Kevin Rowland’s Dexys (aka Dexy’s Midnight Runners) will release the fifth album in 36 years in June.
‘Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul’ features Irish folk standards mixed with songs by contemporary writers like Joni Mitchell.
Dexys released three albums from 1980-1985 starting their impact with the ska hit ‘Geno’.
The next album ‘Too-Ray-Aye’ went platinum around the world and generated the Top 10 hit ‘Come On Eileen’.
Dexys today is Rowland, Lucy Morgan, and Sean Read, whom Rowland described as the “nucleus” of the current version of Dexys.
“Over the years, I would often think about it,” he continues. “The idea of it never went away. I can recall 10 or 12 years ago thinking, for example, ‘If I do ‘Carrickfergus’, I can try this or that.’ Or maybe we can do ‘You Wear it Well’, as the brief had expanded from solely consisting of Irish songs, to songs I’ve always loved and wanted to record. The album was always at the back of my mind. Then just as we were getting ready to record ‘One Day I’m Going To Soar’, I had an inspirational bolt from the blue, a strong clear feeling that this album should be our next project.’
“The album is called Dexys DO Irish & Country Soul: DO it, not BECOME it,” he emphasises. “We’re not trying to be Irish, and we haven’t used too many Celtic instruments on there. It’s our sound. We’re bringing our style to these songs. I’m just a guy who follows my intuition, my inspiration. This really felt like the right thing to do. We have put probably more care and attention into these songs than we might have done with our own songs, because the odds were high. It was important to get them right, and make sure every one of them felt relevant to us.”
Let The Record Show Dexys Do Irish & Country Soul tracklisting
Women of Ireland
To Love Somebody
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Curragh of Kildare
I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen
You Wear It Well
40 Shades of Green
How Do I Live
Grazing in the Grass
The Town I Loved So Well
Both Sides Now
Carrickfergus
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