California Irish - The Mountains Are My Friends *Pre-Order

Release Date Friday 27th June 2025
All pre-orders will be dispatched/made ready for collection on that day.

Summoning the beguiling spirit of Laurel Canyon, employing analogue recording techniques, and
recording songs in one or two takes to achieve something with a real human touch, California Irish are a
new seven-piece group hailing from Belfast that working their own niche within the world of folk and
Americana, and everything in between.
This new group with a unique sound formed from a combination of players that initially came together
briefly to perform a Neil Young-inspired theatre show production called "Re-Harvest", in which the
musicians who now make up California Irish very successfully performed the classic albums 'Harvest
Moon' and 'Harvest' back-to-back.
The brainchild of the group's lead singer and chief songwriter Cormac Neeson, the band were hand-
picked by Neeson based on long standing friendships, as well as experiences with numerous musical
projects within the thriving Belfast music scene.
The Laurel Canyon influence also extends to the band’s recording technique, adhering rigidly to the
analogue 16 track recording method circa 1969: namely recording live straight to tape at the world-
famous Middle Farm Studios under the watchful eyes and ears of producer Pete Miles.
The resulting sound of California Irish flies in the face of modern techniques that often lose the warmth of
the original compositions. Instead, the group opted for a one off and unique shared human experience
with musicians who feed off each other’s energy and create compelling four-part vocal blends around one
single microphone in a warm alt-folk celebration. The creative process in turn led to an album's worth of
songs tentatively titled “The Mountains Are My Friends”.
Cormac states his reason for starting the band and wanting to harness this fabulous sound: 
"This album is the opposite of boring AI generated no soul perfection. We recorded this album in a room
together over four days allowing the music to breathe when it needed to, looking at each other for our
cues and feeding off each other’s energy. It felt like a dream…but it’s the most real thing I’ve ever done in
music. That Laurel Canyon sound of the late 60s, epitomised by the early Crosby Stills Nash and Young
stuff, and the first few Joni Mitchell records, has always felt otherworldly and magical. On our album we’ve
tried to access some of that beauty and create our own magic by combining brand new music with an old
school recording process."

1. Live Fast Die Free / 2. Old Friends / 3. Julie Ann / 4. Side By Side / 5. Something Different / 6. Big
Questions / 7. Can’t Let Go / 8. Sunday Morning / 9. Hard We Fall / 10. I Am Free

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