Bono among celebrities featured reading famous Irish poet’s work on new album – 105.7 The Point

Claddagh Records/UMe

U2‘s Good is among a host of Irish celebrities to read the poems of the celebrated late Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh on a new album titled Almost Everything… which will be released on September 23rd.

The album is a two-part collection combining recordings of 15 different Irish characters reciting Kavanagh’s poetry, backed by a musical soundtrack, with a remastered version of 1964’s Almost Everything, which Kavanagh captured reading his own poetry.

Bono opens the album with a recitation of what is perhaps Kavanagh’s most famous poem, “On Raglan Road”. Other contributors to the album include Ireland’s President, Michael D Higgins; Singer Sharon Corr, Christy Moore, Hozier and Imelda May; and actors Liam Neeson, Aisling-Bea, Evanna Lynch, Aidan Gillen and Jessie Buckley.

“Fast Everything…” will be available as a two CD or two LP set and is available for pre-order now from CladdaghRecords.com and Amazon.

The physical versions of Almost Everything… come with a booklet containing all of the poetry heard on the album.

Kavanagh, who began his writing career in the early 1930s, was known for his unsentimental portrayal of everyday Irish life. He died in 1967 at the age of 63.

Here is the track listing of Almost Everything…:

CD1 (read by guests):

“On Raglan Road” – read by Bono
“Stony Gray Soil” – read by Michael D. Higgins
“Remembering My Father” – read by Liam Neeson
Canal Bank Walk – read by Imelda May
“Peace” – read by Hozier
Inniskeen Road: July Evening read by Lisa McGee
“In Memory of My Mother” – read by Kathleen Watkins
“The Hospital” – read by Lisa Hannigan
“Pegasus” – read by Rachael Blackmore
“October” – read by Christy Moore
“Shancoduff” – read by Aisling Bea
“Lines Written in a Seat by the Grand Canal, Dublin” – read by Evanna Lynch
“Excerpt from The Great Hunger” – read by Aidan Gillen
“A Christmas Childhood” – read by Sharon Corr
“Epic” – Read by Jessie Buckley

CD2 (read by Patrick Kavanagh):

“Autobiographical Prose”
“The same again”
“Jungle”
“Narcissus and the Women”
“Epos”
“God in Woman”
“Kerr’s Ass”
“Peace”
“The hospital”
“On the Death of Jim Larkin”
“Excerpt from The Great Hunger”
“Life in the Country: Part One”
“Dear People”
“Miss Universe”
“Beyond Reason, Maybe”
“To hell with common sense”
“October”
“Come Dance with Kitty Stobling”
“prelude”
“After I Stood”

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