We’re haunted to have Jimmy back

Renowned Cork balladeer Jimmy Crowley is back with brand new music ahead of the release of his fifteenth album next month.

The new album, ‘Life’, encompasses Crowley’s entire career, recounting his life through his own honest and sardonic view of the world.

Largely distilled from the aftermath of his marriage break-up and a move from Cork to Florida, ‘Life’ explores Crowley’s journey through change.

Ahead of the album launch at Cork City Library on 14 April, Crowley recently dropped the first single from the record, ‘Haunted’. Set in the leafy suburbs of an Irish city, ‘Haunted’ is a gothic autopsy of a once stable life and the challenges of an obscure future, which fits well with the overall theme of the album.

He sings on the single: “I was down and you were out, and time was in between. Granny’s cat looked up and summarised the scene. She saw the books and banjos pass, put two and two in tow; she knew I’d be forever, ever haunted.”

His latest single and focus track from the album, ‘The Laughing Laptop’ tackles subjects of post-modern life that occupy the artist’s palate, like the love affair between a mobile phone and a computer.

A plea of despair by a frustrated man whose familiar mechanical cosmos is daily digitalised. He seeks solace in his witty subversion of computer parlance to mediate the pangs of unrequited love.

Much-loved jazz musician Len McCarthy embellishes the song with his quirky clarinet.

Growing up in Douglas on the outskirts of Cork city, Crowley formed his folk orchestra Strokers Lodge in the late '60s. After the demise of Stokers Lodge, he formed The Electric Band whose reggae version of ‘The Boys of Fairhill’ went straight into the pop charts.

Crowley pursued a solo career from the ’90s onwards. He holds an MA in Irish, and has written extensively about the history of ballads, as showcased in his 2014 book, ‘Songs from the Beautiful City: Cork Urban Ballads’. More recently, Crowley recorded an album of ballads with Eve Telford, drawn from the rich heritage of Irish Travellers.

His new album officially launches here on Leeside at Cork City Library on 14 April. There will be a follow up launch in Dublin on 16 April.