The Goo 1
Regular TO HERE KNOWS WHEN - GREAT IRISH ALBUMS R
EVISITED AT THE END OF A WINDING DAY - THE Hedge Schools Last month’s column was devoted to Joe Chester’s A Murder of Crows and this time we’re focusing on another record that Chester had a hand in. The Hedge Schools was Pat Barrett and Joe Chester. Prior to The Hedge Schools Pat and Joe were both members of Dublin indie-rockers Ten Speed Racer. In that band the lads were joined by Pat’s two brothers Dermot and John and Terry Cullen. Ten Speed Racer released two highly regarded albums, 2000’s Eskimo Beach Boy and their self-titled second album in 2003. Tom Robinson once wrote in The Guardian that, “No one with a pulse can fail to be moved by Dublin’s Ten Speed Racer.” TSR eventually called it a day in 2004 and Pat reconvened with Joe as The Hedge Schools. In a review of 2008’s Never Leave Anywhere, the duo’s debut album journalist, author, and Horslips’ drummer Eamon Carr wrote in the Evening Herald: “There are no 120bpm headbangers here. Wisely. Instead, Patrick and Joe create a stately hymnal that oozes atmospheric introspection. A search for acoustic purity lies at the heart of the vision of The Hedge Schools. Each arrangement unfolds like a mini-symphony.” Carr could just as easily be describing At the End of a Winding Day, the band’s second album, which came out 6 years later in 2014. Upon its release it was lauded. “The second album from Pat Barrett and producer Joe Chester,” wrote Niall Byrne in The Irish Times, “is as pensive and as elegant as you’ll get from these shores. Restrained in its execution, the team keep it minimal and moving – a reverbed piano rings out, a trumpet harks or a guitar is picked gently while Barrett sings in a relaxed emotional style.” Killian Laher in his review for No More Workhorse, wrote, “It’s one of those rare albums that when you put it on, everything else seems to recede into the background.” Others also recognised the beauty of this album. Paul Page, of Whipping Boy, picked the album as his favourite Irish album of 2015 and wrote on his old website Between the Bars, that, “it is a record that knows the value of space and silence, there is a total absence of clutter and distracting superfluous noise.” High praise indeed. After At the End of a Winding Day, The Hedge Schools released one more album, 2018's Magnificent Birds. Since then Pat has released two albums under the name Arrivalists: Last of the Written Pages (2021); and It’s Own Time (2023). “A deeply personal set of songs for me back then, and they still are, for many reasons,” said Pat reflecting on At the End of a Winding Day last year. “We never for one minute realised the reach and the impact it would have as a record.” Its impact was acknowledged this time last year when Dublin Vinyl announced that they intended to reissue it on vinyl. When they went into receivership the album’s reissue was thankfully rescued by MusicZone, the Cork record shop, and a gorgeous sounding pressing was released. If you like late-period Talk Talk and The Blue Nile I think you’d really love this album. At the End of a Winding Day is available on vinyl from Bandcamp. Pat Barrett revisits At the End of a Winding Day on To Here Knows When – Great Irish Albums Revisited, available on all podcast platforms. Episode notes and further information: https://www.paulmcdermott.ie/podcast PAGE 44