Whistle release new album

A school fundraiser, some guitar lessons and 20 years later a thriving six-piece band.

That’s the story, in brief, of ‘Whistle’ the Americana-style band known for their lively performances and rich blend of bluegrass, country and old-time music.

They released their new album, ‘Seven Long Years’ last Saturday (April 26) at The Wild Duck in Temple Bar.

“We’ve put a lot of work into recording those songs. They’re all songs that we’ve written ourselves so we’re really interested to get them out and see what people think,” Des Walsh told the Celt, speaking before the launch.

Des, who began as a bass player in the band, now plays electric and acoustic guitar and has penned four songs out of the album’s dozen. Originally from Dublin, he has called Cornafean home for the past seven years. He shared how he started the band accidentally over 20 years ago. Tasked with coming up for a fundraiser for an auction at his children’s school in Castleknock, Des recalls how he “didn’t really have anything to give.”

With a love of playing the guitar, he offered ten adult beginner guitar lessons.

“This chap Jerome bid for the lessons and won them. He came along and it turned out he actually could play guitar he just wanted somebody to play with,” Des laughed.

Having finished up with the lessons, the pair decided to play in the local pub on a Sunday night.

“A few tunes sitting in the corner,” he recalled.

“We kept that going for quite a while and we picked up other people along the way and before we knew it, we had a band.

“We’re still going together,” he enthused, adding that he also turns his hand to songwriting.

He has penned ‘Ribbons and Curls’, ‘Laundry Love’, ‘Trailer Park Dreams’ and ‘Shallow Hole’ in their most recent album.

“They’re a real diverse mix of songs, different subjects and different feelings to them,” he explained.

“Some of them are upbeat kind of happy clappy songs and some are a bit darker and more introspective,” he added.

Des opts for ‘Laundry Love’ as his favourite, a lively song written about two people who find love in a laundromat, dance around the town wearing “rich folks’ clothes” when the doors close and end up getting married.

“I’ve no idea where those lyrics came from. I think I was working on a bit of the guitar and trying to come up with words for it and the first line I came up with was ‘I met my love in a laundromat.’

“It is a very American expression, a laundromat. We don’t have them over here,” he laughed, adding that the song is not written based on personal experience.

“I just kind of built it from there, built up a little story about two people meeting..

“It is a kind of an upbeat and happy song about love and meeting somebody and having a good time with them.

“We like playing it, there’s a lot of mixtures of tempo and beat to the song as we play it. We change rhythms quite a bit so it gets people dancing.”

The album as a whole has been influenced by the likes of the Avett brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, with Whistle’s own “unique musical style” shining through in every track.

Meanwhile the musician has abundant praise for his fellow bandmates, who he described as “professional musicians in their own right”.

Jerome Corby plays the mandolin, with Carl Lombard on banjo, Enid Conaghan plays the fiddle, Andy Slowey on bass and Brian McGuinness plays percussion and acoustic guitar. “It’s a great band in the way that everybody in the band sings which is great. Everybody plays more than one instrument.”

“For the album were able to put on bits of piano and other instruments that we wouldn’t normally have on stage with us.

“That adds a bit to everything we do.”

The band plays all over Ireland with their music also streamed on Spotify and Youtube. For upcoming gigs and more on the band, search linktr.ee/whistleband.