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Will You Wait (Acoustic)

from Only Stories (Let The Cards Fall Revisited) by The Breath

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A lot of Irish history can be glimpsed, tangentially in ‘Will You Wait’. Mass emigration. The Magdalene Laundries. Mass graves in Galway. In a land depopulated by men, it was a woman’s role to love and to mourn and to remember. The imperative to remember becomes more urgent when so much has been forgotten.

The song’s inspiration comes from the lost art of keening – the crying lamentation of professional mourners who led the funeral processions down country roads. All women, they translated grief into vocal utterances for a living.

“That tradition of keening doesn’t exist anymore. In fact there’s very little record of it at all,” says Ríoghnach. It occurs that The Breath might be Ríoghnach’s way of reviving this lost art. “Maybe that’s what I am. But I don’t think I’m a good enough keener, or Caoíneamh, in Irish. I’m not fluent. Because I don’t have my home dialect. The dialect of Armagh has been lost, you know.”

lyrics

Ever wanna know this?
Ever wanna know this me?
I’m working in colours
Working in colours you can’t see
And i’m breathing it backward
Searching for the sun
Do you ever know which way is won?
Do you know me
Do you see
Are you waiting for the dawn to take me will you hold me
Will you see
Will you wait until the dawn to take me i’m working it harder
I’m working it harder
Long enough to call a knife
Cut it into pieces where i writhe
Linger in the other head, directionless where our people rest and know me best do you know me
Do you see
Will you wait until the dawn to take me will you hold me
Will you be
Will you wait until the dawn to bury me

credits

from Only Stories (Let The Cards Fall Revisited), released April 5, 2019

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The Breath Manchester, UK

A journey from hushed storytelling to uplifting anthems, Ríoghnach Connolly & Stuart McCallum present Manchester’s unique take on alt-folk.

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