The Day Dawn is the culmination of over twenty years work and It’s true to say that so much of my life until today is contained in this tiny disk. The first recordings were made in Co Kerry when I was twenty-three and the latest ones this year in Albany, Western Australia.
I have tried on many occasions to record an album but the sessions have always seemed to fall short of the mark and I grew more and more frustrated as time went on. It was then my brother Brian stepped in, suggesting perhaps I’d already made the album and I should gather up all the recordings I’d ever made and see exactly what was there. I actually hadn’t kept many of the recordings so I set out to gather them up from all four corners. Friends and sound guys started digging through old hard drives and pretty soon I realised my brother was onto something.
I searched for the takes where I remember something musical happened in the performance, often when my accompanist and I were just playing for the sake of it forgetting we were being recorded or in a studio. I personally have until now found this state to be very elusive and I now know this is what led me to hold off releasing an album until now.
It took me a year to piece together this large jigsaw puzzle with the help and advice of many friends and family. Then one day the selected tracks just seemed to fit into their place. I believe albums should be a composition in themselves. When I realised the album was done it dawned on me that the many recording sessions had not been in vain and that this was the way this album needed to have been made or at least it has made it what it is.
The Day Dawn was recorded on six different fiddles, two of which I made in six different studios between Australia and Ireland with five different accompanists.
Peter Grandison has done an amazing job of mastering these tracks, keeping the integrity and sound of each original recordings. I can’t thank him enough.
I sincerely hope you the listener enjoy it and get something from it. For me an unimaginable weight has been lifted from my shoulders upon its completion.
Rob Zielinski