IRISH MUSICIAN Eleanor McEvoy holds the torch for being the creator of the best-selling Irish album in Irish history with her debut release, A Woman's Heart.
After a career at the helm of the Irish music industry, McEvoy is carrying on the trend of refusing to rest on her laurels with her unique new project.
Prosecco Socialist sees McEvoy collaborate with The Beautiful South’s David Rotheray, and Hull musician Mike Greaves.
Their album together ‘Songs From Behind Bars’ was released last month, and so far the reaction has been pretty good.
"It's kind of Dave's project and Dave is very unusual in how he does things. I saw some of the reviews and was delighted by them, I'd love to get out on the road and perform these songs but I'm not sure if it's going to be possible," McEvoy said.
The inspiration for the album comes from within the walls of The Peoples Republic pub in Hull, which Rotheray opened shortly after announcing his retirement from music in 2013.
Surprisingly to David, songs started to take shape in his mind as the patrons of The Peoples Republic began divulging fantastical stories of their lives. David had placed himself in the listener's corner, and as a result became a sponge for the variety of conversations happening around him.
David and Eleanor had been long-time collaborators, having penned songs and performed together for many years. Her appearance on the album felt natural to her, and she loved the material provided by his tenure in the pub.
"Dave always wanted to open up a pub in his hometown", said McEvoy.
"Being in the pub he would hear all of these stories from people who came in regularly. The material proved too tempting to not write about. So he couldn't stop himself. He got me and Mike Greaves on board, who is another Hull man with a great gravelly voice. A lot of the stories are about slightly older flawed women and slightly older flawed men. Good heavens, who did he think of then only myself!"
Musically, the style of the album is close to what David describes as Country and Western, a style heavily influenced by the playing of Mike Greaves.
"The first time I met Mike was in the studio and straight away there was a chemistry of the ageing woman flawed and the ageing lived in man and it was great fun to sing the lyrics with a flirtatious type of vibe. You hear the pop songs on the radio and it just doesn't feel like they're coming from real people's lives. Real people mess up and get divorced and have one night stands that they don't remember. That's what this album is about."
Speaking about her own incredible success early on in her career with her chart-topping release, A Woman's Heart, McEvoy admits she never saw it taking off in the manner in which it did.
"At that point, it was only supposed to be a quirky little thing it wasn't supposed to sell a lot of copies", she said.
"We recorded it one night on the graveyard shift in Westland studios in Dublin because it was cheaper. We worked from midnight until 8 am. I thought it might get some airplay because Mary Black was on the record. It was extraordinary and I'm very grateful to Mary and the record company who had faith in it and it's been great since."
In recent years, Eleanor has also taken on the mantle of Chairperson of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and can see a wealth of potential amongst the burgeoning Irish musicians of today.
She said: "We're in a great place creatively. The industry has a lot of great people in it at the moment. Wyvern Lingo are doing their thing. Eden is making waves in the electronic scene. The big problem at the moment is we're not getting paid for the online stuff. One of the big things we're doing in IMRO is we're trying to fight to make sure that the Facebook's and Google's of the world pay their fair share. We're grateful for their platform but we want a fair transfer of value and at the moment it's not there."
The album Songs From Behind Bars is available here.
