Track of the Day: David Keenan - 'Ears Are Prickd'

Dundalk poet/singer-songwriter David Keenan has shared a new single 'Ears Are Prickd', taken from his forthcoming new album Crude.

Opening with gentle guitar strums, the musician describes the life of Freddie the window cleaner - who studied philosophy on the side and played in the local band - who "used for recreation 'til it took him in the night" while his girlfriend was expecting their first child.

Davy and Seamie's stories are equally tragic. The former worked in advertising, and left the gas on during football before fell asleep and "never rose". Seamie "sang a song for Ireland in the doorway of the Cobblestone", but failed to meet the expectations: "He retired for the road/Headed low tucked into shoulders, can't be seen to sadly show poor Seamie."

With minimal accompaniment, the spotlight shines solely on Keenan's intimate brand of storytelling, describing everyday vignettes that often have twinges of the melancholy.

"It's funny what you hear when your ears are prickd/It's funny what you hear from the dying and the sick," Keenan sings on the track's chorus. "It's funny what you hear when your ears are prickd/I better get my own shit sorted quick who knows."

Keenan has released two critically acclaimed studio albums in the last two years. A Beginner’s Guide To Bravery (2020) and WHAT THEN? (2021) as well as a live album and concert film Alchemy & Prose, which documented Keenan’s triumphant Olympia Theatre performance in January 2020.

In February 2020, the Dundalk native moved to Paris as Artist in Residence at the Centre Cultural Irlandais, where he wrote and published a volume of poetry entitled Soundings of an Unnamed Bird. He then moved to Barcelona and began writing the songs which would become his progressive second album WHEN THEN? released in September 2021.

He recently David sets out on a six-week European tour, building on his reputation as an incredible live performer. Next month, he'll release his third studio album Crude on the 11th of November via Barrack Street Studios.

“I embarked on a DIY project in Ailfionn Studios in Dublin in June," David Keenan says of Crude. "The resulting songs on this record arrived spontaneously and came at a time when I set out to make something contrasting. The music and images are pouring out of me, this feels like the most accurate and focused example of my being on record to date.”

He describes the LP as "essentially a reconciliation with my music and how I approach making it": "It's a return to my roots, myself in a space with a guitar and the song, no crutches here, only the desire to be more truthful in my delivery of my emotions."

David has chosen to self release this album on 12' Vinyl and digital download via Bandcamp to get closer to the process of putting music out into the world and with who relate and identify with it.

"I was seeking a more conscious way to communicate and having just received a copy of the album, something that came together physically very fast but internally took years to achieve in my hand, I now know that whatever comes after, the Crude project has guided me back to the main highway of soul and song. If you can, seek it out."

Revisit Hot Press' November 2021 interview with David Keenan here.

Listen to 'Ears Are Prickd' below.