DAVID WILL BE SPECIAL GUEST TO GLEN HANSARD UNDER THE BIG TOP AT THE SHOWGROUNDS CLONAKILTY ON TUESDAY 18TH OF SEPTEMBER
David Keenan is a twenty four year old Irish songwriter whose words seem to walk a fine line between poetry and prose with a voice that grabs you by the scruff and takes you by the hand into his world of imagination.
Inspired by escapism and lyrical greats such as Yeats, Kavanagh, Dylan and Cohen he embodied the role of a down and outs young apprentice and scoured the streets of Liverpool and London for experience before taking his notes and embryonic ideas back home to dissect. In Keenan the Irish storytelling tradition is alive and well and his live performances are both spiritual and intense in equal measure. 2017 saw David release his first single Cobwebs through Barrack Street Records with a video directed by Myles O’Reilly.
Cobwebs “This stopped me dead in my tracks”** Hozier**
David Keenan is one of our best he is extraordinary, it’s our duty to support fine talent when we hear it, see it, experience it ” Glen Hansard
“David has it all,voice,guitar playing,lyrics,he’s a master of all three.Instead of Patrick Kavanagh and Luke Kelly what springs to mind and life for me is Van the Man and Kavanagh with a luscious lilt,growing like a wildflower,sublime” Damien Dempsey
“The first time I heard David Keenan I knew he had something special….a lyricism and musical wisdom that most artists can only dream of. David not only dreams of it, he does t for real. A gifted Singer-Songwriter who has pulled me right in, right where I want to be. It’s a beautiful place”-Fiachna Ó Braonáin Hothouse Flowers
Not just another young lad with an acoustic guitar, Keenan is the sound of Tim Buckley and Brendan Behan arguing over a few jars, while Kavanagh deals Dylan a suspicious hand of cards, and Anthony Cronin and Jack Kerouac furiously try to scribble it all down.Pat Carty Hotpress Magazine
“The 24 year old with the brooding aura, intense gaze and floppy haircut is difficult to figure out but it’s indisputable that he is a excellent songwriter, mature beyond his years with a natural talent for that storytelling tradition” The Sunday Times
INTERFERENCE WILL PERFORM A VERY SPECIAL SHOW WITH GLEN HANSARD UNDER THE BIG TOP IN THE SHOW GROUNDS IN CLONAKILTY ON WED 19TH OF SEPTEMBER – TICKETS HERE!
Interference are a group centred around singer-songwriter, poet and painter, Fergus O’Farrell. Citizen of the world, & former resident in God’s own country, West Cork, Ferg has since left this mortal coil but his memories, music & friendships live on….
Interference on the night will include Paul Tiernan on acoustic guitar and vocals, Maurice Seezer on accordion and piano, James O’Leary on electric guitar, Anto on guitar, drums and percussion and John Fitzgerald on bass and piano & some very special guests including Glen Hansard and more to be announced….
About
Interference is the cult Irish band based around singer-songwriter Fergus O’Farrel. Their sound has influenced a generation of Irish musicians (including Frames/Swell Season front man Glen Hansard), and are featured in the hit movie musical Once
Biography
One of the charms of the hit Irish movie ONCE was the way it, without fuss, put the songs on centre-stage, allowing them to breathe and fill the space in front of the camera lens. The film is very much about the role music plays in peoples’ lives; how it inhabits the space in and around different people, pushing and pulling them into contact – bridging the gap.
Amidst the brilliant performances by the main characters, played by the Swell Season duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, there’s a spine-tingling moment, set at a low-key party, when a group of musicians centred around an unassuming man with an extra-ordinary voice play a song called Gold. The song swoops and sways, its poetry merging effortlessly with the sound, creating a glittering, warm gift. It’s a moment when the musicians merge into the music; to paraphrase Yeats, ‘how can we know the dancer from the dance?’.
Jump back to Dublin in the late ’80s and early ’90s and you’ll realise why it’s so fitting that there’s an interference song in the heart of this musical. Initially formed in school, by O’Farrell and guitarist James O’Leary, Interference grew and took shape in a Dublin where most bands and record labels were trying to imitate the sound and success of U2. Interference were different and intriguing.
For starters there was the fact that they lived in an old shoe factory! A big space, where jam sessions developed naturally, with a core band being joined by various other local musicians. Their mxing of styles and sounds puzzled record companies, but built them up a steady following on the local live circuit, and amongst the audience at any gig were serious musicians in their own right – members of The Frames, The Mary Janes, Hothouse Flowers amongst others.
