Ghost of the Bloomfield Road / Good For One Thing, by Joshua Burnside

Ghost of the Bloomfield Road / Good For One Thing by Joshua Burnside, released 25 October 2024 1. Ghost of the Bloomfield Road 2. Good For One Thing “Good For One Thing” is an imagined story of a circus performer, a young man whose worth is determined by his ability to pay bills, to entertain and amuse. A concept track that mirrors his own anxieties as a new father and a musician in a colder world. Originally written as a folk rock track, this stripped version gives more credence to the lyrics, allowing the tension and slow burn of Joshua’s sombre delivery to be fully felt. “Ghost Of The Bloomfield Road” follows Joshua as he wanders the streets following the birth of his son. With mother and baby back home, he feels the full weight of his powerlessness, roaming the dark warrens and walkways of East Belfast like a sleep-deprived ghoul. The juxtaposition of holding his newborn son in his arms set against the traumatic birth his wife experienced (“...and I waited to find out if you were alive, every minute a lifetime”) has haunted him from day one. Feeling a stranger in his own shows and streets, Joshua grapples with this walking death, in a gallows humour examination of his sense of self and powerlessness.