Track of the Day: VARO, ‘Green Grows The Laurel’ (feat. John Francis Flynn)

Dublin-based trad duo VARO have joined forces with fellow songsmith John Francis Flynn on the scintillating new track ‘Green Grows The Laurel’, taken from VARO’s upcoming album The World That I Knew.

The single sees VARO - Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi - and John Francis Flynn blend their magnetic, soul-stirring vocals into a delicately plucked soundscape. The end result is a mesmeric, yet wistful offering of the traditional folk song.

Describing the process of working on ‘Green Grows The Laurel’ together, VARO say:

“John is one of the first people we physically met to work with for this project at the time. It’s been extremely enjoyable.

“We'd known each other and had played together for years, but that was the very first time we were taking a song from scratch in order to build it together. His voice is so beautiful and deep. It contrasted really well with ours while being very complementary at the same time. It all happened very easily.

“We all agreed to bring some dark level of pain and loneliness to it. The double-whistle he’s using creates this tense and kind of crying line that opens and concludes the song. We decided to keep the rest quite bare to represent the loneliness of the main character until we reach the ending with a heavy crescendo accompanying the pain and struggles of this heartbroken narrator”.

This haunting version of the traditional song features the unmistakable production skills of John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum, ØXN, Junior Brother), and is taken from The World That I Knew, a collaborative album by VARO, which will be released independently on May 9th.

Speaking about the upcoming single, Flynn adds:

“I first heard 'Green Grows The Laurel' sung by Delores Keane and was immediately struck by its beautiful melody. Keane’s version with John Faulkner is iconic but it was exciting to try something a little different with it with my friends Consuelo and Lucie. It was really nice to work with the excellent John Murphy who recorded and mixed the track. I’m very happy with the result.”

Accompanying the single release, VARO have also shared a music video which they directed and edited themselves, and was filmed by Nathanael Macdonald. Check it out below.