“Oh my gosh!!! You are all so rad!!! You sound great!!!” – Sharon Van Etten
Formed to pay homage to trailblazing women in music, exciting five piece The Kates, from West Cork, comprises of Eve Clague, Liz Clark, Mary Beth O’Mahony, Míde Houlihan and Paula K O’Brien. All five members have played, sang and written their own music for years, each releasing albums of original work. The five piece have now written a collection of original songs and the resulting Pictures Here Of Dreams EP is out now. Debut single ‘All That Talk’ was on RTE Radio 1 recommends list for two weeks. Unbalancing also made it onto the rte recommends list, receiving great reviews.
BABYRAT
Bursting out of the heart of Cork City, BABYRAT has the future of music looking Pretty in Punk with their abrasive bitch-pop sound.
Sonically landing somewhere between The Strokes and Olivia Rodrigo, BABYRAT’s sing-along melodies are intertwined with unapologetic lyrics that are thrust forward by the electrifying future-nostalgia sound that the band have created. BABYRAT delivers “an infectious energy with a confidence and chemistry that is unmatched” – Mia Tobin Power, University Express.
Formed in November 2024, BABYRAT have already generated a loyal following since playing iconic Irish venues such as The Grand Social and a sold-out Cyprus Avenue. Circulation of their unreleased music created the excitement which earned them support slots with local heavy-hitters such as The Love Buzz and Ten Hail Marys.
Nick Harper announces new tour and album ‘58 Fordwych Rd.’, release: September 26th 2025.
Those who have witnessed Nick Harper’s spellbinding, one-man shows will tell you his his 20 years plus of crafting songs & touring the land after a childhood growing up surrounded by the musical prowess of some of the 60’s most revered songwriters & musicians, not to mention being son of Roy Harper, has spawned a truly one-off, original guitarist & songwriter who stands an artist to be cherished & revered in his own right.
Following a prolific creative chapter that has seen three studio releases since 2020, Nick returns to the setting of his childhood living room in a small flat in Kilburn, London in the mid 1960s ’58 Fordwych Rd.’. The flat was an after hours hang-out for the legends who played at Les Cousins in Soho at the height of the acoustic explosion in swingin’ sixties London. People like Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, John Renbourn, Paul Simon, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, John Martyn, Sandy Denny & others dropped in, to drop out, jam & try new tunes. But, all along, there was someone else there… a toddler, part of the family, inhaling the music & absorbing the vibe; Roy’s young son, Nick Harper.
Nick invited these acoustic legends back into the room and toured this unique story to ecstatic receptions across the UK and Ireland, picking up a coveted Herald Angel Award for excellence in performance at The Edinburgh Fringe along the way. It was here that 58 Fordwych Rd. was recorded, capturing Nick at the height of performance prowess. The craftsmanship and care with which Nick handled the repertoire coupled with his unique viewpoint meant the shows transcended tribute, Nick applying his own new twists and deft performance swagger to the songs he heard directly from the greats when growing up.
In 2025 Nick finds himself alongside Roy once more, headlining Glastonbury Festival, at de Barras for the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival and providing lead guitar duties at a trilogy of farewell concert hall shows including The London Palladium. The narrative of 58 Fordwych Rd continues to reverberate and so the live album of the same name had to see a release.
“Betjemen with a guitar” — Guitarist Magazine.
“That boy’s too good.” — Bert Jansch
“Harper has so much musicianship in him that it just leaks out all over the place.” — The Times
“If you’ve never seen Harper live, you’re missing out on one of the musical phenomenons of our age.” — Herald (Glasgow)
Bursting out of the heart of Cork City, BABYRAT has the future of music looking Pretty in Punk with their abrasive bitch-pop sound. Sonically landing somewhere between The Strokes and Olivia Rodrigo, BABYRAT’s sing-along melodies are intertwined with unapologetic lyrics that are thrust forward by the electrifying future-nostalgia sound that the band have created. BABYRAT delivers an infectious energy with a confidence and chemistry that is unmatched.
Few surviving songer-songwriters from the counterculture of the 60s have kept their reputations intact. Of the generation of troubadours who came of age in the London folk clubs of that era, some have passed away, while others have surrendered to the regurgitation of the blandest form of acoustic folk music. But among the survivors, there is one figure whose body of work, comprising 23 studio LPs and almost as many live and compilation releases, has come to stand for a particularly single-minded form of integrity. That man is Roy Harper.
