Kilkenny musician releases second single in a matter of weeks

While many artists can go months between releases, folk singer/songwriter Mick Citern Walsh is getting into the habit of bringing new music into the world every other week when the mood takes him. 

His latest heartfelt opus is entitled Tory Island I Will Return, another pick from his own ever-growing and impressive catalogue, and comes hot on the heels of his May 26 offering, Scaip Fuil mo Chomráidí sa Feabhra. This single will also be his third of 2023, with his first - February's Dublin City That Old Man Is Me - earning Mick more than one-thousand views on YouTube. 

Kilkenny songwriter Mick Citern Walsh records first Irish language version of famous Bengali song

Last year, the Waterford man released Katie Rua Power in early November, having marked All Hallows' Eve with Halloween Night towards the end of October. Like Tory Island I Will Return, both of those songs were additions to his own songbook, with Katie Rua Power marking the end of a prolific year, being his fifth single of 2022. 

Tory Island I Will Return - which will be available on all platforms from June 16 - was inspired by a short vacation to the titular island off the north-west coast of Donegal in 2022, when marathon man Mick laced up his runners to bask in the wonder of the location's natural beauty.

"I'm classed as a senior-citizen these days", laughs the Kilkenny based songsmith, "but I don't pay much heed to labels like that. Thankfully, as someone who is still lucky enough to be a competing athlete, I can be as mobile as the mood takes me when I visit places like Tory Island, somewhere that's close to being a heavenly vision no matter what direction you turn your head in''. 

He continued, "When I headed out to the island last year for a three-day stay, I made sure to bring my runners with me. So on they went, and off I went! There's a dirt track that leads out to the lighthouse, and that's where I found myself right around the time when the sun was going down. So I just stood there for a while taking it all in, all the sights and sounds around me. On reflection later, I thought to myself that this was surely the most remote place I had ever set my two feet upon. It was something of a dreamlike moment in some ways, both in the moment itself, and afterwards when looking back on it". 

You know all that you might ever need to know about Mick when you hear that - as well as never leaving home without his trusted runners - he also made the journey to such a far-flung location with his musical instruments close to hand! 

"I suppose", he ponders, "it could be said that both my runners and my instruments take me to different places. That's why I'm never to be found too far from either! As it happened, the Island Centre hosted an open music session one of  the nights I was there, so it was my pleasure to play a part in that. Everything about the island, I felt anyway, almost speaks to you in its own way. Even the boat journey out was something that stuck in the mind long after as there was a huge swell on the sea at the time. So, if I was to reply in some way to the island's own song, it would be in the words of my own: Tory Island I Will Return."

"And that", states Mick, "is how this song was born". 

Tory Island I Will Return, the new single from Mick Citern Walsh, will be available on all platforms from June 16. 

The singer/songwriter's May 26 release - Scaip Fuil mo Chomrádaí sa Feabhra - an Irish language version of the Bengali song, Amar Vaiyer Rokte Rangano (full title, Amar Vaiyer Rokte Rangano Ekushe February, Ami Ki Vulite Pari?, meaning, My Brother's Blood Spattered 21 February, Can I forget That?), is also out now.