Clancy - Road to the Heart
A few words on NPB’s Paul Clancy and his 2010 album Road to the Heart.
Clancy - Road to the Heart (2010, Catchy Go Go Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
Since I published my interview with Patrick Freyne about his bands NPB and El Diablo (Episode 60 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited) a few listeners have been in touch asking for more information on the Clancy song we played on the episode.
In the Episode, Freyne talks about his NPB bandmate Paul Clancy who sadly suffered a sudden cardiac death in February 2010 on the eve of the release of his debut album Road to the Heart. On the episode we played the song ‘Hope in Your Heart’, the single from the album that was released in November 2009. That single had a cover version of Daniel Johnston’s ‘True Love Will Find You in the End’, but typically I couldn’t find the that promo CD when I was putting this post together so I’ve been unable to revisit his cover.
I did locate the two press releases that accompanied Road to the Heart and a subsequent self-titled EP release from October 2011.
It’s a really special album of laidback, beautifully arranged tunes. ‘Sweet Sunshine’, ‘Lancelot’, the single ‘Hope in Your Heart’ and ‘Love Will Beat a Path to Your Door’ are among its standout tracks. It’s an album that owes as much to sparse Americana as it does to the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album. It’s a thing of beauty and I’m thrilled that a few people wanted more information about it.
Paul Clancy.
The press release for Road to the Heart (reproduced below), stated that:
“Clancy was once a singer-songwriting drummer with The National Prayer Breakfast (NPB), a band who released three albums worth of garage rock at the turn of the last century (The Irish Times called them ‘important’ and NME compared them favourably to Lou Reed). But something must have happened to Clancy between then and now, because while the NPB (like Clancy’s childhood musical heroes KISS) sang from the crotch, Clancy now sings simple, unpretentious ballads from the heart.
So with an old country guitar picked and plucked fervently, a smooth electric guitar dripping sweet tones like honey and butterscotch and a voice rasping with character, Clancy has absorbed aspects of artists such as Will Oldham, Beck (Sea Change), Eels, Leonard Cohen and Grant Lee Buffalo.”
Road to the Heart was written, arranged and performed by Clancy and Kevin Connolly with additional instrumentation and vocals by Les Keye and Conor Brennan. Connolly played bass guitar in El Diablo alongside Freyne, Anna Carey and his brother Pól Ó Conghaile. Connolly recorded under the name Herm and his 2009 album Monsters is a favourite of mine - a great album.
I recall that in 2009 Connolly was a guest on my old radio programme Songs To Learn and Sing, on 103.2 Dublin City FM, we spent an hour chatting about Monsters and the music that inspired him. It was Connolly who sent the Clancy album my way in 2010.
Clancy - EP (CD Single, 2011, Catchy Go Go Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
“Road to the Heart makes for an emotive listen when you know its back story,” wrote John Meagher in the Irish Independent on 19 March 2010.
He continued: “The debut album from the late Paul Clancy, it’s an accomplished, meditative collection that was sure to raise Paul’s profile As the drummer of Dublin indie band National Prayer Breakfast, Clancy was already a well-known figure on the domestic music scene, but this album showed that he was a talented singer-songwriter as well as a fine percussionist. A psychotherapist by profession, he had begun promotional work on the album when he died suddenly last month. He was just 35.”
Kevin Connolly spoke to Meagher for the Irish Independent article and said: “We are going to go ahead with the album launch and promotion, as we would very much like to get Paul’s beautiful music to as many people as possible and to continue the work that he had started and that we were all enjoying so much.”
Clancy. Photograph by Paul McDermott.
“Road to the Heart, the debut album by Dublin band Clancy, has taken on an especially sad resonance with the sudden death last week of its main auteur, Paul Clancy,” wrote Adrienne Murphy in her Hot Press review.
Murphy continued: “The record is special. Like all really satisfying albums, Road to the Heart brings the listener on a journey, its ten tracks forming separate paths towards the same universal point: an authentic exploration of love and the human heart.”
Road to the Heart - Press Release. Photograph by Paul McDermott.
In October 2011 Kevin Connolly oversaw the release of a 4 song EP by Clancy. In the months before his death, Clancy was writing new material, with an eye to a second album, and these were the songs that ended up on the EP.
“He had recorded vocal and acoustic guitar takes of some new songs with Les Keye in Arad Studios, and arrangements had been discussed and worked on in rehearsals with his songwriting partner Kevin Connolly,” stated the EP’s press release.
Paul Clancy
The press release continues:
“Following Paul’s untimely death, Kevin undertook to continue work on these recordings. Thus, over the last year or so, Kevin and Les have been at work in Arad, adding electric guitars, bass, backing vocals, etc. to Paul’s parts. The arrangements on Road to the Heart were used as a template and Kevin aimed to follow the lead which had been established in the rehearsals with Paul.
Of the songs on this EP, ‘Halo’ is a cover of the Beyonce hit, ‘To the Even Flow’ and ‘For Wanting You’ are original Clancy compositions and The Town Where I’m From’ a version of a song by Paul’s fellow NPB member and close friend, Patrick Freyne. The artwork is by Ian Kenny, who worked with Paul on the artwork for the album also.”
For further listening…
Road to the Heart and the 4-track EP are both available on Bandcamp
and finally here’s the episode with Patrick Freyne…
Episode 60