Now officially ‘retired’, and living in a secluded corner of Ireland, Harper has recently been hailed as a key influence by a much younger generation of devoted starsailors who instinctively recognise his innovations, his refusal to compromise and his visionary world view. It is rumoured that Joanna Newsom insisted she’d only play her recent UK shows if he would support her. The likes of Fleet Foxes and Jim O’Rourke are avowed fans; and in previous decades he has enjoyed public endorsements and tributes from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour and many more.
A former participant in the skiffle revolution in the mid-50s, around 1964 Harper found himself joining the stream of bohemian rambler-buskers hitching and singing their way around Europe and North Africa. On his return to Britain he pitched in to the London coffee-house folk scene and secured a residence at legendary folk club Les Cousins, where he was spotted by the obscure Strike label.
Beginning with 1966’s Sophisticated Beggar, Harper’s music has consistently rattled the cage of received ideas. His versatile, poetic sensibility was employed in a wide range of song styles from romantic love songs to late-night mantras to blackly comedic throwaway numbers. A brilliant, percussive guitar stylist in his own right, he extended the form of folk music over the next few years, allowing himself the space to stretch out in long, lyrically dense and mantrically repetitive odysseys of poetic thought. “I was writing long poems in the 50s,” says Harper, “none of which unfortunately made it past the first few moves of living quarters. My first inspiration was John Keats’s Endymion.”
The first inklings of his expansive approach on record came on the ten minute “Circle” on 1967’s Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith – produced by Shel Talmy – and was vastly ramped up on the following year’s Folkjokeopus, which contained an 18 minute “McGoohan’s Blues”, named after the lead actor of TV’s The Prisoner and whose enigmatic verses were laced with anti-establishment rants.
By this time Harper was a favourite at the outdoor Hyde Park Festivals, where he was exposed to the wider attention of the underground scene. Now produced and managed by Peter Jenner, and signed to EMI’s progressive label Harvest, his 1969 LP Flat Baroque And Berserk reflected his reputation as a bloodyminded, truculent troubadour, reflecting turbulent times with anger, wrath and sardonic humour, singing – like the mistle thrush after which his next opus would be named – into the eye of the storm.
Stormcock (1971) is generally regarded as a masterpiece: a sprawling but focused suite of four lengthy tracks which explored the inner space of Abbey Road Studio to rhapsodic effect. Like Astral Weeks refracted through the pages of OZ magazine, the songs span an enormous spectrum of experience, from the frontline of social unrest to the secluded, birdsong-infested lanes of the English countryside. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page added guitar, disguised as ‘S Flavius Mercurius’, highlighting a relationship with the group that had begun at the 1970 Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. “Hats Off To (Roy) Harper”, an incoherent, gutsy blues workout on Led Zeppelin III, paid tribute to the singer’s status as a beacon of integrity for the underground scene.
Harper enjoyed a special relationship with Led Zeppelin, and his subsequent albums began to move into harder rock territory with the addition of various key collaborators including, as well as Page, orchestral arranger/keyboardist David Bedford, David Gilmour, Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford and John Paul Jones. Lifemask (1972) contained several songs written for the film Made, directed by John Mackenzie, which starred Harper as an edgy, high-maintenance rock star. Valentine (1974) was launched with a gig featuring Page and Bedford plus Ronnie Lane and Keith Moon. He was invited to sing lead on the single “Have A Cigar” from Pink Floyd’s classic album Wish You Were Here (1975). In the same year Harper released HQ, a rock based album notable for the closing track, “When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease”, an elegiac hymn to unchanging ways and mortality which BBC DJ John Peel insisted should be played in the event of his death.
With the dawn of the 1980s Harper took part in a musical exchange with Kate Bush, who guested on The Unknown Soldier (1980), while Harper returned the favour by appearing on Bush’s hit single “Breathing”. Harper rode the unsteady waves of the music industry during the early 1980s but kept up a productive output that saw his music taking on a prophetic role, expressing more explicit concerns with environmental disaster, religious fundamentalism, urban poverty and the first Gulf War, on releases like Once (1990), The Dream Society (1998) and The Green Man (2000). In 1994, exhibiting typical desire for autonomy and self-sufficiency, he set up his own record label, Science Friction, to curate and rerelease his entire back catalogue, along with a clutch of CDs of live and unreleased material covering his entire career. In his book, The Passions Of Great Fortune (2003), he published his complete lyrics together with photos, annotations and re-evaluations of every one of his songs. In 2005 Harper was awarded the Mojo Hero Award by the staff of Mojo magazine. The award itself was presented by long time collaborator and friend, Jimmy Page.
