LATEST NEWS
On 1 May 2026, we release, ‘From the Tombs’, the first single and title track from our second album. It is a rich and evocative pop song rooted in the story of an Irish servant in New York City in 1881 with amazing performances from Mike Smalle (cane141; Augustus & John and B-Movie Lightning), Fergal Lawler (the cranberries), June Miles-Kingston (the Mo-dettes; Everything but the Girl; Fun Boy Three; the Communards), Marcus Holdaway (High Llamas), Bernard Butler (Suede; McAlmont & Butler; The Tears; Butler, Blake and Grant), Ian Catt (Saint Etienne) and Terry Edwards (The Higsons, The NJE and BUtterfield 8, Madness, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Hot Chip).
OTHER NEWS
Bring Your Own Hammer is delighted to announce that our debut album, My Grief on the Sea, will be released on limited edition vinyl on 6 June 2025
CHECK OUT OUR LINKTREE FOR ORDERING OPTIONS AND MORE INFORMATION:
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AND ON CD HERE: My Grief on the Sea
My Grief on the Sea is brimming with superb contributions from leading Irish and international composers, musicians and singers including Agu, Linda Buckley, Cathal Coughlan, Adrian Crowley, Neil Farrell, Eileen Gogan, Tony Higgins, Carol Keogh, Michelle O’Rourke, Wally Nkikita, Brigid Mae Power, Michael J Sheehy, Mike Smalle and Jah Wobble.
The album offers a collection of songs about the sea, sea journeys and migration to and from Ireland in the nineteenth century. You are invited to journey with us as we criss-cross the Atlantic world following the remaining threads of lives shaped, in one way or another, by the sea. You will hear the echoes of words, from a bog in Co. Roscommon, sung in grief for a lost lover, who has departed overseas in the decades after the Famine (on the beautiful title track, Michelle O’Rourke’s ‘My Grief on the Sea’). You can catch lines written in the letters of migrants to North America, matched with beautiful melodies (Golden Streets, Bitter Tears – Adrian Crowley with Brigid Mae Power). You can imagine yourself with Carol Keogh on the quays of New Ross in 1849, as Biddy and Catherine Keogh depart for New York (on the stunning ‘A Pair of Packed Valises (before the Dunbrody), 1849’) or picture yourself crossing the Atlantic on board a ship with Mary Connaughty in 1881 (on the melancholy and haunting ‘Old Oak Road’ by Mike Smalle with Cathal Coughlan and Jah Wobble). Join Cathal Coughlan and Linda Buckley on the roads of Co. Carlow, during the 1832 cholera epidemic, as a man called Crowley returns to Ireland after thirty years at sea (on the complex and poignant ‘The Man with Open Arms’). Sail the high seas with Eileen Gogan and Neil Farrell disguised as a cabin boy (on the sad and beautiful ‘Female Cabin Boy’) or stand with Tony Higgins and Agu on the quays of Dublin as the multitudes depart during the Famine (on the vibrant yet melancholy ‘Embarkation’). Follow Mike Smalle and Wally Nkikita as they trace Joseph Keys’ journey to Ireland from the time he leaves his life of enslavement in Virginia to his departure, from Baltimore, on board a ship across the Atlantic in early 1844 (on the melodious and tragic ‘Over the Ghosts’). Take time too to contemplate the rumble and power of the sea with Mike Smalle (on the sparkling track, ‘The Oscillating Sea’). At the end, watch Marie and her lover swimming off the coast of Ireland as the effects of the Famine drive people from the land and towards the sea (on the starkly beautiful ‘The Weight of Water’ – Michael J. Sheehy).
REVIEWS OF ALBUM / SONGS:
My Grief On The Sea is a masterful compilation that highlights the richness and diversity of contemporary music. It is a testament to the power of collaboration and the enduring appeal of storytelling through song. Whether you are a fan of traditional Irish music or simply appreciate well-crafted, emotionally resonant music, this album is sure to leave a lasting impression. It is a must-listen for anyone looking to explore the beauty and complexity of modern musical artistry. FATEA MAGAZINE (UK), 2025.
My Grief On The Sea [is] an incredible song cycle about immigration and emigration from Ireland from an all star cast 9/10 STARS. WHISPERINGANDHOLLERIN.COM (UK), 2025.
The story of the island is brought to life with real memories and dramas of the past. Initiatives like this one deepen and clarify themes that are always relevant to the present. We await the next developments with the certainty that the dramatic ‘Irish’ song continues to find the way to beauty, even in painful memories. BUSUCADERO MAGAZINE (Italy), 2025 on the My Grief on the Sea album.
‘Golden Streets, Bitter Tears’ epitomises the rich evocative presence and adventure of the album as a whole … quite simply one of our most lustfully favourite tracks over many years. The RINGMASTER REVIEW (UK) on ‘Golden Streets, Bitter Tears’ by Adrian Crowley with Brigid Mae Power.
Brigid Mae Power’s ethereal voice enters like mist on water, creating beauty through sadness. Her voice not only complements the song, but also changes it, transforming the sadness to something brilliant and beautiful. “Golden Streets, Bitter Tears” is a dark tribute that combines sadness, hope, and history to create something tragically beautiful. SKYLIGHT WEBZINE (Greece), 2025.
‘Absolutely stunning’. Pete Paphides, Soho Radio (UK) on ‘The Weight of Water’ by Michael J. Sheehy.
Gogan’s voice is mesmerising, while the arrangements give this traditional song a beautifully atmospheric contemporary feel. Outstanding. – KLOF MAGAZINE (UK), 2022 on Eileen Gogan and Neil Farrell’s version of ‘The Female Cabinboy’.
OTHER NEWS
On 20 March 2025, we release a new Digital / CD EP, Speak Wreck Speak!, with new material from Adrian Crowley, Simon Fisher Turner, Stephen Murray, Sean O’Hagan and Mike Smalle. The release is part of an ongoing Bring Your Own Hammer series where we ask composers, singers and musicians to create work inspired by histories of shipwrecks and storms in the long nineteenth century. These songs capture the stories of some of those shipwrecks and storms and explore their connections to Ireland. The EP opens with The Sound of Light by Stephen Murray and Mike Smalle. The track offers a haunting meditation on the ‘graves of the yellow men’, which lie on the west coast of Co. Clare. Little is known about the ‘yellow men’ other than they were foreign-born sailors who were shipwrecked at Kilbaha Bay in the 1800s. The Wreck of the Julia by Adrian Crowley and Sean O’Hagan is a stunning exploration of the story of a sailing ship, the Julia, which was dashed against Golam Head, near Leitir Mealláin, in Co. Galway on Thursday 2 January 1873. Much of the ship’s cargo of Canadian timber washed ashore and local people were quick to claim the bounty. The arrival of policemen and coastguards to the area, however, eventually led to tensions. The officials, there to supervise and administer the wreck, were prone to drinking and, in the space of a month, discharged 300 rounds of ammunition. On the night of 8 February, suspecting plunder of the wreck, they fired at a party of local men, killing Patrick King and Thomas Folan. EXILE by Simon Fisher Turner and Mike Smalle is a striking song based on a letter from April 1848 that was written to John Kelly and his wife in Ireland by Thomas Reilly. Reilly was living in Albany, New York, at the time and was, in his own words, ‘very sad, very lonely, very poor’ and regarded himself as a ‘Slave in the land of liberty’. In the letter, he describes the difficulties of the journey across the Atlantic and a storm at sea, which had ‘the force and noise of a thousand sledge hammers upon so many anvils’. The men on board had to spend the night at the ship’s pump to try and survive on the ‘terrible sea’.