17/3/15 MSN - Damien Leith Returns to His Roots for
Mar 17, 2015 21:19:15 GMT 10
Post by thebraff (Braffy) on Mar 17, 2015 21:19:15 GMT 10
a.msn.com/01/en-au/AA9RgtZ
www.9jumpin.com.au/show/today/videos/4115293953001/
Damien Leith is going back to his Irish roots, just in time for St Patrick's Day.
The title of leith's latest album is explanation in itself, Songs From Ireland.
After 12 years in Australia and a childhood partially spent living in Africa, the pull of his roots still proves strong.
He even went back to Ireland to record the album, returning to the studio he had worked in 14 years ago.
"I've been easing more and more into doing things in Ireland ... Over time I've been kind of leaning towards this way," he told AAP.
Leith is known for winning Australian Idol in 2006, and says that initially he was going down more of a "pop" route but he has always had an underlying style.
"Straight after Idol I was doing poppy songs but it was always very acoustic and folky. I've tried to keep a style all the way through and the style is still there," he said.
"I think I'm a folk person at heart ... I love ballads and slow songs, heartfelt things, songs with stories," he said.
But now with this album, there's no denying where his style lies and it's a return to form. He can remember playing these songs when he first came to Australia 13 years ago at his very first gig in a gaelic club in Sydney.
"There's definitely a full circle about it. There's stuff on this album that 13 years ago, I would have been doing back then," he said.
Leith has a background that would give the Von Trapps a run for their money. Every song on this album is one he actually performed at some stage in the family band with his parents.
But they're also songs Leith has used in a play called The Parting Glass, a play Leith himself actually wrote for the cabaret festival in Adelaide three years ago but it has since taken off and he's about to tour it extensively throughout the country.
It's a one man show where Leith plays a father and son, and it's set in a pub where a band plays most of these songs throughout.
He's been Down Under for over a decade and Australia has been good to Leith. Very good.
But he explains he works at keeping his heritage alive.
"You're settling in but you're also holding on to your own Irishness, and it's just getting that fine balance making sure you're doing all the things you want to do but also embracing everything that you're coming to," he said.
*Songs From Ireland is out now and Leith will also be touring his stage production The Parting Glass: An Irish Journey for 25 dates throughout the country from May 8.