With a growing fanbase and support from the likes of DJ Dave Fanning – Ireland’s answer to John Peel, who remarked of the Interference that they were the only Irish band he couldn’t pigeonhole – things looked promising for the band, but for one reason or another no major label record company was interested in the band. While he’s keen to downplay it, the fact that band frontman Fergus was in a wheelchair due to the effects of muscular dystrophy can’t have helped (he was told, off the record, that record companies can market blindness, but not wheelchairs).
This left the band with little alternative but to go ahead and record their debut album on their own – setting up their own recording studio. Something that is now commonplace, but which was a rare thing indeed back in the 1990s. Their debut album, released finally in 1995 was a spectacular achievement. It was launched with the single Vinegar Girl, co-written by the track’s backing vocalist Glen Hansard. Typically, for the Interference, Hansard wasn’t the only guest, with musicians like Liam O’Maonlai and Planxty’s Donal Lunny participating.
This was pre-internet, and marketing a band required record-company support and/or regular gigging – something which O’Farrell’s health ruled out. By 1996, the band had run out of steam. O’Farrell moved back to his home-town of Schull, suffering what he now admits was a crisis of confidence – one which lasted a number of years.
An informal re-union gig in a pub in Schull in 2002, quickly followed by an invite to perform on a new TV show hosted by Hansard and produced by musician/film-maker Philip King, helped jolt O’Farrell out of despondency. The Interference performance on ‘Other Voices’ was remarkable, and such was the positive reaction that the band’s album was re-issued.
While working on new material, O’Farrell has steadily taken on more gigs over the last couple of years – including appearances at international festivals in both the Czech Republic and Italy.
Which brings us full circle back to ONCE. When the film was getting off the ground, Hansard and Carney got in touch with Fergus asking him if he would appear in the film singing Gold, a personal favourite. No-one, least of all Fergus, could have anticipated the success that the film would have.
Skip forward to May 2008, and O’Farrell and Interference are on stage in New York’s Radio City Music Hall, playing along side the Swell Season, the band formed by Frames frontman Hansard and the co-star of the film Marketa Irglova. Head over to www.interference.ie and you can catch a glimpse of that magical moment when the two bands joined together that night to perform a rousing rendition of Gold together.
GLEN HANSARD WILL PERFORM 2 SHOWS AT THIS YEARS CLONGUITARFEST
<<TICKETS ONSALE NOW ONLINE & AT DEBARRAS>>
THE FIRST WILL BE A SOLO SHOW UNDER THE BIG TOP IN THE SHOWGROUNDS CLONAKILTY ON TUES 18TH OF SEPTEMBER W/ GUESTS DAVID KEENAN & MORE –TICKETS HERE!
THE SECOND SHOW WILL BE AS A GUEST TO INTERFERENCE UNDER THE BIG TOP IN THE SHOWGROUNDS CLONAKILTY ON WED 19TH OF SEPTEMBER – TICKETS HERE!
Marking his third solo album, singer-songwriter Glen Hansard released Between Two Shores on January 19, 2018 via Anti-. Following up 2015’s GRAMMY nominated Didn’t He Ramble, and his 2012 solo debut Rhythm and Repose, the ten-track collection was produced by Hansard himself for the first time. The culmination of more than six years of writing and recording, Between Two Shores came together in only a matter of weeks.
This past March, Hansard booked himself time at Black Box Studios in France with the original idea of taking inventory of his songbook. Working again with former Frames bandmate and producer David Odlum, Hansard was in search of a direction for his next record. As he trove through his previous sessions, various ideas and home recordings, a sketch of an unplanned record began to take shape.
The aptly titled “Setting Forth” became the catalyst for the direction Hansard hoped to achieve with Between Two Shores. Recorded with drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade and members of his Fellowship Band the song tackles themes of self-doubt in a time when it’s impossible not to be riddled with uncertainty. The album’s lead track “Time Will be the Healer” is a hopeful plea to a forlorn lover that also speaks to the way forward in the current social climate. Indeed, it would be impossible not to in some way address the politics of the day, which Hansard does in “Wheels on Fire” and its refrain of “We will overcome!”
While the record truly came together in France, Between Two Shores features material captured in New York and Chicago with a revolving cast of musicians. In addition to Blade, the record also features Thomas Bartlett, Brad Albetta and Rob Moose who appeared on much of Rhythm and Repose. However it’s Glen’s touring band – Joseph Doyle, Rob Bochnik, Graham Hopkins, Justin Carroll, Michael Buckley, Ronan Dooney and Curtis Fowlkes – that feature most prominently and take center stage on tracks like the upbeat E Street shuffle of “Roll On Slow” and the Van-tastic “Why Woman.”
The album’s title comes from Hansards ongoing love of sailing and the sea. When one is equal distance between their starting point and their destination they are in essence “between two shores.” A less than ideal time to wonder whether you should turn back or continue on, but a thought that inevitably rears its head.
