It’s an old traditional song that you may remember from its appearance on a Pogues album, Red Roses For Me, but you’d be forgiven if you didn’t because this is a very different version.

 

It starts with drones and eventually there’s a single, sad drumbeat before the plucking of strings unleashes squalls of guitar, shrieking into the shadows beside a banshee wail of electronics and distortions.

 

It comes from a Dubliner called John Francis Flynn, whose earthy baritone seems to emerge from the bogs of Ireland itself; a perfect fit for the strange musical goings-on that accompany it.

 

I came across this version in the Irish-language BBC series Crá, itself a perfect fit for the song, with its theme of dark secrets in the untamed landscape in the wild west of Ireland.

 

Flynn is part of the new wave of Irish folk music, alongside Lisa O’Neill and bands like Lankum and ØXN who take traditional folk songs and twisting them into new shapes with electronics and other modern instruments.

 

He’s a singer, guitarist and flautist and made his name as a member of a Dublin group called Skipper’s Alley. This is taken from his second solo album, Look Over The Wall, See The Sky.

 

Bear with it: it’s a slow-building piece of work that rewards close attention.