"Lovers Wreck" by Gaelic Storm

A genre of music that I really enjoy but haven’t really written about so far on this blog is Celtic music and more specifically, Celtic rock. Admittedly, my introduction to Celtic music is a bit embarrassing. It consisted of a YouTube video my friend showed me when we were probably still in elementary school of an Arby’s commercial featuring river dancing chimpanzees. I think the original commercial had “Lord of the Dance” by Ronan Hardiman playing in the background, but I was shown a “remix” which featured a poor attempt to edit a different song over the original (the original can still be heard). This “different song” was a cover of “Tell Me Ma” by Sham Rock and it ended up stuck in my head for days. And thus began my interest in Celtic music.

This interest eventually led me to more legitimate sources than overdubbed fast-food commercials, one of which is the band that wrote the song covered here. The band is Gaelic Storm, and the song is “Lover’s Wreck.”

“Lover’s Wreck” is, to me, a very visual song. The lyrics are full of rich imagery and symbolism that do an amazing job of painting a picture in my head. At its core, it’s a song about someone grieving over a breakup and desperately wanting their ex to return to them. However, weaved into the lyrics are nautical metaphors and symbols that provide a different dimension to the song. The singer is a “wretched soul on a privateer, drowning out at sea,” while their ex is compared to “a ghost ship in the night, [drifting] out once more.” The backing vocals during the end of each chorus also seem to mirror the chanting that was done on ships in order to perform synchronized tasks.

Equally as important and well-written is the instrumental. Three instruments stick out to me in particular, the guitar, the violin, and the banjo. I love the intro to this song. The springy, syncopated guitar riff soon gives way to a gliding, energetic violin. These, along with the breakdown played on the banjo leading into each chorus provide a spirited, yet forlorn soundtrack to the imagery created by the lyrics.

Gaelic Storm appeared in Titanic and recorded some songs for the movie. Besides that, they’ve released plenty of albums with a lot of music that, regardless of the subject of the song, they bring a lot of energy to. Some of my other favorites of theirs are “Scalliwag,” “The Beggarman,” and their covers of “Tell Me Ma” and “The Leaving of Liverpool.” As far as Celtic bands go, I think Gaelic Storm manages to keep that “Celtic feel” while also bringing their own spin to the genre and to the songs they cover. For anyone interested in this type of music (and even those who might not be), I would highly suggest checking them out!