Charles James & The Rise Release New Single “About A Cow”
From the critically acclaimed debut album Crossing the Bar — Out Now on Vinyl, CD and Streaming Platforms
Final tour show at McGrory’s, Culdaff, Donegal on October 24th
TICKETS: https://ti.to/mcgrorys/charles-james-and-the-rise-live-at-mcgrorys
Following the release of their hauntingly cinematic debut album Crossing the Bar, Charles James & The Rise return with their latest single, “About a Cow”, arriving October 21st.
The band’s growing acclaim has seen them perform live on RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday with Miriam, support Gavin James on his Goldrush album launch tour, and take home Music Video of the Year at the 2025 Disappear Here Film Festival for their single Sailor and the Saint.
A standout track from Crossing the Bar, About a Cow is a striking meditation on greed and consumption, told through an unexpected narrator, a cow. “It’s a song that’s had a number of lives and has been with me for a long time,” says Charles James O’Donnell, the band’s frontman and songwriter. “As abstract the notion may seem, the lyrics hit on the sacrifice that’s made in all forms to service greed and the longer term impacts this has”
Set against the band’s trademark blend of cinematic folk and lyrical introspection, About a Cow unfolds like a dark pastoral fable, anchored by Charles’s emotive vocals, Catherine O’Donnell’s plaintive piano, and spectral strings from legendary Waterboys fiddler Steve Wickham and cellist Laura McFadden.
About the Album — Crossing the Bar
Released September 12th, 2025, Crossing the Bar is the debut full-length from Charles James & The Rise, a widescreen folk odyssey through grief, memory and the tides of loss. Inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s elegiac poem of the same name, the album transforms themes of death and departure into songs of solace and renewal.
Featuring lush instrumentation, cinematic production, and stirring performances, the record has been praised for its emotional honesty and musical depth.
“Crossing the Bar is a journey through loss, its different stages, and the idea that those we’ve loved and lost are never truly gone but waiting for us across the bar,” — Charles James
Crossing the Bar is available now on limited edition vinyl, CD, and all streaming platforms.
Tour & Final Show
Following a string of headline performances across Ireland this autumn, Charles James & The Rise will close their 2025 tour with a final show at McGrory’s, Culdaff, Donegal on October 24th — a fitting homecoming for one of Ireland’s most evocative new folk voices.
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