well what could be more appropriate for saint patrick’s day than for ikon‘s very own saint pádraig ó tuama to release his first album hymns to swear by. those of you who have been to an ikon worship event or heard their album will know the tracks yearn and gift and have been spellbound by the beauty of the poetry and song. i think of pádraig as a contemporary mystic if there is such a thing.

this album has a mix of poetry, spoken word and songs. it is absolutely gorgeous. it’s also like nothing else so i simply can’t compare it. some tracks are just pure spoken words, others mix song and acoustic guitar. it’s stripped back nature makes it all the more potent. like all good poetry it gets straight to the deep issues of life. it’s not background music. you have to stop what you are doing and pay attention to the poet. (having written that line it reminds me of bruce cockburn’s song maybe the poet… pay attention to the poet – you need him and you know it).

it’s available to download on proost i am proud to say. if you want a physical cd contact pádraig as he is getting some made. if you want to listen to a sample then i have added one to proost freebies – creed which contains the line i once was blind but now i am blinder still.

pád will be performing on the insurrection tour which kicked off in belfast last night

in the sleeve notes pádraig says

Many of these words and singings grew out of invitations to write from Ikon and other Conspiracies. Thanks. They also grew out of darkness – godonlyknows who’s to thank or blame for that. They grew out of goodness and kindness of people too – were I to name names, I’d be naming names for many years. These are Hymns to swear by.