Inishowen group Charles James & The Rise release long-awaited debut album

Inishowen folk collective Charles James & The Rise have just released a long-awaited debut album.

Crossing the Bar is a record that weaves together themes of loss, resilience, and the unseen ties between the living and the departed. 

Anchored by the title track, named after Alfred Lord Tennyson’s elegiac poem and inspired by its reading at frontman Charles James’s father’s eulogy, the album threads seafaring metaphors through shadow-lit arrangements, transforming grief into a vessel of solace and continuity. 

“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,” says James.

 “When I revisited Tennyson’s poem during the writing process, I found comfort rather than sadness, it became the heartbeat of the album.” 

The record is brought to life by the group’s rich interplay. Charles’s stirring vocals and guitar are entwined with the luminous harmonies and piano of his wife Catherine O’Donnell, the rhythmic pulse of Mark McGirr on drums, the anchoring bass of Rhys McBride, and the spectral fiddle and mandolin textures of Des McGonigle. 

They are joined on the album by legendary former Waterboys violinist Steve Wickham, whose fiddle and mandolin playing adds both fire and fragility, and cellist Laura McFadden, whose lines lend the songs a brooding, orchestral depth. Together they forge a sound that is both intimate and ocean-wide, cinematic folk steeped in Donegal’s storytelling tradition.

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Recorded at Attica Audio in Termon with producer Orri McBrearty (Dark Tropics, Rosie Carney), Crossing the Bar is a widescreen folk record of spectral strings, intimate confessionals, and choral surges. 

Across songs like The Elephants, Carry On, and the previously released Promises, the band balances cinematic scope with hushed vulnerability, building soundscapes that feel both deeply personal and ocean-wide. 

The album follows a string of acclaimed singles, Greatest Prize, Wide Awake, and Promises, which have already drawn praise from Rolling Stone España (20 Artists You Should Know) and Hot Press (Track of the Day), alongside national airplay and growing anticipation across Ireland and beyond. 

The band recently performed live on RTÉ Radio One’s Sunday with Miriam in the middle of a tour of the new album and will be playing at McGrory’s in Culdaff on October 24.