2011 saw Roy Harper’s incredible, visionary catalogue of work enter the digital domain in time for his music to take on a new, urgent and timely appeal, in an age in which the hypocrisies and injustices he railed against are more present than ever before. Roy featured heavily in all of the major music magazines, UK broadsheets, on radio and made appearances on prime time television including the BBC Breakfast show and Later with Jools Holland. To end the rush he performed a special show at the Royal Festival Hall in celebration of his 70th, joined on stage by his son Nick Harper, Joanna Newsom, Jonathan Wilson and a surprise appearance by Jimmy Page. It was an amazing show, selling out in just a few days. The response was extraordinary.
It’s been a damned good innings and he’s still not out. In January 2013 Harper received the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. In September 2013 Roy Harper: Man & Myth – The Documentary, directed by George Scott, was broadcast on Sky Arts and his first album in thirteen years, ‘Man & Myth’, was released on Bella Union followed by three special concerts. The album received rave reviews.
18-year-old blues sensation Muireann Bradley, a remarkable talent hailing from the small town of Ballybofey in County Donegal, Ireland, signs with Decca Records/Verve Forecast to re-release her acclaimed debut album, I Kept These Old Blues, on 28th February 2025.
Bradley’s journey from playing in her bedroom to performing on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny this year has captivated audiences, establishing her as one of Ireland’s brightest emerging stars. Now she is poised for a global breakout.
Her newly remastered album will also feature previously unheard track ‘When The Levee Breaks’, which Muireann performed on The Late Late Show and wowed her fellow guests, Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott (see the performance and interview here). Speaking about the track, Muireann says, “Originally recorded in 1929 by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, ‘When The Levee Breaks’ is probably my favourite tune to perform live. Memphis Minnie is one of my biggest heroes, and I love her guitar picking on that record. My arrangement is a tribute to another one of my heroes, the great Philadelphia pre-war blues revivalist and teacher Ari Eisinger, who has been one of the biggest influences on my playing.”
Muireann’s signing with Decca Records solidifies her place as a torch-bearer for the new generation of blues, paying homage to the genre’s history while bringing her own fresh perspective to the stage.
We are delighted to once again welcome the return of the Acoustic Forum to this the 21st edition of the Clonakilty International Guitar festival!
The Acoustic Forum, hosted by Scoil na mBuachailli in their custom built music auditorium, is an eclectic event 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 guest host Bill Shanley, 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 Bill Shanley & guests Gerry O Beirne (IRL) Zoh Amba (US), Eoin ‘Stan’ O Sullivan, Zoé Bash (US)
In keeping with The Acoustic Forum tradition a portion of the tickets for this event will be available at a reduced rate for the unwaged.
This will be operated on an honour system so please be sound!
HOST:
BILL SHANLEY:
Bill Shanley is an internationally renowned guitarist and producer,
working with esteemed artists such as Ray Davies, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Mary Black and Sinead O’Connor.
Dublin based, Bill is one of Irelands top session and touring guitar players and producers. Bill has established himself internationally too, through touring and contributing to albums with Ray Davies, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Paul Brady, Mary Black, Roy Harper, Alexandra Burke, Sinead O’Connor, Judy Collins, Jackson Browne to name a few.
Being an accompanist has always been of key interest to Bill, enjoying the great scope and limitless backdrop you can create as a player for the artist you’re working with. This skill was commented on in the Financial Times review of a Ray Davies show a the Royal Albert Hall…
“Is there a finer sideman around?
It’s unlikely.” – Financial Times Review, Royal Albert Hall
GERRY O BEIRNE:
Born in Ennis, County Clare, along Ireland’s music-rich west coast, Gerry O’Beirne is a renowned singer, songwriter, record producer and guitarist (6 and 12 string guitar, tiple, and ukulele, slide guitar among others). He grew up in Ireland and in Ghana in West Africa, and has since lived in England, California, and Mexico. He lives now near Dingle in Co Kerry. His own compositions blend the passion found in traditional music with the freshness of contemporary song.
