Watch a moving tribute to Talos performed by his friends and family including Ólafar Arnalds, Dermot Kennedy, Niamh Regan, Ye Vagabonds and more on the Tommy Tiernan show
Eoin French’s passing in September was a devastating loss for a lot of the Irish music community.
The Cork musician left a legacy of music behind to be released after his death, the first of which an EP with Atli Örvarsson, was released in November.
Back in 2023, at the festival / musician’s retreat Sounds From A Safe Harbour, Eoin performed a song he wrote with Icelandic composer Ólafar Arnalds and Galway singer-songwriter Niamh Regan called ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’. The rendition captured at the Riverlee Hotel at the festival featured the likes of Ye Vagabonds and Dermot Kennedy among others on backing vocals.
Last night, the gang who performed the song got together in 2023 to perform the song ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’ live on The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTÉ.
The performance features Eoin French’s vocals to start it off, and features in full: piano by Ólafar Arnalds, cello by Kate Ellis, vocals by Niamh Regan, Ye Vagabonds, JFDR, The Staves, Sandrayati Fay, Dermot Kennedy, Laoise Leahy, Memorial, Cristof Van Der Ven and most poignantly of all, Eoin’s wife Steph French.
It’s a devastatingly beautiful tribute to a warm soul, and I hope the song will get a proper release in the future, along with the promised Talos albums to come.
Here’s the original performance from Sounds From A Safe Harbour 2023 in full:
