Skibbereen native Colin Deady is one of Ireland’s finest emerging singer songwriters. A self taught musician & performer, Deady writes about his own life experiences inviting the listener into a world of beautifully crafted songs while offering his own unique blend of folk, jazz & blues.
Awarded a Master of Arts degree in songwriting from UL in 2023, Deady now prepares to offer his second album Real Life in 2024.
Lead single The Unexpected – An upbeat folk song filled with optimism, hope and an unexpected twist was released on Friday 1st March 2024 receiving national airplay and championed by John Creedon RTE Radio 1.
Deady is currently working on a video for his second single release Real Life due for release on 14th June 2024. This will be followed up with the full album release in September.
‘A wonderful & accomplished songwriter’ Hotpress
‘A real talent’
John Creedon RTE Radio 1
Just listened through to the whole album and all I can say is ‘very very well done! It’s totally brilliant and I love it…Great songs, melodies, your singing and playing is also tops – I’m not just saying that btw! You’ve produced a Brilliant album so I hope it does really well for you.
Play us a song, would ya!
Delighted to announce the first ever open mic at the guitar fest! Gallery Asna Open Mic was started back in January this year as a space for everyone, young and old, to play music behind a mic. We all know the feeling of stage fright and the open mic is a place to help that.
It will take place from 5:30 to 8pm at Gallery Asna on Asna Square on Sunday.
What to expect on Sunday
Sign up at 5:30 –
There will be an empty numbered sheet on the table in the landing of the gallery where you can put your name on. It doesn’t need to be in order. So if you don’t want to be first to play on the night, you can put your name a bit further down the list. So get down on time to get the best spot on the list
Only one song per person but if there’s time towards the end of the night the running order will be ran again to give the crowd seconds
The only sign ups are done on the door, so no requesting a spot over instagram.
What to Perform –
The open mic is a place for all styles of music. Be it rap, soul, pop, jazz or classical, it’ll be loved! The open mic is a safe space for all musicians. It can be their 1st or 100th time on stage and any age is welcome behind the mic.
Who can come –
Anyone! It starts early to let the young ones get in on the fun of live music.
All ages are more than welcome to join and also if they’re brave enough they can get on stage too. Thady, the organiser, remembers his first time on stage was when he was just 12 in Scannells on a Sunday session and he was hooked! 😁
Equipment –
There’s a right handed semi acoustic guitar and 2 microphones which you are more than welcome to play. There are a few extra inputs on the mixer so you can bring along any other instruments with you. There’s also a 3.5mm aux input for those of you who prefer to sing to a backing track, just have your phone ready to plug in.
Social Media –
The open mic will be sharing pictures and videos of the performers as the night goes on for our Instagram (@clonakiltyopenmic) and Facebook page. So, if you have a page you’d like us to tag, let them know and they will be more than happy to do so and of course if you don’t want to be recorded that’s totally cool too!
So excited to see ye all there and to get the show on the road!
See ye there! 🤘
Whistling tunes, (mouth whistling, lip flautist), has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and I noticed that fewer people whistle tunes so I want to contribute to a Whistling revival. Trad tunes, slow airs and classical music are all part of my repertoire. I love singing any songs but have a special interest in folk songs and their origins.
Fronted by partners Alex Millaire and Kaitlin Milroy, Ottawa-based Moonfruits are makers of art-folk bilingue. In a forest of banjo, guitar, kalimba and glockenspiel, their voices burrow and soar. Here is a reverie, tender and powerful, beckoning listeners to elevate the stuff of everyday life.
Stingray Rising Star Award, SOCAN Award and Trille Or winners, Moonfruits have toured Canada coast to coast and are making their first forays into the US and EU, moving audiences with a live show that mixes French and English organically, playfully, intentionally. Their début full-length Ste-Quequepart (2017) \saint-kehk-pahr or Saint Somewhere\ is an elaborate small town fiction that explores the faces of gentrification, isolation and community.
What grows in the forest of Moonfruits’ imagination is a songcraft that is elastic and never fails to transport. Moonfruits have toured extensively as a duo and performed accompanied by double bass, drums, keys and chamber instruments. Whether as a larger ensemble or with naught but their log and lamp, changes of scenery inspire Moonfruits, for they are as at home in your living room as they are in a concert hall.
Notable past performances include the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, Folk Fest sur le canal, NAC Fourth Stage, Place des Arts, CityFolk, Festival of Small Halls Ontario, La Nuit sur l’Étang, Blue Skies Music Festival, FrancoFEST de Hamilton (with members of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra), Festival du Voyageur, Quality Block Party, Victoria Bicycle Music Festival and the first simultaneous bilingual CBC/Radio-Canada broadcast.
