Lori Lander Murphy‘s piece on the irishphiladelphia.com website highlights Caitríona O’Leary‘s latest release Both Sides Now (Ón Dá Thaobh) – an Irish language version of the song Both Sides by Joni Mitchell.

In it, Caitríona O’Leary says of Joni Mitchell:

“She’s such an amazing songwriter. Her music just bowls me over, it really does. I can’t sit through all of the album ‘Blue’ without just being an emotional mess, reduced to tears every time. It’s so unique, actually, she has a voice all her own – her singing voice, but also a poetic voice. She just touches on subjects and brings everything to life, she brings a whole story to life in just a few words. I think she is absolutely remarkable, so it was a total joy for me to immerse myself in her music and her songs…”

“I think it is possible to just understand yourself and your environment better through a variety of languages…And so I’m also singing songs that are newly translated/transcreated into Irish, or another language, and where that language then takes the song that it wouldn’t have gone before. So, for instance, I wouldn’t sing Both Sides Now the same way in English as I sing it in Irish. It would bring out something different, different musical passions and different musical results.”

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Both Sides Now (Ón Dá Thaobh) marks Heresy Records’ first recording released exclusively for digital streaming and download services. The song is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer and numerous other digital service providers.

On Friday 24^th January 2020, Heresy Records will release a digital single version of Joni Mitchell’s iconic song, Both Sides Now, in an Irish language translation sung by Caitríona O’Leary. She is accompanied on the recording by guitarist Dick Farrelly.

Both Sides Now (Ón Dá Thaobh) was translated into Irish by the renowned Dublin-based poet Gabriel Rosenstock. The song was first performed by Caitríona O’Leary and Dick Farrelly in May 2016 in a production – starring O’Leary – entitled Sweet Fire: The Joni Mitchell Project as part of IMRAM Féile Litríochta Gaeilge (IMRAM Irish Language Literature Festival) and the International Dublin Literature Festival.  Sweet Fire later toured throughout Ireland.

Both Sides Now is one of the best-known songs by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. First recorded by Judy Collins, it appeared on the U.S. singles chart during the autumn of 1968. The next year it was included on Mitchell’s album Clouds (which was named after a lyric from the song). It has since been recorded by dozens of artists including Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Gang of Youths, and Herbie Hancock. Mitchell herself re-recorded the song, with an orchestral arrangement, on her 2000 album Both Sides Now.

Mitchell is said to have written Both Sides Now in March 1967, inspired by a passage in Henderson the Rain King, a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow. The following quote by Mitchell describes her inspiration for writing the song.

“I was reading Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane. He’s on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.”

Both Sides Now (Ón Dá Thaobh) marks Heresy Records’ first recording released exclusively for digital streaming and download services. The song will be available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer and numerous other digital service providers.