Exclusive Premiere: The Civil Wars' Irish-Inspired 'Lily Love'

The Civil Wars

Tec Petaja

Click to listen to The Civil Wars' 'Lily Love'

In honor of their 50th anniversary, the Chieftains are releasing a collaborative album showcasing the traditional Irish music that they popularized throughout the world. By teaming up with contemporary artists such as the Civil Wars, the Pistol Annies, Bon Iver, the Decemberists and others, the Chieftains are infusing their traditional Irish sounds with modern indie and Americana music on Voice of Ages.

Chieftains group leader Paddy Moloney has high praises for the Civil Wars, who contributed an original track written specifically for the Chieftains. "What a treat to have such wonderful artists in Joy and John Paul and to have them write a song to celebrate the Chieftains' 50th anniversary album. I couldn't be more pleased," Moloney says. "In the 'Lily Love' melody, I can hear strains of the Irishness of it, and to play, arrange and add my thoughts to it just came naturally."

The Chieftains' 50th-anniversary album Voice of Ages will be released on February 21st, but you can stream the Civil Wars' contribution, "Lily Love," for free at RollingStone.com

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Song Stories

“Truly Madly Deeply”

Savage Garden | 1998

"Truly Madly Deeply" is one of the earliest songs written by this Australian duo, but if not for a clever rewrite, Savage Garden's biggest worldwide hit may never have seen the light of day. "'Truly Madly Deeply' was originally a slightly different song that Daniel Jones and I had written and recorded on our first-ever demo cassette that we shopped to labels back in 1994," Darren Hayes recalled. "The verses were exactly the same, but I'm rather embarrassed to admit the chorus did not exist." The Australian duo tweaked the song, and it set a record by staying on the Billboard singles chart for 123 weeks.

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