Philip Fogarty, a voice for our times
Tuam Herald
we cling to the raft and look for a sign of the shore
the sea is a healer, it bathes me with time where i'm sore
and it's so long since i've been like this
just drifting along with the waves one day at a time
i've a road in front
and a road behind
and one more day to live
with the wind in my hair
and the sun in my face
and one more day to live
we follow the pathway
it leads you whereever it might
shadowy figures
walking from dark into light
and it's so strange where we're heading
didn't understand it back then
and i don't either now
(One more day to live)
From the stark, heart-wrenching elegance of 'One more day' with its spare and discreet piano accompaniment, Philip Fogarty's music is a constant and rewarding voyage of discovery.
As an artist, a musician, he is very hard to pin down. He slips fairly seamlessly between 'styles' as he voyages towards creating his own.
These songs are not the stumblings of a dilettante, rather the strivings of a serious artist to explore boundaries. He can't abide the use of the word "experimental", himself; reckoning, rightly, that it's the kiss of death for a relatively unknown musician.
This is a situation that is rapidly about to change. National radio has started to sit up and take notice, John Creedon of 'Late date' RTE1 in particular (local radio please note!). A substantial Irish tour is now being launched (more of this anon) and a wider audience is about to get "that Fogarty feeling".
Live performance is his love but 'records' have to be sold to put some bread on the table with, preferably, a scrape or two of butter.
Thus, after the critically acclaimed but financially modest success of his first album "Endangered Breed", he has joined the internet generation and both his 'old' and 'new' music; 'Lambs', are now available to download on www.philipfogarty.com and are beginning to generate a few slices of wholemeal in Yen and Zlotys and the like.
'Endangered Breed' also got him gigs with the likes of The Frames and The Cowboy Junkies.
We have a terribly bad habit, in this neck of the woods, of taking it for granted that we are knee-deep in assorted talent and tend to overlook or blink at anything that ain't as big as the SawDocs or Druid. Folk of that calibre and experience would be the first to say that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Folk with the courage to take that step and the vision to see the goal are generally worth listening to. Fogarty is. There are post-industrial licks of Seamus Heaney and Phillip Larkin but this is absolutely not derivative work.
Now, the fact is everybody (but everybody) has influences but Fogarty is a true original.
A Clareman who came through the Comhaltas system, he knows Trad but is no slave to it. There are touches of everything from Dan Fogelberg to the Pogues via Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits and I dare say he's listened to a German electronic band or two but nothing dominates. This isn't just stuff he has listened to. What he does is write and write really well. Oh, that and sing.
It is truly a shame that the honourable phrase singer-songwriter has somehow been debased and dismissed by the hip/hop/rap generation; for this is what he is. That indefinable combination of craftsman and technician which produces magic.
Prolific in private output, he ruthlessly prunes the public results and bins vastly more than he airs. This, in itself, says a great deal. As in any worth-while writing the spaces between the lines often say as much (or more) as the lines themselves.
There can be a deceptive simplicity to his lyrics but they amply repay repeated listening when allied to his emotional, intimate voice.
so this is where it started
and this is where we left
the last of what we were
the frequencies have changed
you twist that dial around
and hear the airwaves sing
repeating once again
you know that there's a stranger in your skin
but you've got a piece of me with you
so don't go all weird on me now
poison streams are running through the soil you thought you knew
say the word and it begins
i know that you'll break through
(Don't go all weird on me now)
"Some people have beeen prophesying the death of all things musical for some time now, pointing to the web and uncontrolled copying. I think music did OK for itself for thousands of years before the music industry and it'll do just fine too after the industry is gone," Fogarty muses. "In a funny sort of way, technology might eventually lead us back to where we started. Where there were only a limited number of ways a musician could live off music and a much more direct relationship between the musician and the listeners."
Ah, he's getting philosophical! Seeing the look on my face he adds, "Even if you look at the situation right now on the Internet and ignore for a moment, at your peril, the legal aspect... Paying for music now is a bit like supporting a busker."
My look of perplexity must have gone up a notch because he gives one of his considered pauses and decides to expand. "It's a choice you make. If you think the musician is worth it, you give them something. If not, you don't. The record companies aren't very happy about this and insist that listening to music without paying for it is against the law. I don't blame them. If I were them I'd be worried too."
As I'm attempting to digest the implications of this he throws in a closing thought. "As to whether or not this scenario will be better for musicians... I guess the answer to that rests with the people it should rest with: the audience".
Remarkable man, remarkable music.
Join an audience and make your own decisions. Philip and his band are in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway on Monday February 26th, Swiss Embassy, Dublin Tuesday 27th, Glor, Ennis Wednesday 28th and in March; Clifden, Friday 2nd and Wexford Arts Centre on Saturday 3rd.
Whatever about you, I plan to be in St. Nick's on Monday 26th to have a good listen to all this here!
Connor Maguire
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