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George Lowden is a luthier based in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. He constructs steel and nylon string acoustic guitars by hand without any UV finishing as well as solid-body electric guitars.

The Lowden Story:
In the late 1980’s George Lowden accepted an invitation to visit the main Lowden dealer for Switzerland, Servette Music in Geneva. Upon his arrival, co-proprietor Yves Imer thanked George for coming, because some of the Lowden customers he was to meet had not realised he actually existed – they thought “George Lowden” was merely the figment of some marketing man’s imagination – a leprechaun, in fact!

This served to enlighten George to the principle that an ‘information vacuum’ will always be filled – sometimes benignly, sometimes bizarrely.So, for the record, HERE is the complete story of George Lowden and his guitars.

There’s a natural magnetism to DUG’s folk brew. The duo, made up of Conor (Lorkin) O’Reilly and Jonny Pickett, are gearing up for the release of their debut album, having formed in 2023–but you’d be forgiven for believing that they’ve been writing together for a lifetime.

Their music stems from roots in musical traditions spanning both sides of the pond. In one breath, echoing the great American folk troubadours, and in another, comfortably channelling the elder statesmen of Irish folk.

This is no accident. DUG have a shared musical heritage, with members having been born in America and Scotland before arriving in Ireland. O’Reilly himself spent almost a decade making and releasing music in upstate New York, having picked up sticks from his native Edinburgh, (Irish mother and Scottish father) before moving to Ireland in 2022 to start a new musical chapter.

And you can hear that lived musical experience in singles like ‘Big Sundown’ and ‘Jubilee’ (shortlisted for two Grammy nominations). Resonator guitar and banjo, the building blocks of DUG’s arrangements, lick and spin, with intricate finger-picking patterns whirling to a compelling whole. Their music breathes, vamping in sync.

They’re damn funny too. DUG’s lyrics catch you off guard, eliciting an honest-to-goodness chuckle in a moment of levity. At their very best, as on their forthcoming album, there’s a bona fide warmth littered throughout their unique take on folk storytelling. Tracks like ‘Wheel of Fortune’ have an easy rapport. It’s catching up with an old friend, all mischief and smiles.

There are allusions to darker moments there too; yearning and melancholy, to lessons learnt the hard way. Taking the heavy with the light, and being able to translate it into a foot-tapping, infectious contemporary folk sound is what DUG do best. They don’t need to posture; their music is naturally playful and honest, inviting you along on their musical journey.

DUG’s love for the musicians that inspired them never steps too far into reverence. They’re an unapologetically modern band. You’ll hear plenty of Irish influence in their music, but you’ll not find any tweed coats or paddy caps here. Instead, the band opts to be themselves-completely natural and organic. It’s part of what gives the group’s work such a strong charisma, and helps establish DUG as having one of the most unique takes on contemporary folk music.

In 2024, the duo signed to Claddagh Records, a label in which they find themselves in fine musical company. A subsidiary of Universal Records, Claddagh Records has spent the last few years becoming a hotbed for some of the most forward-thinking musicians in contemporary Irish folk, home to artists like Niamh Bury, Lemoncello and ØXN, to name a few.

It should come as no surprise that a group that delights in a touch of devilment and so ardently remains true to themselves has built a thriving community of fans, both at their live shows and through their often hilarious social media.

On that note, beyond the release of their debut album, DUG will spend much of 2025 on the road with plans for an extensive international tour. Already announced are Summer dates in the US: Colorado (main stage at Telluride Blugrass Festival), Washington, Portland and Idaho, as well as a debut tour in Australia in October. Irish fans can expect a surely raucous performance at almost every major Irish festival this summer. There’s plenty more dates still to be announced, so it’s well worth keeping your eyes peeled.

Kevin Burke: Fiddle, Dermot Byrne: Accordion, Noriana Kennedy: Vocals and 5-string banjo, Jim Murray: Guitar

Four extraordinary musicians who have shared their music with audiences for over four decades – their programme will feature inspired performances of traditional and contemporary material from artists whose collective experience and creativity have carved a deep impression on the landscape of traditional Irish music. 

Audiences can look forward to an evening of remarkable musicianship, rich storytelling and joyful collaboration.