With Between Two Shores Hansard has managed to capture that feeling of the big soulful sound of his large touring band while still retaining the intimate introspective nature of his acoustic shows. To which way the wind will blow on his next record remains to be seen.
Hansard is a founding member of The Frames who celebrated 25 years as a band in 2015. He is one half of The Swell Season, which also features pianist Marketa Irglova. Together in 2007 they wrote the music for and starred in the movie Once. The song “Falling Slowly” from the film was awarded the Academy Award for Best Original song. In 2013 the film was adapted for Broadway as Once, The Musical, winning eight Tony Awards including the top musical prize itself and an Olivier award in London for outstanding achievement in music.
FOOTSBARN TRAVELLING THEATRE BRING THEIR WORLD RENOWNED PRODUCTION OF SHAKESPEARE’S ‘A MIDNIGHT SUMMERS DREAM’ TO CLONAKILTY TO PERFROM UNDER THE BIG TOP IN THE SHOWGROUNDS CLONAKILTY ON MON 17TH OF SEPTEMBER – TICKETS HERE!
THEY WILL ALSO PERFORM ‘MINGLING WITH MOLIERE’ UNDER THE BIG TOP IN THE SHOWGROUNDS CLONAKILTY ON FRI 21ST OF SEPTEMBER – TICKETS HERE!
Footsbarn Travelling Theatre is one of the world’s leading touring companies performing for the most part in one of its circus big tops but also in theatres thoughout the world. Footsbarn Travelling Theatre is born from a dream to create a form of theatre that is popular,generous,professional yet accessible to all.To take theatre out of the limits of established buildings and bring it closer to the local population ,to farms ,beaches ,streets and village squares .
The company is renowned for its exciting adaptations of classics such as Shakespeare & Moliere transcending the barrier of language with its unique blend of visual theatre, music and magic.
In forty seven years, Footsbarn has created over 60 productions and travelled to the six continents.
Footsbarn Travelling Theatre began life in Cornwall in 1971, rehearsing in the barn of Trewen, a farmhouse near the village of Trewidland. One of the founder members was Oliver Foot, hence the name. In 1984 the company left Britain to take its brand of theatre to international audiences and remained without a base until 1991 when a farm was purchased in central France, La Chaussée. Today its base is both a fully equipped production centre complete with workshops, rehearsal space, office and studios but also a centre for education. Over the last 25years Footsbarn has organised and staged numerous workshops, which have been taught by both actors from the company as well as professionals associated with Footsbarn.
FOOTSBARN TRAVELLING THEATRE BRING THEIR WORLD RENOWNED PRODUCTION OF SHAKESPEARE’S ‘A MIDNIGHT SUMMERS DREAM’ TO CLONAKILTY TO PERFROM UNDER THE BIG TOP IN THE SHOWGROUNDS CLONAKILTY ON MON 17TH OF SEPTEMBER – TICKETS HERE!
Inspired by Shakespeare’s MidSummer Night’s Dream…………..
Bottom’s Dream – A Magical Comedy of Rude Mechanicals and Scheming Fairies
The world-renowned Footsbarn revisits its internationally acclaimed production of MidSummer Night’s Dream to create an evening of magic and comedy where the amateur troupe of rude mechanicals get embroiled in an argument between the King and Queen of the Fairies. From the moment you step inside the theatre, you are in a parallel universe, a place where fantastical creatures lurk, and the removal of the intrigues of the court and the lovers, allows for a special emphasis on the world of the groundlings and of the supernatural.
Morgan O’ Kane plays banjo like no other. Originally hailing from Virginia; O’ Kane currently resides in Brooklyn when he is not on tour, where he sometimes plays in the subway and on the street. The music is “to bluegrass and old timey what punk was to rock in the late seventies”. Deeply steeped in old traditions, O’ Kane treats the banjo differently than you’ve heard it before and brings a punk sensibility to his music.
His songs are raw, his singing game and his game on both banjo and mandolin at once are inventive and very energetic. With the necessary helping hand services Ferd Moyse of the Hackensaw Boys on fiddle, Ezekiel Healy on dobro and JR Hankins on flugelhorn.
Morgan O’ Kane has released 3 full length studio albums to date. Aside from performing live and recording, Morgan has had multiple television and film placements. He has been featured and appeared in the FX TV show “Louie” (Louie C.K’s comedy drama) and wrote the theme song for WGN’s “Outsiders”.
Paula Bilá, singer-songwriter from Cádiz, arrived in Madrid after five years developing her musical career in Ireland.
