Article Contributed by Charm School Media
Published on 2026-06-01
Featuring Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, Sarah Jarosz, Indigo Girls, The Del McCoury Band, and more
Dervish have today released their new album, The Great Irish Songbook Vol. 2: Poets & Storytellers, on Down the Road Records/Exceleration Music. The follow-up to their acclaimed 2019 collection The Great Irish Songbook, the new record brings together Dervish with an exceptional cast of guests from across the folk, country, and Americana worlds to perform songs by Ireland’s most celebrated contemporary songwriters.
Stream/Purchase The Great Irish Songbook Vol. 2: Poets & Storytellers
Where the first volume drew on the timeless canon of traditional Irish song, Poets & Storytellers turns its gaze to the present, gathering material from Phil Coulter, Shane MacGowan, Sinéad O’Connor, Van Morrison, Ye Vagabonds, The Breath, and others whose writing is actively expanding the tradition. The result is a collection that honors the past while insisting on the vitality of the now.
Sarah Jarosz lends her voice to the longing “Blue Is the Eye;” Indigo Girls carry John Spillane’s “Passage West” into new emotional territory; The Del McCoury Band make the case that bluegrass and Irish music are kindred spirits on the album’s closing track, Phil Coulter’s “The Town I Loved So Well;” Glen Hansard performs his own “Leave the Light On;” Eddi Reader channels the Celtic soul of Van Morrison’s “One Irish Rover;” and Moya Brennan contributes the Irish-language celebration “Tobar an tSaoil.” Madeleine Peyroux, Aoife O’Donovan, and Iron & Wine round out a guest roster that reads like a who’s-who of contemporary roots music.
The Del McCoury single “The Town I Loved So Well,” released earlier this month, drew immediate notice from the roots music press. Bluegrass Today praised it as “a memorable recording of a song with as many devotees in North America as there are in Ireland,” noting the transatlantic chemistry between the two bands.
With The Great Irish Songbook Vol. 2, Dervish has delivered another testament to the living, breathing present tense of Irish music, proof that a tradition this vital doesn’t need protecting so much as it needs continuing.
The Great Irish Songbook Vol. 2: Poets & Storytellers Track Listing
“Passage West” (by John Spillane) feat. Indigo Girls
“Jackie” (by Sinéad O'Connor) feat. Aoife O’Donovan
“Rock the Machine” (by Lisa O'Neill) feat. Iron & Wine
“Blue is the Eye” (by Brian and Diarmuid Glynn) feat. Sarah Jarosz
“The Broad Majestic Shannon” (by Shane MacGowan) feat. Cathy Jordan
“Land of My Other” (by Rioghnach Sinead Connolly) feat. Sister Sadie
“One Irish Rover” (by Van Morrison) feat. Eddi Reader
“Leave a Light On” (by Glen Hansard) feat. Glen Hansard
“Tobar an tSaoil” (by Moya Brennan & Ashling Jarvis) feat. Moya Brennan
“As I Leave Behind Neidin” (by Jimmy McCarthy) feat. Madeleine Peyroux
“The Town I Loved So Well” (by Phil Coulter) feat. The Del McCoury Band
