Sive is a songwriter and musician dubbed ‘one of the most inspiring and exciting artists of our time’ by Female First UK. Her album The Roaring Girl was released with the support of a hugely successful crowd-funding campaign in 2017 and following its release she earned her stripes as a live act, touring extensively across Ireland and beyond and winning the audience choice vote to perform on RTE’S Other Voices. Her latest album We Begin in Darkness was released on VETA Music in 2022 to critical acclaim across the board; it was named Album of the Week on BBC Radio’s Late Show, received a 9/10 review in Hot Press Magazine and was described as ‘hugely impressive’ by Paul McLoone on RTE Arena. She is currently working on her next release: a commission to compose a song cycle celebrating the legacy of Brigid the saint and the goddess. Possessing a unique and dynamic vocal, and having studied finger-style guitar under renowned players including William Coulter, Sarah McQuaid and Alan Colfer, Sive has carved a truly compelling style of alt-folk that makes for a beguiling live show.
Seamie O Dowd is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter who also plays fiddle, harmonica, mandolin, and a number of other instruments.
He has travelled worldwide playing music and has shared stages and played with many great musicians and bands including the following;
Mairtin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden, Christy Moore, Declan Synott, The Chieftains, Jimmy Higgins, Tommy Emmanuel, Dervish, Steve Wickham, Matt Molloy, Liam O’ Flynn, Thom Moore, Dick Gaughan, Cathy Jordan, Rick Epping, Kieran Quinn, John Joe Kelly, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Cathal Roche.
His experience also includes recording production, teaching and more recently, film soundtrack work, and encompasses solo performance as well as extensive work with bands and small groups as both a member and a session musician.
Biography
Seamie O Dowd is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter who also plays fiddle, harmonica, mandolin, and a number of other instruments.
He has travelled worldwide playing music and has shared stages and played with many great musicians and bands including the following; Mairtin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden,
Christy Moore, Declan Synott, The Chieftains, Jimmy Higgins, Tommy Emmanuel, Dervish, Steve Wickham, Matt Molloy, Liam O’ Flynn, Thom Moore, Dick Gaughan, Cathy Jordan, Rick Epping, Kieran Quinn, John Joe Kelly, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Cathal Roche.
His experience also includes recording production, teaching and more recently, film soundtrack work, and encompasses solo performance as well as extensive work with bands and small groups as both a member and a session musician.
Seamie’s public musical experience spans four decades. He made his first radio appearance at the age of ten on a Radio Eireann programme called Young Musicians and began playing publicly with his father, the renowned Sligo fiddle player Joe O’Dowd at around the same time.
He has been a tutor at the South Sligo Summer School in Tubbercurry, Co.Sligo on a regular basis since its beginnings in the late 1980s, teaching fiddle for six of its first seven years and teaching traditional guitar since the mid 2000s up to the present day.
He was awarded The Freedom Of The Borough in 2004 by Sligo Corporation while a member of internationally renowned traditional group Dervish and acknowledged again in 2010 at a civic reception given by the Mayor of Sligo for his personal contribution to the cultural life of the area.
He also worked with film score composer George Fenton in London’s Abbey Road Studios on part of the film score of Jimmy’s Hall, a film made by Ken Loach in the Sligo/ Leitrim area.
As part of the Masters of Irish Music project devised by Martin Hayes, he, along with Mairtin O’Connor and Cathal Hayden played the group’s concerts in the Sydney Opera House as well as a flagship performance at the Lincoln Centre in New York.
He also joined the project on three US tours.
He played and recorded with Dervish for six years, during which time he played with them at the legendary Rock in Rio festival in Brazil.
He was nominated for the Best Folk Musician award in 2018 in RTE’s inaugural Irish Folk Awards.
PRESS QUOTES
“A revelation of style and panache..” Irish Times.
“Seamie’s blues guitar driven folk tunes have a timelessness that speaks to everyone” Xpress Magazine, Perth, Australia
“…a master of many genres..” Irish Music Magazine
“….a hugely impressive musician and singer..” Irish Music Review
“….a voice steeped in grit conviction..” Irish Echo, New York.
“ His performance included tracks which testify to his extraordinary versatility across music genres..” The Irish World, London.
“Put simply, this man is a genius… every note is laden with conviction and passion.” Fatea .
“..wonderfully quirky and fresh…” The Journal Of Music, Ireland,
Rostislav Mazurkevich is a Ukrainian songwriter, singer and guitarist from Odessa. A young and talented bard with a piercing voice, gentle romantic ballads and exciting rock and roll songs.
“This is a turning point in my life: I am 30 years old, and despite the songwriting experience during 10 years, I did not dare to release my songs, was constantly looking for suitable musicians, arrangers, moving from city to city, writing hundreds of different songs, even selling songs for other singers…
And at some point I realized that the matter was not in the shell, but in myself, in my soul and in the desire to speak honestly through my poetry and music. Performing and releasing songs with just the guitar is an ancient minstrel magic that will always be coveted by the people. This year I will fulfill my dream and the dream of those who have been waiting for my music for years. In autumn I will release my first album.
Thanks to the festival for the trust, it is exciting to be in the company of amazing musicians”
A vocal harmony duo fifteen years in the making, Moors & McCumber have done more than just endear themselves to fans – they’ve built a genuine community. Bridging the gap between classic folk rock and present day Americana, they write heartfelt songs directly inspired by life’s experiences. With their latest record, 2021’s ‘Survival,’ they have created some of their most compelling work to date.
The sound of Moors & McCumber is adventurous, eclectic, and endlessly creative. Borrowing from rock, pop, blues, folk, and world music, the two multi-instrumentalists defy common logic and embrace spontaneity to bring their stories and songs to life. Their strong vocal harmonies and unconventional instrumentation combine to create a mesmerizing experience. At the center of it all is their evocative songwriting.
