A few years ago the talented poet and playwright John Kavanagh approached me to collaborate on some singing for an album called ‘Words for Music’. John had taken some works of WB Yeats and set them to beautiful melodies on guitar. Coming together to record the album, the songs morphed into stunning pieces of music, some slow, some fast and together with the producer James Blennerhasset and the incredible studio musicians the songs took on a life of their own. Here is one of my favorites from the album. A haunting, slightly melancholic look at ‘Politics’. Happy Birthday WB!

Politics by William Butler Yeats

HOW can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here’s a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there’s a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!