This is the story of ‘Cape Spear’, a collection of Irish and Newfoundland songs and stories, telling stories of this wonderful and loving Canadian seafaring community and its heritage.
When long-time Canadian resident Patrick Sullivan visited Cape Spear on a sunny afternoon in 2006, a warm sea breeze and the vast blue expanse of the Atlantic Ocean evoked old feelings of growing up by the sea in Ireland.
Patrick later embodied those sentiments in a poem. When his friend, Juno Award-winning musician and songwriter Derek Harrington, read it, he immediately thought he’d like to put it to music. Derek worked musical magic on him, and several of Patrick’s poems subsequently emerged as songs.
His friend Jan Peters in Newfoundland heard these early versions and suggested they make a CD. So Derek convinced his brothers Paul de him, famous in Ireland for his soft, melodious voice, and Richard Harrington to join him in performing his songs. Thus the album ‘Cape Spear’ was born.
Patrick says he’ll never forget Paul telling him one day in the studio that he loves to sing songs that tell a story, and that’s exactly what Patrick’s poetry does. When Paul recorded the title track ‘Cape Spear’ and ‘Coffin Ship’, his evocative singing brought these words and melodies to life.
Derek has written most of the new material himself with Patrick Sullivan’s beautiful lyrics. The songs feature the voices of Derek, Paul and Richard Harrington. It also features two remastered tracks ‘Bunclody’ and ‘Sally Gardens’ from Harrington Brother’s previous album ‘Monto on the Rock’.
David Matheson, whose musical creativity contributed greatly to this CD, Norm Barker and Richard Uglow joined the team early on and got the tape rolling.
D’Arcy Broderick, Graham Wells and Mike Hanrahan also contribute a performance of Naomi’s Reel, written by Derek and named for one of the worst coffin ships that sailed to Canada in 1847.
Like so many trips that start from Cape Spear, this one also started there. Along the way he joined people in friendship and remembrance.