Christy Moore, Bono, Hozier, Lisa Hannigan and more to bring Patrick Kavanagh's work to life on new album

President Michael D. Higgins, Bono, Liam Neeson, Jessie Buckley and more will bring the work of seminal Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh to life on new album Almost Everything…, which arrives next month.

The announcement was celebrated by the creation of a large-scale portrait of Patrick Kavanagh by sand artist Sean Corcoran on Sandymount Beach in Dublin.

The Monaghan native's best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn, and the poems 'On Raglan Road' and 'The Great Hunger'. Having died aged 63 in Dublin in 1967, he's largely still known for his accounts of Irish life through reference to the everyday and commonplace.

Originally released on Claddagh Records in 1964, the double album also features the only recording of the revered Irish poet reading his most celebrated poems. Now remastered and reimagined this new two-part album features the original recordings and Kavanagh’s poetry read by Bono, Hozier, Imelda May, Liam Neeson, Jessie Buckley, Aidan Gillen, Lisa McGee, Lisa Hannigan, President Michael D. Higgins, Evanna Lynch, Sharon Corr, Kathleen Watkins, Christy Moore, Rachael Blackmore and Aisling Bea set to stunning music composition.

The tracks on this record were recorded by producer extraordinaire, songwriter and mix engineer for Faction Records, Cormac Butler. The Dublin-based talent has an extensive and wide-ranging discography from All Tvvins to James Vincent McMorrow to Sorcha Richardson to The Academic to Gavin James and The Coronas.

The physical formats of this album include a booklet containing all the poetry one will hear on the album.

Illustration credit: Morgan.ie.

The vinyl format of this release contains two unique vinyl sleeves. The first hosts a printed collage of sketches of all the celebrated readers around Patrick Kavanagh, with Kavanagh himself visible through the gold-foil cut-out square on the cover itself. The second vinyl sleeve is an exact replica of the original 1963 release.

Patrick Kavanagh: Almost Everything… will be released on Friday, 23rd September on Claddagh Records. It is available to pre-order now from CladdaghRecords.com.

Track List: Patrick Kavanagh, Almost Everything…

CD1 (Read by Guests)

1. On Raglan Road (read by Bono)
2. Stony Grey Soil (read by Michael D. Higgins)
3. Memory of My Father (read by Liam Neeson)
4. Canal Bank Walk (read by Imelda May)
5. Peace (read by Hozier)
6. Inniskeen Road: July Evening (read by Lisa McGee)
7. In Memory of my Mother (read by Kathleen Watkins)
8. The Hospital (read by Lisa Hannigan)
9. Pegasus (read by Rachael Blackmore)
10. October (read by Christy Moore)
11. Shancoduff (read by Aisling Bea)
12. Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin (read by Evanna Lynch)
13. Extract from ‘The Great Hunger’ (read by Aidan Gillen)
14. A Christmas Childhood (read by Sharon Corr)
15. Epic (read by Jessie Buckley)

CD2 (read by Patrick Kavanagh)

1. Autobiographical Prose
2. The Same Again
3. Jungle
4. Narcissus and the Women
5. Epic
6. God in Woman
7. Kerr’s Ass
8. Peace
9. The Hospital
10. On the Death of Jim Larkin
11. Extract from ‘The Great Hunger’
12. Living in the Country: Part One
13. Dear Folks
14. Miss Universe
15. About Reason, Maybe
16. To Hell With Commonsense
17. October
18. Come Dance With Kitty Stobling
19. Prelude
20. Having Confessed