The Story. The Lyrics
THE STORY
Born from my travels around Ireland in the motorhome — following quiet roads, rugged coastlines and wherever the journey happened to take me. A song about the freedom of the road and the feeling of being home, under wild Atlantic skies.
THE LYRICS
Mist on the glass
Donegal lights
Keep on travelling
Keep on track
As we drove west
Gaeltacht radio
Under wild Atlantic skies
Labasheeda
Shannon tide
Old café windows
Memmories inside
Blackie O’Connel
At closing time
Under wild Atlantic skies
Under wild Atlantic skies
Oceans whisper to my mind
Every road becomes a sign
Like the west was calling me
Murrisk Abbey
Halloween night
Asleep in the camper
By the graveyard light
No words spoken
Touch the tide
Under wild Atlantic skies
Slieve League
Mountain pass
Cahersiveen
Across to Sneem
My world becoming faded…
Flowing with the tide
Under wild Atlantic skies
County Kerry
Atlantic tide
Bantry Bay
We chose to stay-
Under wild Atlantic skies
THE STORY
Inspired by my travels around the world, and the realisation that home isn’t always a place you leave behind. Sometimes the further you travel, the more you discover that home can be wherever you happen to be.
THE LYRICS
Another dawn
Beyond the mountains
Another road beneath my wheels
Learning how the silence feels
Ancient stones
Above the valley
Every mile beyond the horizon
Showed me something I never knew
A better kind of brave
Beyond the things I know
A better kind of brave
Every place I chose to go
The farther I travelled
The closer I came home
Where the river wanders
Through emerald green
There were answers
In the space between
I stopped chasing
Every question
Stopped demanding
Every sign
The road became mine
A better kind of brave
Beyond the things I know
A better kind of brave
Every place I chose to go
The farther I travelled
The closer I came home
Not every lesson came easy
Not every turning felt right
But somewhere between the mountains
I stepped out into the light
Now every road
Before me
Feels a little more
like home
A better kind of brave
Beyond the things I know
A better kind of brave
Every place I chose to go
The farther I travelled
The closer I came home
The sky grew wider around me
The years grew lighter somehow
The farther I travelled
The closer I came home now
The farther I travelled
The closer I came home
The farther I travelled
The closer I came home
There’s a stone where the old ones prayed
Worn by hands that time betrayed
Names long lost in whispered tone
Secrets held in the telling stone
Stories buried, truth concealed
Broken faith that never healed
Echoes through the blood and bone
Carried by the telling stone
What secrets lie beneath the ground
In sacred walls where truth was drowned
Every prayer, every broken tone
Still lives within the telling stone
Candles burned but light grew dim
Voices silenced deep within
History carved but never shown
Hidden in the telling stone
What secrets lie beneath the ground
In sacred walls where truth was drowned
Every prayer, every broken tone
Still lives within the telling stone
It remembers… what we don’t
The telling stone…
THE STORY
Healed is a song about coming through difficult times and finding your way back to yourself. Not about forgetting what happened, but learning to carry it differently — and discovering the strength to move forward.
THE LYRICS
Did you get healed
Since I last saw you
Did it come easy
Or did it fall through
Were you still waiting
On something to change
Or just letting it drift now
Out of the rain
Did you get healed
Did you get healed
Did you get healed now
Did you get healed
I heard your voice
Somewhere in the distance
Didn’t feel the same
But I could still listen
All of the things
We never got through
Still moving slowly
In and out of view
Did you get healed
Did you get healed
Did you get healed now
Did you get healed
Sometimes it don’t come easy
Sometimes it don’t come clean
Sometimes you carry something
You don’t know how to leave
Did you get healed
Did you get healed
Did you get healed now
Or are you still
moving through it
Did you get healed
Did you get healed
Did you get healed
THE STORY
Sitting in Drumbuck Wood, looking for inspiration, I found myself simply staring out the window. Then it struck me — the inspiration I was searching for had been right in front of me all along. Nature.
THE LYRICS
Birds singing everywhere
Through the rain and trees
Morning dew soft upon
Drumbuck’s, green fields
Picked chords
Kettle steam
Underneath the pines
World slowing down
Rain on the roof
Soft like radio waves
Mist forms across the site
Travels in the air
And the Mourne’s disappear
Behind the mist and rain
Something in the forest
Lifts my restless mind again
Birds singing everywhere
Rain on the roof.
Chaisleán Uidhilín
I pick quiet chords
As the mist softens down
Wet leaves in the rain
The forest keeps its own time
Drumbuck Wood
Breathing slow
Under Irish sky
And somewhere between the rain
The sun, will touch again
THE STORY
A song about summer slowly giving way to autumn, and recognising something of my own life in that changing season. At 66, the light may go a little earlier now — but there’s still plenty of warmth left in the day.
THE LYRICS
August holds the warmth of June
Pale blue moon
Fields dry
Change is in the evening sky
The door still open,
But look again
The daylight’s gone
The light just goes a little earlier
The light goes earlier now
Shadows stretch across the ground
Summer’s here, but somehow
She’s already turning round
Hold this evening while you can
Warm rain on the summer land
Nothing stays forever here
Hold the light a little nearer
Blackberries along the lane
Cut grass.
After summer rain
Swallows gather on the wire
Windows glow across the hill
A distant tractor
Working still
Quietly, the seasons go
The light goes earlier now
Shadows stretch across the ground
Summer’s here, but somehow
She’s already turning round
When we were young, summers stayed
Endless nights and endless days
Three months felt like half a life
June turns to August overnight
Ordinary things mean more
Than they ever did before
You don’t miss the summer light
Till it fades into the night
The light goes earlier now
Swallows turn above the ground
Summer’s here, but somehow
She’s already turning round
Hold this evening while you can
Feel the warmth still on the land
August won’t be with us long
Hold the light a little near
Doors open
One last cup
Autumn is here
The light goes earlier tonight