Hello, this special folk album of the year award episode of Folk on Foot is devoted to showcasing the beautiful album, The Curlie's Cry by Barry Kerr.

And I'm delighted that Barry joins me now. Congratulations

on your nomination, Barry. Thanks very much, Matthew. I'm absolutely delighted, to be honest.

I think in order to get to know you, we need to know something about Loch Ney, which is where

you grew up in County Armagh. Would you tell us about that and the childhood that you had there?

Yeah, certainly.

My mother's family are from a place on the southern shores of Loch Nye,

a place called Castors Bay, which is not far from the town of Lurgan.

I grew up there and spent much of my youth fishing and walking the fields and a lot of time on the lock, really.

It's a very special place for me, I suppose, it's my favorite place on the planet.

Is it a very beautiful place?

It is, yes. It's quite rural. In my eyes, it's one of the most beautiful places in the earth, you know. I've

had many memories there, I suppose, growing up as a kid and, you know, they've kept with me on my

travels around the world, you know. What sort of memories do you have of times there?

I suppose, like, I'm a big man for fishing, so I spent a lot of time on the lock fishing for eels and trout and salmon.

And any day I was off school at all, I was out in the boat, you know.

I used to get a lot out of spending time with old fishermen and, you know, my relatives around the area and stuff.

And listening to stories about the place and a lot of those memories and stories are very special to me,

you know. And come back in your music as well. Back in the music they surely do, yeah.

Yeah. So let's talk about the title track, The Curlews Cry, which opens with that haunting

sound of the Curlew's Cry. And the Curlew is an extraordinary bird in mythology, isn't it? Yeah, an Irish folklore,

you know, it holds a great symbolic presence in that it's often associated with the other

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