Gerry’s much loved first solo album Half Moon Bay features The Holy Ground, Half Moon Bay, Western Highway and The Shades Of Gloria which have been sung by Maura O’Connell, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Mary Black and many other great singers. His second album The Bog Bodies And Other Stories: Music For Guitar was named CD of the Month on the American radio show Echoes, and one of its essential albums of the year. “Yesterday I Saw The Earth Beautiful”, a duet album with fiddler Rosie Shipley featured his own songs, settings of poems by Paddy Kavanagh and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill along with traditional tunes from Ireland and Cape Breton. On his new album Swimming The Horses Gerry performs a new collection of songs and guitar pieces written in Dingle in West Kerry.
Gerry has toured the world as a solo artist and with the Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street, Midnight Well, Andy M. Stewart, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and the Waterboys. He has performed at the White House, opened for the Grateful Dead, played electric guitar with Marianne Faithfull and thought nothing of playing with a Romanian orchestra and choir in a cemetery in Transylvania at night. He has written music for film and theatre and appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. Recently he has been working with New York composer Peter Gordon on a recording of the music of the legendary Arthur Russell, and recorded recently with Peter Gordon and Tim Burgess of the Charlatans.
His songs were celebrated in a special concert at Sligo’s Fleadh Cheoil in August 2015 and his song All Down The Day was nominated for song of the year at the Fok Awards 2019.
In 2022 He performed a concert of solo guitar improvisations at Féile na Bealtaine in Dingle.
He has produced albums including Promenade by Kevin Burke and Michael O’Dhomhnaill (winner of the Grand Prix Du Disque at Montreux), Irish Times by Patrick Street, Man in the Moon and Donegal Rain by Andy M. Stewart, The Connaughtman’s Rambles by Martin O’Conner, Up Close by Kevin Burke, Silver Hook Tango by Australian singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazella, albums by Sarah McQuaid, and Lumina by Irish piper, low whistle player, and composer Eoin Duignan. His latest production is So Ends This Day by the great West Kerry singer Éilís Kennedy.
QUOTES:
“Beautiful… Exuberant and lyrical sound… an album so full of melodic warmth that it can barely be contained… one of the most perfect acoustic albums I’ve heard in a while …. a career defining album” — John Diliberto of Echoes about “The Bog Bodies And Other Stories: Music For Guitar”
“ “O’Beirne’s 2000 LP Half Moon Bay is beloved for good reason, and i’d highly recommend giving a listen to his latest effort, Swimming The Horses, which was self-released in May 2019. Even for listeners largely uninterested in Irish folk music, “The Last King Of Feothanach” and the alluring title track are beautifully haunting ballads, and O’Beirne has managed to write perhaps the canonical musical setting of James Joyce in “Golden Hair”.” – Colorado Springs Independent. ” — Colorado Springs Independent
“An intimate amphitheatre where the gracefulness of O’Beirne’s composition finds full expression.” — Irish Times
“The instrumentals are out of this world. A self taught master of the 6 and 12 string guitar, the playing of O’Beirne is superlative and subtle beyond words.” — The Sunday Times
“His works are simple, elegiac and exquisitely worded pen pictures of life’s experiences.” — Rock ‘N’ Reel
“Material comes from Paul Brady, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin and Lennon & McCartney, but the highlight is Gerry O’Beirne’s beautiful ‘Half Moon Bay” — Q Magazine (of Maura O’Connell’s ‘Stories’)
“He should be compulsory listening for any aspiring ambitious guitarist. It’s not just his technical dexterity and brilliance that catches the imagination, it’s the inventive use of arrangements, lyrics and melody.” — The Word
“Intelligent, articulate, insightful musicianship from a real craftsman. Not a wasted word nor an untrue note”— Pay The Reckoning
“A sublime talent….opens new creative vistas for acoustic guitar music” – fRoots
ZOH AMBA:
Zoh Amba is a songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist from Tennessee residing in New York. She began her musical journey steeped in the musical traditions of the South and has taken it from coast to coast and is mainly known as a saxophonist who blends avant-garde, noise, and devotional hymns, though has not shied from incorporating folk melodies into that world. Over the past several years Amba has been also been focusing on writing songs on guitar with lyrics that come from the heart and her love of nature and experiences. She has been performing her folk songs primarily in NYC both solo and with her band consisting of Adam Brisben (Buck Meek) also on guitar and Jeremy Gustin (Joan is Police Woman) on drums but also performs solo. Throughout the years Zoh has collaborated with a variety of high profile musicians such Glen Hansard, Tyshawn Sorey, Bill Orcutt, Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jim White (Dirty Three), etc. Amba has performed at well respected venues and festivals all over the world and has taught workshops and masterclasses at institutions such as New School (NY), Oberlin (OH), and various European festivals.
