Siren Songs by Joe Chester
"As the sessions for Jupiter’s Wife (2020) began as live performances direct to tape at Sam Phillips’ Sun Studio, Memphis, I decided to continue this practice as I wrote more and more songs for the album and so I set up at my own studio in France with an old Revox 2-track tape machine. At the start of each session, to check levels and warm up my voice, I would often record a cover version of a favourite song so that by the end of the sessions there were several reels of tape sitting on a shelf containing these cover versions.
I had always intended to release the best of these as a companion piece for Jupiter’s Wife but life and other projects intervened and so here are, a couple of years late, my Siren Songs.
I have included songs by The Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, Elvis Costello and The Everly Brothers along with radically different alternate versions of my own songs, "Staying Together For The Children" and "Novena," all recorded with my old Lowden guitar, direct to my old Revox 2-track tape machine."
Joe Chester, Rennes, December 2023
Tracklist
| 1. | Staying Together for the Children (Alternate Version) | 4:39 |
| 2. | Pale Blue Eyes | 6:07 |
| 3. | Little Palaces | 3:32 |
| 4. | Place to Be | 3:05 |
| 5. | Down in the Willow Garden | 3:04 |
| 6. | Novena (Alternate Version) | 3:55 |
Credits
License
All rights reserved.Tags
Joe Chester's albums have been written about in the books 101 Irish Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, by Tony Clayton-Lea and Buried Treasure by Dan Hegarty and featured recently in The Sunday Times list of the best Irish albums of all time.
Irish Album of the Year, 2020 - Irish Mirror (Jupiter's Wife)
Irish Album of the Year, 2017 - Irish Sun (The Easter Vigil)