The first thing that strikes you on hearing music from The Prayer Boat is a voice that send a shiver down your spine but a warm glow to your soul. Emmett Tinley is a truly gifted singer with an astonishing vocal range. It gives The Prayer Boat sound a certain uniqueness complimented with beautifully crafted songs that make that’ connection the listener - the opportunity to immerse yourself in music.
Dark Green was the first independent single released by the band in late 1995 - a chart hit and subsequently in the critics ‘Top 20 Singles of the Year’ in the national music paper Hot Press. This was followed in summer 1996 by another single Saved, another chart hit which won them the 2TV/Coca Cola ‘Best Unsigned Irish Band’ Award and a nomination for the industry ‘IRMA’ Awards. In fact both songs were voted single of the week in Hot Press.
"POLICHINELLE," the Prayer Boat's 1999 release, is a collection of exquisitely crafted songs, marked by the Irish band's evocative acoustic-based musical backdrops and songwriter Emmett Tinley's astonishing vocals. Clear and pure and true, Tinley's urgent tenor is a magnificently resonant instrument, a voice which sends shivers up the spine and sweeps the heart away on such evocative and enigmatic songs as "Dead Flowers" or the incandescent title track. Hailed in America as 2000's "Album of the Year" by Billboard's Larry Flick, "POLICHINELLE" is a true gem, a brilliantly multi-faceted work which has the feel of something timeless.
Based in the town of Blessington, County Wicklow, just 20 miles out of Dublin, brothers Emmett and Patrick Tinley first convened the Prayer Boat in 1987, inspired by American songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, as well as the intensely contemplative Glaswegian group, the Blue Nile. In 1991, the band released their debut album, "OCEANIC FEELING" on BMG/RCA. Though critically acclaimed, sales were meagre and they eventually parted ways with the label. From there, the Prayer Boat embarked on a stormy journey through various recording and publishing deals until they found themselves back at square one with just a manager at the start of 1997.
At that point Tinley set out for New York to showcase the Prayer Boat to US audiences and labels, anyone who would listen, and by year’s end he had returned to Dublin with a number of newly penned songs and plans for making the record that would be "POLICHINELLE".
The Prayer Boat spent January and February of 1998 ensconced in a Dublin studio recording "POLICHINELLE". Recorded and mixed against the clock, the album was completed in time for the annual South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas and as a result the group began to attract attention in America.
Although initially only available at gigs, in the spring of 1999 the album was commercially released in Ireland on Invisible Records and, with new artwork and some alternate mixes, on Setanta Records in the UK. There were also sporadic releases in Holland, France and Spain. A development deal with Rick Rubin at American Recordings brought Tinley to Los Angeles later in that year where he began working on future Prayer Boat recordings. In the end, however, American were hesitant to release "POLICHINELLE" as it was and Tinley returned to Dublin with an urge to change direction.
Meanwhile, "POLICHINELLE" was garnering rave reviews from the notoriously hard-to-please U.K. music press. "The perfect record for heartbroken insomniacs," raved Q, declaring the album "sweetly melancholic and rather sublime." NME declared the record to be "quite stunning," while Melody Maker cited the tracks "It Hurts To Lose You" and "In My Arms Again" as "rich heartbreakers" in a 4 star (out of 5) review. As Tinley's work drew long-overdue praise, the songwriter set off on travels around Scandinavia.
Writing and jamming with mainly jazz musicians Tinley found himself and his creative muse rejuvenated, finally moving south to settle in Amsterdam with the idea of making a new Prayer Boat album on a small advance from Setanta. But just three weeks later he got a call from Craig Kallman at Atlantic Records in New York who was ecstatic about "POLICHINELLE" and wanted to release it unchanged and as soon as possible. The album was released in March 2001 in the US and was followed by several solo and support tours of the US and Canada, a very successful tour with Ron Sexsmith among them.
"POLICHINELLE" shows a band at the peak of their powers, creating music of extraordinary majesty and heart-rending melancholy. Songs such as the finely etched "It Hurts To Lose You" or the elegaic "Saved" evince a purity and intimacy. Key to the Prayer Boat's power is Tinley's expansive and emotional vocal stylings. As a songwriter, he crafts his lyrics and melodies to blend in such a way that maximum effect is gained from both his voice and the band's delicately hewn music.
As for the album's title, "POLICHINELLE" is derived from 'Pulcinella,' the famous buffoon of the Italian commedia dell'arte. As the character spread thoughout European theater in the mid-Seventeenth Century, the name morphed into the French 'Polichinelle,' as well as the English 'Punch.'
Even with the many ebbs and flows of their career, the Prayer Boat's achingly confessional music has found devotees around the world. Now, 10 years since its first official release, The Prayer Boat’s "POLICHINELLE" has been digitally remastered and is being re-released with the original artwork and track listing through Feudal Records. The hope is that this massively underrated album will find a brand new audience.