EOIN ‘STAN’ O SULLIVAN:
Eoin ‘Stan’ O’Sullivan (The Ceili Allstars, Stanley Super 800) explores the wild edges of Sliabh Luachra fiddle music—armed with an electric guitar.
Irish musicians have long worn their traditional roots with pride, even as they’ve pushed into contemporary sounds—but this is something else. This isn’t the polished innovation of Moving Hearts or the Celtic-glam of Horslips. Stan and Shane sound like they’ve come from a parallel timeline—one where the Public Dance Halls Act of 1935 was never passed, and traditional music naturally rode the same electric wave as rock ’n’ roll, psych, and punk.
The result is raw, rooted, and defiantly off-road—traditional music reimagined on dirty guitar and big drums. There’s a surprising likeness to the Desert Blues of artists like Tinariwen or Mdou Moctar—something the duo leans into proudly. As Stan puts it:
“If Ali Farka Touré played accordion, we might say he sounded like Joe Cooley. I think the resemblance shows the kinship of all folk music—and those parallels become obvious when the tunes are sung in the same language: electric guitar.”
ZOÉ BASHA:
Zoé Basha is a musician, composer and carpenter, of French and American origins. Based between Ireland and the traveling life for over a decade, Zoé blends traditional singing with jazz and blues. Her original pieces and traditional songs explore the crossover between the sway of Appalachian mountain songs, the fervour and solemn ornamentation of Irish traditional songs, and the pulse of American ragtime through playful, syncopated guitar and a booming voice reminiscent of some old jazz record you can’t quite put your finger on.
After growing up between the U.S. and France, traveling by thumb, freight trains, and taking the scenic route with rust-bucket vans, she played music in the streets for years to sustain the journey. In a milieu blending feminism, radical politics, queer theory and traditional music, she made her home in Dublin.
In 2023, she was a featured singer at Féile Róise Rua, and a Music Network RESONATE Residency recipient. Following the release of an album with vocal harmony trio Rufous Nightjar in March 2024, Zoé recorded her debut solo album ‘Gamble’ – set for release on April 17th 2025. The album was recorded at Black Mountain Studios in Dundalk, with a band of esteemed musicians adding organ, upright bass, fiddle, dobro and drums, to voice and guitar. It was mixed and mastered by Grammy-award winning engineer Ben Rawlins.
“A deft new voice in folk”— The Guardian (Folk Album of The Month)
“soulfully authentic and fearlessly genre-blending”— Earmilk
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Dónal O’Connor, Gerry O’Beirne –
Following on from multiple 5 star reviews of her album “Róisín ReImagined” with The Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Singer of the Year 2022 Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is embarking on an Irish tour accompanied by celebrated musicians Gerry O’Beirne (guitar, vocals) and Dónal O’Connor (fiddle, keyboards, vocals). This concert is an an engaging and varied programme of songs in Irish and English along with lively instrumental pieces, and the trio are well known for their warm rapport with their audiences
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh:
A renowned artist with a proven record of performance, recording and innovation, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is a multi-award winning traditional singer and musician from Corca Dhuibhne, West Kerry. Muireann is a leading exponent of the sean nós style, and loves to engage with audiences to share her love of the Irish song tradition. Her childhood in West Kerry saw her immersed in a rich cultural environment and vital living tradition. This was to be hugely influential on the foundation of her distinctive vocal and instrumental sound.
Muireann has enjoyed a successful career as a touring artist, with over thirteen years experience as lead singer and flute player with the Irish traditional supergroup Danú, as well as a many years performing as a solo artist. She holds an MA in Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick. In 2022 Muireann was awarded “Best Folk Singer” at the RTÉ Radio Folk Awards, and amongst many other awards, was Amhránaí na Bliana at the TG4 Gradaim Ceoil in 2011.
