Following up the phenomenal success of his first single in 2021, Opera on the Top Floor, Jack O’Rourke is back with new single Patsy giving us a taste of his new album, Wild Place. Never one to shy away from the personal, the Cork songwriter has approached these recordings with a starker musical palette in mind with the arrangements representative of a more solitary, yet cathartic place, that Jack and many songwriters found themselves in over the last year.
Of the single Jack says: “’Patsy Cline’ is about a wild love – all that’s exciting and beautiful – the wild place where that exists, even in a memory. Patsy was an extraordinary singer and she could have sung anything – jazz or RnB and her phrasing travels beyond country music. To me, she’s the precursor to Janis Joplin or even Bjork or Phoebe Bridgers. Her voice is evocative and honeyed but that raw quality is always there. There’s a primal, reckless quality to her voice and I suppose in a great love, you’re being thrown in directions you never imagined, like the journey Patsy Cline brings you on in her delivery. That’s exciting but scary.”
This recklessness must have rubbed off as Jack recorded piano and vocals for Patsy at the Triskel in one take. Enlisting help from Marlene Enright, with her special sense of rhythm, and Cormac McCarthy who has produced a fantastic string arrangement that pays tribute to early 1960s Patsy Cline recordings. O’Rourke also went on to recruit members of Crash Ensemble, with Davie Ryan and Hugh Dillon adding to the rich musicality of the track.
A mellow single infused with dreamy piano keys, and idyllic vocals that glide over the tectonic pull of effervescent stringed arrangements. Patsy is a remarkable single that bubbles with a pensive romanticism .
Check out the new video below & keep an eye on Jack O’Rourke’s socials for new releases!
Twitter: @JackORourkes // Facebook: @JackORourkeMusic // Instagram: @jackorourkemusic // Website: https://www.jackorourkesongs.com/
The Verge Music News 