Maggie’s Wake offer the tragic tale of Bridget O’Brien in their new single and lyric video — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Blending high twang, rich harmonies and soaringly haunting vocals, the Canadian contemporary folk group share a story of love, passion and loss — told from the perspective of a devastatingly heartbroken husband, crying out from his grave:
“Bridget O’Brien where have you gone
I’ve been lying here, waiting for you for so long
Praying each night you’ll return with the dawn
Oh my Bridget, where have you gone?”
The song came to life during the Covid lockdowns, when award-winning songwriter and musician Tara Dunphy spent much of her time walking in St. Peter’s Cemetery in London, Ontario, getting to know the stones and imagining the stories of the people whose names she read aloud. “I heard somewhere that so long as you say someone’s name, they’re never truly gone, so I tried to get everyone at least once,” she explains. But one stone kept grabbing her attention. “It bore two names,” she continues. “Thomas O’Meara, with a birth and death date, and below that it read, ‘Beloved husband of Bridget O’Brien, 1885.’ Only a birth year, no death year.”
Dunphy couldn’t shake the lingering question of what had truly happened to Bridget. “Did she marry someone else after Thomas died, and chose to be buried with the new fella? Did she pass away years later, penniless, unable to leave the money to have her name put on the stone? Is she still alive, having found the fountain of youth? I never found out, but one day a song just presented itself, almost as if Bridget wanted the question asked: Bridget O’Brien, where have you gone?”
Maggie’s Wake are a band that emerged out of a shared vision for both honoring and building upon the foundation of traditional folk and Celtic instrumentation to create a constantly evolving sound that is truly fiery, limitless, and unique. Fronted by Dunphy (The Rizdales, Luther Wright And The Wrongs) on tin whistle, flute, fiddle, guitar, banjo and lead vocals, along with fellow award-winning musician Lindsay Schindler (Rant Maggie Rant, Trent Severn) on fiddle and vocals, Maggie’s Wake are rounded out by Stephan Szczesniak on percussion, Andrew Kosty on bass, Dean Harrison on piano and accordion, and Kenneth Palmer on guitar.
Thanks to their fearless ability to embrace a vast range of influences, and a songwriter as mystical and engaging as Dunphy, it comes as no surprise that Maggie’s Wake won the 2023 Forest City London Music Awards in the folk/roots category.
Watch the lyric video for Bridget O’Brien above, listen to the song below, and find Maggie’s Wake on their website.
