Mayo singer-songwriter releases Streisand cover ahead of new EP
MAYO based singer-songwriter Giuliano Gnagnatti has released a new single, an acoustic reworking of the Barbra Streisand classic "The Way We Were," performed under the banner Giuliano and Friends.
The single came out on Friday, August 14, ahead of a new EP due in late Autumn. The EP will feature original songs recorded at Clew Bay Studio in Westport.
Giuliano & Friends brings together Ray McHale on guitar, Donncha Butler on double bass and Tom Gilligan on percussion alongside Giuliano's own vocals, guitar and songwriting.
Giuliano has lived a double musical life. In Italy, aged 15, he formed the rock band The Spirituals, which is still performing today with its original line-up and in which he plays lead guitar.
The band began playing classic rock and instrumentals of the 1950s before embracing the British wave and US folk-rock in the years that followed.
Since moving to Ireland on and off since 2015, Giuliano has played acoustic guitar in folk clubs across Mayo, including Westport, Ballina and Killala.
He was a regular at open sessions in Cobbler's Bar at the Wyatt, Westport, and contributed a song to the post-Covid collective album "UNMASKED: The Cobblers' Lockdown Sessions." In 2019, he ran a monthly acoustic session at The Gallery Wine Bar in Westport, inviting a different guest musician each month.
His acoustic repertoire draws on American and British singer-songwriters such as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, as well as acoustic folk-rock acts including CSNY and The Band, alongside trad and contemporary folk influences.
Giuliano also plans to record a collection of classic Neapolitan songs, combining his voice and guitar with traditional Irish instruments.
"The Way We Were" was recorded in June 2026 at Clew Bay Recording Studio in Westport, engineered, mixed and mastered by Bart de Boer. Giuliano said de Boer had helped bring the song to life exactly as he had envisioned it.
Ray McHale, from Ballina, has been a fixture of the Irish rock and folk scene for many years, including a stint gigging in the Manchester and Leeds indie Britpop scene in the 1990s.
Donncha Butler, who studied piano and music theory as a child, took up double bass in retirement after finding his acoustic bass guitar needed amplification he did not have. Tom Gilligan is a drummer and author of “Irish Drummers Volume 1 – Interviews with 32 Irish Drummers”, and runs the website Irishdrummers.com.
The single is available to download now.