Track of the Day: I Have A Tribe - 'Teddy's Song'

Patrick O’Laoghaire has released his beautiful new single ‘Teddy’s Song’ today, his first new music to be released under his I Have A Tribe moniker since his acclaimed debut album Beneath A Yellow Moon.

The release of ‘Teddy’s Song’ comes after O’Laoghaire joined Grammy Award winning brass player CARM to open for Bon Iver at London’s Wembley Arena and Dublin’s 3Arena in October, and supporting Villagers earlier in November.

The single features Patrick O’Laoghaire on vocals and piano, Conor O’Brien (Villagers) on trumpet, Oisín Walsh-Peelo on harp, Caimin Gilmore on bass and Dominic Mullan on drums. The beautiful song showcases I Have A Tribe's innate gift for narration, forging depth from simplistic themes and seemingly endless well of empathy.

O’Laoghaire lives in the west of Ireland with his partner and his dog, Teddy, who features regularly in I Have a Tribe music videos. O'Laoghaire names the dog as one of his "most important teachers" given that "the dog's only concern is what is happening exactly at this moment. Mostly he is concerned with playing and responding."

'Teddy's Song' arrives with a music video from Emilija Jefremova which takes in the coastal landscape of Co. Mayo from the perspective of Louisburgh, where Patrick brings the eponymous Teddy every morning.

On ‘Teddy’s Song’, the five world-class musicians alchemise their individual instruments, creating accessible and transcendental music.

“I feel a strong sense that we know when to put up a hand / I feel a strong sense that we know when we went to the top of the land,” he sings on ‘Teddy’s Song’.

‘Teddy’s Song’ is thematically about a sense of togetherness, infusing themes of nostalgia and family.

O’Laoghaire says: “Teddy is my uncle who was very handsome and very gentle and very loved. He had working sheepdogs called Cap and Prince and Sylvie and they always listened to him. Teddy is also the name of my dog, a sheepdog who wandered in the gate one day and stayed. He had that name already, when he arrived. He is very handsome and very loved and he never listens. The dog lives his own way and I learn a lot from the dog. Sometimes he looks at me very deeply for a long time and I wonder if he knows that he's the teacher and I'm the student. I asked him this once, and he went and got a stick and told me to throw it.”

Patrick O’Laoghaire has toured with and opened for Anna Calvi, Lisa Hannigan and Villagers, and was invited to take part in the People Festival (curated by Bon Iver) where he collaborated with Beirut, Feist, Little Scream and Damien Rice.

‘Teddy’s Song’ is O’Laoghaire’s first foray back into music since releasing a lowkey acoustic version of his song ‘Songbirds’ last November. After releasing his debut album to widespread acclaim some years before, he then spent, in his own words, “some years with other adventures.”

“I trained to work with young people, in a charity organisation called The Soar Foundation that runs workshops exploring how every person has their own voice, their own story, their own adventure to live. We'd facilitate the conversations, but generally would get out of the way and just listen to their stories and shared experiences. And their wisdom. I learned an awful lot from these young people. Certainly it helped me back towards music, and returning to my own voice there,” says Patrick.

With ‘Teddy’s Song’, Patrick O’Laoghaire reintroduces his I Have A Tribe project back into the Irish music scene with open arms a comforting embrace.