While “more than the sum of their parts” has become a bit of a cliche, there is no better phrase to describe Moors & McCumber. James is a gifted singer and songwriter, while Kort specializes in creating vocal harmonies and captivating arrangements through inventive instrumentation. With their voices combined, they create a truly special sound. As Grammy award-winning producer Lloyd Maines says, “They bring it all to the stage and deliver in a big way.”
John Spillane returns to Clonakilty International Guitar Festival this year as a participant of the Acoustic Forum Hosted by George Lowden on Fri 22nd of September and then again on Sunday where John Spillane & the Band of Wrens will perform as part of the legendary guitartown Session trail!
John Spillane is a musician, songwriter, performer, recording artist, storyteller, poet and dreamer. Rooted in people, place and story, his music transports the listener and his live performances captivate audiences around the world.
After his acclaimed release of 100 Snow White Horses in 2021, in October 2022, John will released ‘In Another Light’ a career spanning album recorded live at the Right Here Right Now Festival recorded at Cork Opera House in November 2021.
Jessie Lloyd is a Songkeeper. An Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait singer, social historian and cultural practitioner of Indigenous song and founder of her award-winning Mission Songs Project. As a cultural ambassador, Lloyd takes audiences on a profoundly-moving musical journey into the depths and diversity of Australia’s Aboriginal culture, history and identity.
Jessie’s work continues the songlines of Aboriginal Australian, a body of traditional songs that carries the 60,000-year history of the world’s oldest living culture. She engages her audiences through intimate storytelling, moving harmonies and historical insights, using her humour and truth to share the voices of her elders, just as they would around a warm campfire or kitchen table.
Since graduation from Abmusic – Aboriginal Music College in Perth in 2002, Jessie and performed and toured across Australia and the globe. Singing in various bands and choirs throughout her career and now producing her own themed shows and music projects. As an experienced arts administrator and music producer, her first passion is singing and performing the songs of her people.
I Dreamed I Dream are a genre-blending five-piece band from Cork. Consisting of Julie Landers on vocals and drums, Claire Aherne on vocals and bass, Niamh Hayes on keys and Elle Kelleher and Laura Dineen sharing guitar duties, they are influenced by everything ranging from shoegaze and dreampop to classic girl groupsÂ
Described by the Evening Echo/Examiners Mike McGrath-Bryan as “emerging experimentalists” and with a “healthy disregard for musical convention”, IDID are fast becoming one of Ireland’s most captivating bands.
“The lyrics and beauty of Elly’s songs are wondrous. Her music touches your soul. The ups and downs of life and the feelings that are thrown up are captured by Elly’s poignant and deep-rooted lyrics, brought to life by her amazingly powerful and deeply- melodic voice- sweet and beautiful, while also penetrating your heart and mind. Elly is also an excellent musician, accomplished on both the guitar and piano. She is a songwriter par excellence. This is a woman who is a specialist in her craft.” – Tom Niall
Originally hailing from Tipperary Ireland, Elaine Howley is a vocalist and producer who merges an expansive tapestry of experimental, analogue processes with a love of classic songwriting and melodic hooks, to create a sound world that is distinctly her own.
Immersed in both the experimental music scenes in her adopted home of Cork, and the DIY ethos of Ireland’s alternative rock community, Elaine’s music grew out of years of varied, extensive collaborative practise, performance and experimentation. She has toured across Europe and the UK as the singer in the acclaimed psychedelic rock group, The Altered Hours, sharing stages with the likes of Fontaines DC, Wooden Shjips, Clinic and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Closer to home, she has played in ambient trio Crevice and folk group Morning Veils. It was through playing with these groups and performing with the improvisatory collectives The Dark Arts Orchestra and HEX and collaborating with composer Irene Buckley and musician Roslyn Steer that Elaine began to further explore vocal layering and manipulation, sampling, stretching and slowing things down to uncanny, enigmatic layers of sound.
After contributing to a host of critically acclaimed compilations, Howley released her first full length solo album ‘The Distance Between Heart and Mouth’ in 2022 through Touch Sensitive Records (David Holmes, Cherrystones, Documenta, Vox Populi). Pitchfork praised the album as “a spectral slow burn that refuses to trip over itself to get anywhere in particular. By absorbing the wisdom of the process, Howley permits her craft to resound deeper than ever”.
Elaine uses tape to process voice, drum machines and synthesizers, creating production that works in tandem with her songwriting to weave an intimate sonic tapestry that feels warm and esoteric all at once. The Distance Between Heart And Mouth was born out of a ritualistic practice of going to her home studio first thing in the morning, creating a daily audio-diary as soon as she woke. It’s unsurprising then that the resulting album emanates an intimate quality; blending deep synths, whisper-soft melodies, echoes, loops, beats and murmurs, recalling the likes of Trish Keenan, Tirzah and Leslie Weiner, while Elaine’s unmistakable voice cracks through the analogue gauze like a crystalline glint of daylight.
Electronic Sound Magazine praised The Distance Between Heart and Mouth describing the record as “nine detailed and hugely captivating vignette’s” while Backseat Mafia observed “The music bristles with experimental edginess but that doesn’t obscure the song craft or the clarity of the statements being made. Elaine Howley’s ‘The Distance Between Heart And Mouth’ bravely tells it like it is and we should be thankful that she does.”
The album, now in its second pressing, has received praise from The Sunday Times, The Examiner, The Thin Air and has been played by Mary Anne Hobbs and Tom Ravenscroft on BBC6 Music. Elaine has been playing live across Ireland in support of the record and made her London debut at the ICA gallery in May 2023.