Ye Vagabonds share new single 'The Foggy Dew' ahead of upcoming album

Ye Vagabonds, made up of brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn from Carlow, have announced a new album, The Hare's Lament. The album is set to be released on March 22, through Rough Trade's new River Lea imprint. Ahead of the release, Ye Vagabonds have share the video for a new single, 'The Foggy Dew'.

The Hare’s Lament is an album of traditional songs, including some taken from precious archive recordings of a grandfather they never met, and from the unique collection of singer Róise na nAmhrán from Arranmore Island in Donegal.

In 2018, the group was nominated for a BBC Folk Award on the strength of their self-released and largely self-written debut album, and received several nods from the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards. They spent the year touring throughout Ireland, UK and Europe, and took part in the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton, before returning home to work on their second LP.

With The Hare’s Lament, Ye Vagabonds have created a sound that combines the exquisite harmonies and intricate musicianship of Planxty with the current innovations of the Irish folk scene.

In the sleeve notes for the album, Brían and Diarmuid write:

“These ten songs have been in circulation for a great number of years, successively renewed and recharged by each generation of singers. There is no single definitive source or version associated with many of them.”

'The Foggy Dew' is the first single from the duo's upcoming album. Brían learned this version of the song from a recording of the singer and eminent folk song collector A.L. Lloyd. In the '40s and '50s, a record of Peter Pears singing Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of the song was banned by the BBC for its subject matter.

Take a look at the video for 'The Foggy Dew', re-edited from Islander’s Rest, an animation directed by Claudius Gentinetta and Frank Braun:

The Hare's Lament is available to pre-order now.