* The Trille Or awards celebrate excellence in French Canadian Music. In 2019, Moonfruits was nominated in the group, roots group, and singer-songwriter categories. Their Ste-Quequepart album design team, O’lee Graphiste and Gabrielle Dubois, won in the graphic design category.
“… their ability to convey authentic emotion transcends any form of linguistic barrier” — Ommie Jane, Ottawa Showbox
“… that’s what Moonfruits do. They take you somewhere, tell you a story … and then it stays with you. It follows you, lives inside you, and reminds you about the fact that music is about telling our stories … Moonfruits is music best experienced in the presence of loved ones.”— Maria Helena Pacelli, Apt613
Braiding organic vocal harmonies with organ, accordion, singing saw, and guitars, Tragedy Ann’s arrangements are as delicate as they are driving. Their concerts emanate “…the honesty and enthusiasm of people who can’t help but create and perform.” (Jon Farmer, Georgian Bay Roots).
With their latest album “Heirlooms” (May 2022), Liv Cazzola and Braden Phelan issue a call for deeper connection with each other and with the natural world. The answer to this call is reflected both in the collaborative creation process and the meaningful ways in which “Heirlooms” is being shared. Setting these intentions rooted them and provided the insight needed to nourish the project and create something lasting.
Tragedy Ann has performed in Europe, the United States, and across Canada at such venues as the National Arts Centre, Celtic Connections, Haliburton Folk Society, Egersund Visefestival, Blue Skies Music Festival, Clonakilty International Guitar Festival, Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival, and Hillside Festival.
Critically acclaimed Irish artist Niamh Regan recently shared her second album ‘Come As You Are’ on vinyl, CD, and digital via Faction Records.
“Come As You Are has Niamh Regan in total control of her artistic faculties and at the top of her game; she will be one to watch in the coming years… this is an album that needs to be heard, a project teeming with quiet intensity and resonance…” 9/10 The Line of Best Fit
“A powerful second album…Come As You Are’ is a delightful album full of delicate vocals, subtle hooks and exquisite instrumentation.” CLASH Magazine
“A beautiful, breathtakingly candid indie folk record of self-acceptance, Niamh Regan’s ‘Come As You Are’ is an intimate, emotionally charged invitation to embrace ourselves for who we are and lean into our light – even when it’s dark outside.” Atwood Magazine
“There’s a touch of Laura Marling in her voice, something of John Martyn in her intonation and Nick Drake in her guitar picking, the influence of everyone from Jeff Tweedy to Josh Ritter in her crafted storytelling…”
8/10 UNCUT Magazine
“…one of the most formidable forces in the Irish indie-folk scene… a pristine record which deals with faltering relationships, self-doubt, and love with exactitude and fearless candour.”9/10 Hot Press
“There’s hypnotic late-night deep synths, plus a woozy, bespangled hidden track. In all, intelligent and beautifully idiosyncratic” 4/5 Mojo Magazine
“Come As You Are is a brutally authentic work from a songwriter of the highest order.”- KLOF Mag
Critically acclaimed Irish artist Niamh Regan recently shared her second album ‘Come As You Are’ on vinyl, CD, and digital via Faction Records.
NIAMH REGAN
Niamh Regan’s 2020 debut album ‘Hemet’ introduced her as an artist with a gift for crafting folk-tinged songs with a quiet, reflective intensity. The release started to make waves and achieved over 1 million streams on Spotify and led to nominations for both the RTÉ Folk Awards and the Choice Music Prize ‘Album of the Year’.
Since its release, Niamh has embarked on headline tours from Ireland, to UK, Australia, Spain + more. Pairing this with many festivals and a variety of support opportunities with artist such as CMAT, Villagers, John Grant, SOAK, Patrick Watson, Sam Amidon, Cormac Begley, and Sorcha Richardson.
In between her performances, Niamh began to write her second record in Attica Studios with producer Tommy McLaughlin. She says, ‘I arrived in Donegal to meet Tommy for the first time with a bunch of demos, half-baked ideas and feeling not ready, it was scary. But I’m so glad that I did it that way. Trusted the process and came into the studio with the intention of capturing exactly where I was with it all and Tommy helped me build from there.’
And here we are, with the release of that second album, titled ‘Come As You Are’. It’s an album full of acutely observed vulnerabilities and introspection. Its themes are the issues that many of us find loom large in the small hours: questions of self-doubt, uncertainty about your life’s direction, whether relationships are flourishing in the way you’d hoped and determining priorities.