Kevin Burke:

Kevin Burke’s fiddle playing has been at the forefront of traditional music since the 1970s. His far-reaching solo album If the Cap Fits and his work with such distinguished performers as Arlo Guthrie, Kate Bush, Christy Moore and the Bothy Band established him as a ground-breaking artist. Kevin has earned international acclaim in both Europe and America as a solo performer, a teacher and as a member of some of folk music’s foremost groups including the exciting Celtic Fiddle Festival and Ireland’s long admired and respected Patrick Street. He has been the recipient of prestigious awards including Gradam Ceoil TG4 Musician of the Year 2016 and a National Heritage Fellowship, the USA’s highest honour for excellence in the folk and traditional arts. 

“A superior instrumentalist in any idiom……impressively virtuosic”The New York Times [on Burke]

Dermot Byrne:

Dermot Byrne’s seemingly effortless playing, combined with great subtlety and a faultless ear, makes him one of the finest accordion players of his generation. Hailing from the Inishowen peninsula of Co. Donegal, Dermot was a member of the renowned Irish traditional music band Altan from 1994 to 2013. He has also collaborated with Séamus and Manus McGuire, Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin and Bríd Harper. Outside of traditional music, he has recorded and performed with household names including Dolly Parton, John Prine, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Paul Brady and the late jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. His recent recordings with Canadian fiddler Pierre Schryer (2Worlds United), French harpist Floriane Blancke (Dermot Byrne and Floriane Blancke), Yvonne Casey (As We Feel It) and Steve Cooney (The Donegal Melodeon) have received widespread critical acclaim.

“A timeless delight that straddles centuries with the agility and ease that Byrne’s fingers ricochet across the reeds”The Irish Times [on Byrne’s self-titled album]

Noriana Kennedy:

Half Irish and half Filipino, Noriana Kennedy possesses a captivating voice lauded by the Irish Times as ‘a knockout: translucent and tenacious in equal measure’. Since her debut album Ebb n Flow was released in 2011, her career has soared, touring extensively in the USA with renowned traditional group Solas and sharing the stage with highly respected artists like Pauline Scanlon, Eilís Kennedy, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and John Spillane. In 2013, Noriana joined Nicola Joyce and Noelie McDonnell to form the stunning songwriting trio The Whileaways. Together with her bandmates, Noriana has contributed to four albums, earning several RTÉ Folk Award nominations along the way.

“Kennedy’s vocals … full of layered textures that promise to lodge deep within an audience’s subconscious for later savouring”The Irish Times

Jim Murray:

Joining them is Jim Murray, one of the world’s leading acoustic guitar players. For over twenty years he has toured, performed and recorded with artists such as Sharon Shannon, Sinéad O’Connor, Steve Earle, Shane MacGowan, Séamus Begley, Mike McGoldrick, Altan and Mary Black. In 1998, he began his professional career, having been invited to tour Japan and Australia with accordion legend Séamus Begley, whilst also in the same year touring America with piano accordion ace Alan Kelly. In 1999, Jim was invited to become guitarist with world renowned Irish musician Sharon Shannon and has recorded and toured with her across five continents. Jim had an extraordinary musical partnership with accordionist and singer Séamus Begley and their debut album Ragairne, released in 2001, received both The Irish Times and Hot Press Traditional Irish Music Album of the Year.

“Enormous vim, vigour and at the same time, remarkable subtlety”The Irish Times [on Murray]

<<This event is free as part of Culture Night however due to limited capacity you must register for a ticket in order to attend>>

Hailing from the Comeragh Mountains of County Waterford, The Wran are four brothers: Tommy, Danny, Seán and Stephen Dunford. They bring a fresh voice to Irish music, blending trad with punk and a hint of psychedelia to create music that feels both timeless and new. Drawing inspiration from Planxty, The Pogues and Lankum,

The Wran combines traditional and modern instrumentation, including banjo, harmonium, acoustic guitar, bass VI and drums. They are dedicated to keeping the Irish language, traditional songs and storytelling alive while continuing to push it forward in their own way.

After an explosive live debut in 2025, including accoladed performances at Glastonbury, Green Man, All Together Now, and Electric Picnic, the band went on to support The Scratch and Kíla, play Dublin’s Notable NYD festival, and sell out their first Irish tour. Beginning 2026 with a sold-out UK tour, The Wran are fast establishing themselves as one of Ireland’s most vital new bands.

THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT!!

“a group destined to do something big” NME

“the sound of a band on the cusp of greatness” Rolling Stone UK

“To highlight Cliffords as ones-to-watch does a disservice to the staggering power and unlimited potential on display here: this is far more than just hype.”  DIY Magazine

“[the EP] represents more than just a musical beginning; it captures what makes Cliffords such a compelling proposition” DORK

It’s been a busy and exciting few months for Cliffords as they introduced themselves to the wider world with their second EP, Salt of the Lee. It’s the sound of a band who made their initial moves outside of the glare of the music industry, and whose self-financed debut EP landed with much promise but without any pressure of expectation beyond their own. Salt of the Lee fulfils all that promise emphatically, and another thrilling next step for a band who are quickly on the rise.

Whilst Cliffords certainly continue to develop and discover both themselves as a band and their sound, they’ve already become a compelling proposition whose word-of-mouth live shows are the sound of a band on the brink of something very special.

Paul Brady will play two shows

A Headline Show in DeBarra’s Folk Club w/ Bill Shanley Thursday 17th September –  SOLD OUT

The Acoustic Forum: Fri 18th September in Scoil na mBuachaill

W/ Geroge Lowden, Paul Brady, Leah Song, Bill Shanley and more TBA – Still tickets available.

Paul Brady has won Lifetime Achievement awards from both The Irish Recorded Music Association and the BBC. He was inducted into the British Composers and Songwriters Academy in 2004 and the (Irish) IMRO Songwriters Academy in 2013 and was further honoured by the President of Ireland with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Here’s why.

Paul Brady

Paul Brady, singer, songwriter, musician and producer has for over fifty years been at the forefront of popular music in Ireland. Spending the first decade and a half of his career absorbing influences from Jazz, Blues, Pop, Soul and Irish folk music in bands while at college in Dublin, and later with The Johnstons, Planxty and Andy Irvine, his dramatic interpretations of classic traditional ballads such as Arthur McBride and The Lakes of Pontchartrain firmly established him as one of the cornerstones of the new wave of Irish music and song in the 1970s.

Around the end of that decade, he began to write his own songs and has since forged a reputation as one of Ireland’s finest singer-songwriters, releasing many popular and critically acclaimed records. Songs such as The Island, Crazy Dreams, Nothing But The Same Old Story, Nobody Knows, Follow On, The Long Goodbye, The World Is What You Make It and Paradise Is Here have, over the years, given joy and emotional sustenance to generations of Irish at home and abroad.

Not long after he released ‘Hard Station’, his first album of his own compositions in 1981, his songs started to come to the attention of artists worldwide and his first ‘cover’ came the following year when Santana recorded ‘Night Hunting Time’. Since then, his songs have been recorded by many international artists including Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, Cher, Carole King, Art Garfunkel, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, Trisha Yearwood and Phil Collins and closer to home, Ronan Keating, Joe Dolan, Dickie Rock, Maura O’Connell, Liam Clancy and Mary Black.

Paul continues to write, record and perform either solo, in trio or full band. A Paul Brady concert is always a special event.

He has been with his partner Mary Elliott since 1975. They have two grown-up children, Sarah and Colm and five grandchildren, Lyra, Sean, Finn, Leo and Olive. Paul lives in Dublin.

Leah Song w/ featuring David Brown

Leah Song is a storyteller, song-catcher, and cultural bridge-builder, best known as the frontwoman of Rising Appalachia alongside her sister, Chloe. She plays claw-hammer banjo, bodhrán, and guitar, and is a keeper of both traditional and contemporary songs. For over two decades, she has carried her voice across borders, blending Appalachian folk and global roots music into songs that honor both land and lineage. Her repertoire includes Southern folk, old-world balladry, and Appalachian traditionals.

Leah has studied and worked alongside some of the greatest musicians and culture keepers of our time, including Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Bobby McFerrin, Bruce Molsky, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Sheila Kay Adams, Martin Hayes, Cathy Jordan, Moya Brennan, Martin Shaw, Winona LaDuke, Joanna Macy, and more. She is joined on stage by a rotating cast of incredible musicians and multi-instrumentalists. Join her in gathering tools and teachings of resiliency, music, mythology, and celebration through sound.

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

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