There she recorded and edited her first album, “Love and Hate”, where she has worked with Bill Shanley (Ray Davies), guitarist and producer on his first album, and with other musicians such as Liam Bradley (Van Morrison), Binzer Brennan (The Frames) and the Australian guitarist Stephen Housden.
The album, which was warmly received by both the press and the public, led her to tour different festivals in Ireland and Spain, as well as participating in festivals with an international reputation such as the Canadian Music Week in Toronto, Canada, in 2014.
Paula Bila returns now in Madrid to record and produce her second album with the help of great musicians from the international scene and under the direction of producer Manuel Sanz (Cosmosoul). An exciting new project that reflects his influences of folk, blues or black music.
The Acoustic Forum is an eclectic event unlike anything else you’ve ever seen which sees a selection of artists from the festival playing in an intimate and informal concert in the round, with each artist staying onstage for the duration.
Guided by the guest host, each performer gives an insight into their craft and performs a short selection to whet the appetite for the weekend ahead.
It’s off the cuff, it’s friendly and it provides the listener with a varied and spontaneous night that never fails to surprise!
This year’s event will include host George Lowden & guests Pierre Bensusan , SÍOMHA, Aaron O Sullivan & Lau Noah !
PIERRE BENSUSAN (FR)
Winner of the Independent Music Award, in the Live Performance Album category for his latest triple live album “Encore” (2014), “Rose d’Or” of the Montreux Festival for his first album, “Près de Paris” (Switzerland, 1976), “Best World Music Guitar Player ” by the readers of Guitar Player Magazine (USA, 2008), Pierre Bensusan is recognized as one of the premier musicians of our time.
AARON O SULLIVAN (IRL)
At 19, Aaron started studying the BA in Popular Music. . Between various performances & collaborations with local artists, he now plays regularly in Cork City as a session musician. He got a job as a musician out in Disneyland Florida, performed venues all around Europe, supported artists such as James Arthur & Cory Wong & played Electric Picnic in 2018.
SÍOMHA (IRL)
Singer and guitarist SÍOMHA (pronounced Shee-va) dances the line between folk, jazz and neo-soul effortlessly, taking audiences on an unexpected, and unforgettable journey with her soulful melodies. Coming from a family steeped in music, SÍOMHA grew up on a diet of musical greats, with the sounds of jazz, trad, folk and soul creeping in and leaving an indelible mark on her musical tastes and influences. She started playing guitar at age 10, but it was later in her teens while attending high school in the south of France that she first took up jazz guitar
LAU NOAH (ESP)
Lau Noah’s musical tapestry is a conversation between masterful storytelling, intertwined cultures and a limitless sense of imagination that provide the audience with the capacity to time- travel between their child self and the being they will become when the last song of the show comes to an end.
Noah (1994) moved to NY at 19 years old not to pursue a musical career but to pursue the stories that come along with the difficulties and wonders of a life in a big tough city like NY.
But after her unintentional discovery of the Spanish guitar three years ago and her unschooled approach, Noah started writing songs in Catalan, Spanish, Hebrew and English that proved to touch a mostly english speaking audience beyond language barriers.
Noah has recently recorded with acclaimed producer and musician Blake Mills what will be her first documented solo work.
“Lau Noah is enchanting music lovers one song at a time” Billboard Magazine
Hanora George is baited and ready to catch some fish. Having released her debut EP in May 2016, George excited audiences to the point where she has had to undertake a ‘catch and release’ only policy for future expeditions. She is currently putting her heart and sole into her first album which will be released in May 2018.
Glen Hansard brings his pals the World Renowned Footsbarn Travelling Theatre & their Big Top Circus tent on a whirlwind tour of Ireland stopping off in Cavan, Portlaoise, Clonakilty & Dingle!
This wondrous travelling circus arrives in Clonakilty on Monday the 17th of September to join forces with The Clonakilty International Guitar Festival….welcome to GUITARTOWN!
The following shows will take place under the Big Top in The Showgrounds Clonakilty over the course of the festival …..& who knows what else might happen……
Sep 18th Glen Hansard will perform a show with David Keenan opening up and Stephen James Smith in the mix too.. TICKETS HERE!
DOORS 7PM SHOW START 7:30PM
Sep 19th Interference with the addition of Glen taking some vocals are delighted to perform under the canvas for a very special one off show… TICKETS HERE!
DOORS 7PM SHOW START 7:30PM
Sep 20th A special Footsbarn Theatre matinee for local schools (This show is closed to the public)
Sep 21st Footsbarn will perform ‘Mingling with Moliere’ – TICKETS HERE!
DOORS 7PM SHOW START 7:30PM
…..MORE DETAILS SOON…..
JUST TO GET YOU IN THE MOOD CHECK OUT THIS GH SONG FILMED IN THE WONDERFUL FOOTSBARN TENT…