Folk duo Ye Vagabonds announce slow barge tour of Ireland

Irish brothers Brían and Diarmuid MacGloinn, AKA Ye Vagabonds, are setting sail within Ireland's waterways for over a month to perform their 'All Boats Rise' tour.

Planning a very ambitious and novel trip for over a year now, the duo will travel by barge along with filmmaker Myles O'Reilly to play small, informal 'happenings' of many different strands.

The tour will occur throughout the smattering of counties that encompass the River Barrow and the Royal and Grand canals.

Ye Vagabonds' forthcoming mission is an exercise in slow touring - rejecting the planes, trains, and automobiles for a slow moving barge, as well as getting to know about the history, folklore, and song of some of Ireland's lesser heralded gems.

“We’re so excited to get out there on this trip," Diarmuid MacGloinn of Ye Vagabonds says of the trip. "

A river tour has been a pipe dream of ours for years but there’s never been a more perfect time for it. Everything outdoors! What was always a bit of a mad idea now seems obvious. It’s hard to imagine returning to normal gigs after the weird hiatus we’ve all experienced so it’s great that we’re returning with some really abnormal gigs instead."

"All tours are partly about people we meet along the way but on this tour we’re planning to really involve guests in chats, tunes, collaborations, whatever happens!" Diarmuid adds.

"Most tours we see the venues and one corner of each town before we jump back into the monotone of motorways. This time it’s really about the journey too and it's also time-travel. Waterways are the oldest roads and time moves differently when you’re on the water.”

Ye Vagabonds will meet up with friends for performances and recordings along their journey, including Laura Quirke, John Francis Flynn, Cormac Begley, FeliSpeaks, Brigid Mae Power, Anja Murray, Manchán Magan, Erin Fornoff, Leo O’Kelly, Thomas McCarthy and more.

Filmmaker Myles O’Reilly will be on board the barge to capture the brothers' journey and encounters.

"Ever since our first video collaboration back in 2014 with Willie O'Winsbury, I've had the pleasure of growing as a filmmaker alongside the lads growing as musicians. We have a finely tuned appreciation for and understanding of each other's art, which has helped us to keep creating more exploratory and ambitious works together," Myles says of the news.

"This project picks up from the film Seven Songs On Six Islands, when we documented a tour of several remote islands off the coast of Ireland. It's such a natural step forward in our filmic legacy. Moving inland. The music still carried by water. Negotiating ancient veins of Ireland surrounded and immersed in uniquely beautiful and timeless nature."

The tour has earned support from The Arts Council of Ireland, Waterways Ireland and Carlow County Council Arts Office.

The dates and locations for each show will be announced at a later stage. Follow Ye Vagabonds’s journey on their social media pages and Patreon to be the first to hear about these shows.

All Boats Rise - our slowest tour ever starts this weekend. A month-long voyage by barge along the inland waterways of Ireland, hosting tiny, free, outdoor gigs and impromptu happenings with a big bunch of our unbelievably cool friends. Full details coming soon. 📷Rich Gilligan pic.twitter.com/2PF4Voj1nf

— Ye Vagabonds (@yevagabonds) August 4, 2021

Revisit Hot Press' interview with Ye Vagabonds from December 2019 here.

Photo credit: Rich Gilligan