Galway, passed away in February 1, 2017, aged 78, after a number of years living with Alzheimer’s.

And now her voice appears in a poignant song called ‘Evergreen’, on the album Embers, released by her youngest child, Neil Garvey (39).

Nancy was always the life and soul of the party. She played harmonica, and was synonymous with the accordion among her children Peter, Deirdre, Elaine, Orla and Declan – who are all still living in Peterswell – and wider circle of family and friends.

“Mam passed away, and when the dust settled, I sat down and wrote ‘Evergreen’,” explains Neil about one of the highlights of his second album.

“I wanted Mam on the album in some shape or form, either playing the accordion or singing. I put the word out to all the cousins, who had footage of her from house parties where we’d all been singing.

“I isolated her vocals off the video and put it at the end of the track, so in a way, it’s a song where the two of us are sort of singing. When the song fades out, she fades in and it’s that clip of her singing. A sort of memorial.

“She’s singing ‘Please Help Me, I'm Falling’ by (country singer) Hank Locklin. The lyrics are about falling in love. The last words of her song are ‘I keep falling; falling in love with you’. I thought it was very apt. Towards the end, a lot of relatives in the room started joining in with her, and it ended in a lovely crescendo,” he says.

Neil is originally from Mayo, but grew up in Riverside on the Tuam Road in Galway City. A past pupil of Scoil Chaitríona in Renmore and St Mary’s College, he studied Arts at NUIG and later qualified as a teacher.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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