“A lot of it is about being in your late twenties and kind of realising we’re all running out of time,” she ponders. “I’d have bouts of massive self-belief in the studio, and then in the next breath I would be like, ‘This is the worst piece of music I could have even imagined.’ It was a rollercoaster. But through that I found self-acceptance; this is where I’m at and making peace with that. That’s what the album essentially is, just making peace with where I’m at and being realistic with myself.”
Niamh’s goal for the record was to achieve a richer, full live band sound, inspired by her love of Julia Jacklin, Caroline Rose, and especially Wilco. While there are moments of intimacy, the songs on ‘Come As You Are’ are far grander in scale and ambition than those on ‘Hemet’: the rousing, string-assisted majesty of ‘Waves’, subtle electro-pop beats dancing at the base of the mix in ‘Nice’, the dreamy Petty-esque melancholic swirl of ‘Blame’, and standout track ‘Music’, which, if not for the expressive feminine elegance of her voice, could feel like a lost classic from Jeff Tweedy and co.
Niamh has a contagious passion for performing live, having recently completed tours of Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, and supporting CMAT in the EU. Niamh explains the joy of releasing new music for her is performing it to a live audience, “It’s the best feeling and I think I’ll be chasing it for the rest of my life.”
And that’s a feeling that ‘Come As You Are’ will help her tap into. It’s an album which is a confident step forward, full of songs with the spark to come alive on stage and with the immediacy to beckon newcomers into her world.
IE TOUR DATES 2024
16th July – Galway International Arts Festival (full band)
25th July – Song Room, Wexford (solo)
20th July – The Everyman, Cork| The Everyman after Dark: Ye Vagabonds, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Cormac McCarthy, Matthew Berrill and Niamh Regan
26th July – Donegals (solo)
2nd August – All Together Now
12th August – Kilkenny Arts Festival (solo)
17th August – Electric Picnic (full band)
20th + 21st September – Clonakilty International Guitar Festival (solo)
“Oh my gosh, you are all so rad, you sound great,” That is how American singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten described The Kates. Formed with a mission to highlight the need for more women in music, exciting five-piece The Kates, from West Cork, are due to release their upcoming debut EP Pictures Here Of Dreams at CIGF this September.
Internationally recognised as one of the world’s most influential guitarists and a ground-breaking innovator, Preston Reed revolutionised acoustic guitar playing in the 1980’s and 90’s. His invention of integrated percussive guitar playing – an approach that incorporates a live percussive groove on the guitar neck and body with other techniques – continues to captivate audiences and inspire new generations of musicians around the world.
Reed’s evocative compositions – from driving rhythmic grooves to intimate blues to melodic ballads – are as compelling in live performance as his eye-opening guitar techniques. Rock, folk, metal, jazz, funk, country, bluegrass, world music and classical styles all come into play in creating Reed’s signature sonic landscape that tells stories without words.
Since the launch of his first album Acoustic Guitar in 1979, Preston Reed has released seventeen critically-acclaimed albums of original music and performed on six continents.
He has taught a master class at Berkeley College of Music. Participants in his summer guitar workshops at his home in Scotland have included Ed Sheeran. His live performances, including his 2012 performance at TEDGlobal with Usman Riaz, have had millions of internet views, and his music has received numerous awards and accolades over a career spanning six decades.
“Widely thought of as the world’s most gifted acoustic guitarist”Total Guitar
“Spectacular…the best one-man show this reviewer has seen since Bruce Springsteen…”The Irish Independent
Stanley Super 800 are a four-piece indie-rock band from Cork. The band formed in 2003 and toured all over Ireland, the UK and Europe until 2010. During that time, they released 4 records including ‘Louder & Clearer’ which was nominated for a Choice Music Prize, for Irish Album of the year in 2007.
Since 2010, the 4 members have all been busy working on other musical projects but have decided to dust down the gear and reform for the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival, where SS800 featured in the lineup for the inaugural festival back in 2005.
Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich (accordion,vocals), Nicole Ní Dhubhshláine (concertina, flute), Niamh Varian-Barry (fiddle, viola, vocals), and Kyle Macaulay (guitar, bouzouki), came together in early 2023 to form Cuas, a collective that performs and celebrates the wild and diverse musical traditions of West Kerry. Inspired by the emotive songs and the vibrant dance traditions of the area, the group puts the intrinsic link between listener and performer at the heart of the performance.