Muireann is also a popular television and radio presenter, having hosted a range of programmes for Irish and Scottish TV over the past 15 years, and currently presents her own music programme “Folk on One” on RTÉ Radio 1. Always keen to explore new ground, she has collaborated with many musicians in genres ranging from traditional to classical, world music to electronica. Most recently Muireann recorded “Róisín ReImagined” an album of sean nós songs arranged by contemporary Irish arrangers with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
Is amhránaí agus ceoltóir traidisiúnta as Corca Dhuibhne, Co. Chiarraí í Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. Tá cáil uirthi mar amhránaí an sean-nós agus cannan sí amhráin ó réimse leathan eile chomh maith. Tá mórán gradam bainte amach aici, ina measc Amhránaí na Bliana ag Gradam Ceoil T4 2011 agus Amhránaí na Bliana ag na RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards i 2022.
Le linn a hóige in Iarthar Chiarraí tomadh Muireann i dtimpeallacht shaibhir chultúrtha agus i dtraidisiún maireachtála ríthábhachtach, a raibh tionchar an-mhór aige ar bhunús a fuaime sainiúil gutha agus uirlise. Tar éis di máistreacht a fháil i dtaibhsiú an ceoil traidisiúnta, do chaith sí breis agus trí bliana déag mar phríomh-amhránaí agus seinnteoir fliúite leis an ngrúpa mór le rá traidisiúnta Danú.
Is láithreoir teilifíse agus raidió í Muireann do leithéidí RTÉ 1, TG4, RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ Raidió na Gaelatchta agus BBC Alba chomh maith agus cuireann sí a clár féin “Folk on One” i láthair ar RTÉ Radio 1. Bíonn sí ag comhoibriú le go leor ealaíontóirí as seánraí eile agus traidisiúin amhránaíochta domhanda a bhfuil spéis mhór aici ann. Le déanaí d’eisigh sí an t-albam d’amhrán sean-nóis “Róisín ReImagined” – comhoibriú le Ceolfhoireann Earagail Aireagail na hÉireann agus cumadóirí comhaimsirthe Éireannacha a bhfuair ard-mholadh.
RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Singer of the Year 2022
“One of the earthiest and most distinctive voices, not just in traditional circles, but anywhere” – The Irish Times
“One of today’s great singers” – Irish Echo
“Mysterious Perfection”– Dónal Lunny
Dónal O’Connor:
Dónal O’Connor is one of Ireland’s leading traditional musicians, he is also a much sought-after and highly regarded producer. He comes from a long and distinguished line of Irish fiddlers and singers and his collaborations have variously included membership of Ulaid, At First Light, Lá Lugh and RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s touring ensemble. Described by the Irish Times as a ‘fearless musical adventurer’ and ‘a renaissance man’ he has brought his native Oriel music to all four corners of the globe, and he is a founder and Artistic Director of Belfast Tradfest.
His fiddle style is heavily influenced by his father Gerry O’Connor, the Oriel tradition, and the great northern fiddle masters such as Seán Maguire, Brendan McGlinchey, Bríd Harper & Tommy Peoples. He has composed music for theatre, television and film and has presented music shows for BBC ALBA, BBC NI, TG4, BBC Radio Ulster and Raidió na Gaeltachta.
Dónal is also the producer of the recent collaboration between Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and The Irish Chamber Orchestra “Róisín ReImagined”.
“O’Connor’s winning blend of pace and lyricism transmits his enthusiasm for the music directly to the listener with irresistible impact” – Herald Scotland
Gerry O’Beirne:
A native of the west of Ireland and reared there and in west Africa, Gerry O’Beirne is a self taught master of the six and twelve string, slide guitar and ukulele and other stringed instruments. Many of his songs have been recorded by well known artists on the Irish music scene including Mary Black, Maura O’Connell and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. His own albums have received much acclaim around the world, and he produced and arranged music for many others including Patrick Street, Kevin Burke and Micheál O’Domhnaill.
His writing is a hybrid of the passion found in traditional music and the freshness of contemporary song. Gerry has toured the globe as a solo artist and with the Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street, Midnight Well, Andy M. Stewart, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and the Waterboys. He has performed at the White House, opened for the Grateful Dead, and played electric guitar with Marianne Faithfull. He lives near Dingle in West Kerry.
