Joe Chester announces release of new album The Easter Vigil

The new album is preceded by the single 'Walking In The Rain', which can be heard on radio today and will be available from tomorrow.

Joe has become a seasoned musician on the Irish music scene and has played widely with numerous acts, including the likes of Hozier, Gemma Hayes, The Coronas, Mundy, and Ryan Sheridan.

Explaining the theological and native themes behind the new album, Joe had this to say:

"The album begins with Spy Wednesday, continues through Holy Thursday (Like A Rose Tattoo), through to The Easter Vigil itself and finishes on Easter Sunday (Not A Christian Anymore). It's about the rewinding of a man's faith. The loss of belief, almost a perverse enlightenment told through the story of the passion.

'Juliette Walking In The Rain' is about the night myself and my wife saw the legendary French actress Juliette Binoche walking across a deserted square in Dublin. Just a very poetic moment - magic realism.

The Valley of Tears is an area of clifftop on Inis Mor in the Aran Islands. When the islanders were forced to emigrate they would travel by currach to the mainland where they would then board the ship for America. This ship would then shelter in the Gregory Sound awaiting favourable weather for the voyage. The ship would lie close enough to this particular clifftop that you could almost reach out and touch your loved ones who were leaving the island, never to return. It was these scenes of heartbreak that gave it the name, Gleann ne nDeor, The Valley of Tears.”

The Easter Vigil will be released on February 24 on Bohemia Records.