Jack and Derek came West to film Plough On Paddy

Young Country singer enjoys a mix of new and classic hits

They came from the East, not three wise men following a star as in biblical times, but two singing stars — Jack Keogh and Derek Ryan — to be filmed at the foot of Croagh Patrick performing their hit Plough On Paddy.

It was Mayo singer-songwriter Gerry Carney, a co-writer of the song, who suggested the scenic setting and he acted as the character Paddy in the excellent, part humorous, yet poignant, video for the hit.

Talking to The Tuam Herald young Jack Keogh(21), now one of the most successful new singers on the Irish Country scene, explained how it all came together.

“The three of us got together as far back as last November and wrote the song. Later on, Gerry Carney came up with the idea for the video scenes, and he picked out the old farmyard for the filming near where he lives in Mayo.

“The theme of the song is about Irish lads who went away to work in England in younger days, but as the little family farm was still left for them in Ireland they could always come back. So, while Paddy worked hard all his life in England, all he had was an old house on the farm with some old broken down sheds and an old tractor with ploughs to come back to at the end of his days,” says Jack.

While the theme has some sadness in it there is also a lot of hilarity too, plus it’s so lively and bouncy for dancing that this seems to eclipse some of the morbidity that could percolate through a song about such a scenario.

“It’s been huge for the summer at all our gigs with everybody seemingly knowing the words and singing along with it which is the beauty of three people getting together and bouncing about different ideas for the writing.

“Also, when doing it as a duet you get two people take on the song as Derek and I are of slightly different age groups and that was the beauty of both our styles blending on it.

“Derek, who is phenomenal as both a singer and songwriter, had his own ideas and I had mine and we kinda’ bounced off each other with Gerry Carney also having a good input into the song as well,” added Jack.

The acting in the video is an authentic take on an older Irish man struggling with rusty rolls of wire and outdated machinery on an old farm and Gerry acted that part impeccably.

Unlike so many Irish Country videos which are of poor quality and filmed with little imagination this one captures the story so professionally. Jack says that it was filmed by the company that Derek uses for most of his videos.

As it seems ideal as a theme song for the upcoming National Ploughing Championships, at the end of next month, I queried if Jack had any plans for himself and Derek performing it there?

“I have thought about that and as a song with the title Plough On Paddy would work great at that big event we might see if those involved would be interested,” added Jack.

As he is from the Glen of Imaal in Wicklow and Derek is a native of Garryhill in nearby Carlow they are both familiar with farming in their areas and acting out the song on stage at the National Ploughing Championships could further enhance its success.

The sporting success of counties such as Mayo in the All-Ireland football, Galway in the Ladies final but mostly that of native Wicklow, put a pep in Jack’s steps on stage this summer too.

“It was nice to see a change of counties winning finals and I was delighted to be in Croke Park on the day when my native Wicklow won the Tailteann Cup. It was such a great day for Wicklow and the atmosphere in the county was simply electric,” he gushed.

Regarding songwriting, Jack has a few new ones in the making but his next single due out any day now won’t be one of his own.

“The next song that I’m releasing will be my slightly different cover version of a Christy Moore classic. But after that we plan to release a number of other originals,” concluded the young singer-songwriter who has ploughed an astonishingly fast furrow to the top of the Irish Country music scene.