“A sublime talent….opens new creative vistas for acoustic guitar music” – fRoots
<<This event is free as part of Culture Night however due to limited capacity you must register for a ticket in order to attend>>
Mohammad Syfkhan
Mohammad Syfkhan is an Irish based Kurdish/Syrian singer and Bouzouki player. Mohammad’s own brand of ecstatic music takes elements from Middle Eastern and North African music to create an atmosphere of joy, love and happiness. Since arriving in Ireland, Mohammad has used the language of music to integrate into the local community by playing at private parties and concerts. He has been playing music since the 1980’s, while living in the city of Raqqa, Syria where he began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. His debut album ‘I Am Kurdish’ came out on Nyahh Records in February.
“Syfkhan takes his domestic influences and fuses them with music from beyond those regions, from North African folk rhythms to Turkish psychedelia. It’s a glorious alembic not bound by borders, where Mohammad himself brings a cultivated exuberance to his playing that belies his vintage.”
The Quietus
“His bouzouki playing, all coiling melodies, gliding shreds and emotional drive, is obviously a crucial component. So it fits that the first sounds to speak out from the grooves are the poised trills from Syfkhan’s buzuq, tempting you into the swirling uplift” – Backseat Mafia
”No one would be left sitting to this.” – Klof Mag
Musician, singer and actor, Spider Stacy is best known around these parts as a founding member of The Pogues. He will be the special guest at John Robb’s show ‘Do you believe in the power of rock n roll ?’
Tara Breen, Pádraig Rynne and Jim Murray are a trio composed of musicians at the forefront of our tradition.
Tara Breen has numerous All Ireland titles on the fiddle and tours regularly with The Chieftains, Stockton’s wing and as a solo performer. Pádraig Rynne is considered a leading figure in Irish music and is founding member of well-known bands such as NOTIFY and Guidewires. Jim has been one of the most sought after and busiest musicians of his generation over the past two decades recording and touring with some of the best known folk musicians in the world. Their 2021 release “Nasc” is regarded as one of the finest albums in recent years from an Irish Traditional outfit and was winner of the best traditional album in the 2022 American Celtic listener supported radio awards.
“Sure-footed, engaging and joyful music from a dynamic Clare duo. Expert musicianship, courageous creativity and sweetness of melody” – Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, RTÉ Radió na Gaeltachta
Expect a performance from the gentle to the rhythmical and everything in-between. Embark on an odyssey of wonder, joyfulness and upbeat music as three incredibly talented and creative folk musicians shape melodies from past and present into something dynamic and irresistible.
BIOS:
Described as “one of the freshest sounds in Irish music” by fRoots, Pádraig Rynne is a virtuoso musician, prolific composer and is regarded as the finest concertina player in Irish music today. With an MA in Music Technology and with a passion for experimenting in diverse genres Pádraig is recognized for his re-freshing explorations into the Irish tradition and for his ground-breaking band NOTIFY, described by the New York Echo as “cinematic in scope”.
A worthy description as “a musical wizard” by Music Network, Tara Breen is the fiddler with the legendary band, The Chieftains. She is an all-round extraordinary musician who has 11 solo All-Ireland titles. Tara is also the winner of both the coveted Fiddler of Dooney and Michael Coleman Fiddle competitions and was invited to perform at Dublin Castle for the Queen of England during her State visit to Ireland. Tara has numerous recording credits to her name and regularly guests with artists such as Carlos Nunez, Stockton’s wing and the Trí Tones.
Jim Murray has been touring the world full time as a professional musician since the age of eighteen. Jim is considered Sharon Shannon’s “right hand man” having recorded and toured with her over five continents. He also released two critically acclaimed albums with long term partner Seamus Begley in 2001 and 2008 which collectively scooped many prestigious awards such as The Irish Times and Hotpress Traditional Irish Music Album of the Year. Since Jim’s arrival on the world stage, he has gained the respect of both national and international musicians and has performed and recorded with artists such as Sinead O’Connor, Steve Earl, Shane McGowan, Altan and Mary Black to mention but a few.
“Rynne and Breen have fabulous chemistry together and have found backing musicians who are more than mere accompanists but who are stakeholders in the game” – Dan Neely, The Irish Echo, New York