The Prayer Boat

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The Prayer Boat are an Irish folk/indie band formed in 1987 in Blessington, Co. Wicklow. Their name is derived from a Hindu religious festival which takes place every year on the banks of the river Ganges where thousands of people burn incense and candles on small reed boats and float them down the river at night, the boats carrying their wishes and prayers. The Prayer Boat are a band who have endured a lot of misfortune in a commercial industry whose main priority is to sell records, often seeming to be 'out of time' with the contemporary music scene, whilst nevertheless achieving almost universal acclaim from music reviewers (see below).

After a short period of playing in local bars and clubs, The Prayer Boat had attracted a cult following in Dublin and two years of touring in Ireland culminated in the release of the band's first single Beautiful History on their own label, Stem Records. The band began sending demo tapes to various record companies and eventually signed to RCA in 1989. The Prayer Boat made festival appearances across Europe and toured with bands such as The Pogues before releasing their debut album, Oceanic Feeling. The album received high praise and commendation from music journals but unfortunately sales were meagre.

However, the band were determined to keep trying, and they moved to Glasgow in 1994, signing a deal with a new independent record label, Almo Sounds. They released two EPs, Bury This Thing and Dark Green, following this by tour dates in London, and an appearance in the acoustic tent at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival.

Dark Green became a chart hit and also featured in the Top 20 Singles of the Year in the national music paper Hot Press. This was followed in 1996 by another single Saved, which also entered the charts and it looked as though the success for which The Prayer Boat had worked so hard was on the horizon when Almo Sounds folded.

Frontman Emmett Tinley, realising that the quartet had probably gone as far as it was going to go in England and Ireland, decided to try to generate some interest in The Prayer Boat in America, and rather than take the whole band over there, he went to New York himself in 1997 and performed some solo gigs. The following year, he returned to Ireland with a number of newly-written songs which resulted in the making of the band's second album, Polichinelle. That spring, the band travelled to Austin, Texas where they performed at the annual South by Southwest festival, a gig that got the group some long-deserved attention in the United States. With the financial support of an American major record label, Tinley spent part of 1999 in Los Angeles, but alas, the long hoped-for record deal failed to materialise.

Emmett had signed a contract with Sony in the United States but the record company wanted him to remove some of the songs from Polichinelle and add more 'commercial' sounding tracks, which he was not prepared to do. Such faith and self-belief do credit to Tinley in an industry where unfortunately these qualities are often not rewarded. Sony, however, refused to release the album without the changes they had suggested and so another chance of possible stardom went awry.

However, Emmett Tinley was not a man to give up, and after much perseverance, The Prayer Boat finally released Polichinelle with Setanta Records in 1999 in the UK and with Atlantic Records in 2001 in the United States. It is this album which both critics and fans of The Prayer Boat think best represents the unique music of the band. Reviews from music journals were almost universally favourable, with critics particularly praising the beauty of Tinley's voice. Setanta Records said that 'Emmett could sing a nursery rhyme and make you cry', Billboard magazine remarked that 'Tinley is a masterful composer with a lilting tenor voice that is reminiscent of Fran Healy of Travis' and Hot Press said, 'Emmett Tinley'[s]... soaring vocals at times seem to be not of this world'.

The album Polichinelle as a whole was highly acclaimed by music journals. Top magazine said that it was 'Absolutely incandescent' and 'So consistently beautiful it could be displayed in a shop window'; NME described it as 'quite stunning' and Billboard voted it as its album of the year, saying that, 'this gorgeous set of intimate, meticulously crafted pop tunes was among the best albums to come across our desk this year.'

Emmett says of the album, 'Polichinelle doesn't pretend to be anything other than the loneliness and the urgency, the despair and the excitement of someone trying to run through life.'

Despite not having performed for several years, The Prayer Boat still have a website which is visited by afficionados of the band. The band's achingly beautiful music has found devotees around the world and Emmett Tinley regularly receives emails from passionate lovers of his voice and The Prayer Boat's unique music. Emmett is a truly gifted singer and songwriter, and Melody Maker summed this up when they said of him, 'the man can make a cat's cradle of your heart strings.'

As Tinley has now embarked upon a solo career, releasing his first album, Attic Faith in 2005, and only occasionally sees the other members of The Prayer Boat (with the exception of his brother Patrick) it remains doubtful whether the band will play together in the near future. However, this has never been ruled out, and fans of The Prayer Boat continue to remain steadfast in their loyalty to this highly talented Irish band.