Emma Langford rises to Amanda Palmer's limerick challenge

Amanda Palmer is gearing up for her upcoming Irish gigs in the most suitable way possible: a limerick competition. The American artist, formerly of Dresden Dolls, took to Twitter yesterday with the first two lines of her own limerick: "there was a girl from new-york-land/ who wrote songs about death and abortion..."

there was was a girl from new-york-land
who wrote songs about death and abortion...

(ok. finish it. i’ll send the winner a postcard from limerick. or if you’re coming to the show in limerick i’ll give you some merch & a hug. bonus points for extreme gallows humor.) #AFPLimerick

— Amanda Palmer 🎹 (@amandapalmer) September 11, 2019

Promising to "send the winner a postcard" from her upcoming gig at Limerick's University Hall on October 27, Amanda invited her Twitter followers to complete the five-line poem. While plenty of hilarious efforts soon followed, our favourite came from Limerick's own Emma Langford.

"As a Limerick lady and a horrible fucking pedant I had to make some small tweets to fit the traditional format," wrote Emma, the Best Emerging Folk Act at the inaugural RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards, before sharing her own limerick:

As a Limerick lady and a horrible fucking pedant I had to make some small tweaks to fit the traditional format:

A bare-breasted bard from NY
To Limerick decided to hie,
The themes she's importin',
Like death and abortion,
Are likely to make grown men cry#AFPinLimerick

— Emma Langford (@ELangfordMusic) September 12, 2019

Amanda was clearly a fan too. "oooh," she replied. "you could even make it "abortin'". or is that a bit crass."

It is, and I love it.

— Emma Langford (@ELangfordMusic) September 12, 2019

Earlier this year, Amanda released her first solo album in six years, There Will Be No Intermission. In his review, Hot Press's Edwin McFee described it as "the album Palmer was born to make."

"The musical equivalent of a book you can't put down," he continued, "There Will Be No Intermission is an utter triumph."

As part of her ongoing European tour, Amanda Palmer is set to play the Opera House in Cork (October 23), the National Concert Hall in Dublin (24), Ulster Hall in Belfast (26), University Hall in Limerick (27).

Ahead of her Irish dates, she spoke to Hot Press about her experiences in Dublin around the time of the abortion referendum - revealing that meeting Irish women inspired her to write the way she had always wanted to about abortion. Keep an eye out for the full interview soon.