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A tribute to the late great Denis Noonan

OUTRI is a solo bass endeavour by established North-East bass player and ‘musical magpie’ (NARC mag) Ian ‘dodge’ Paterson. This project takes inspiration from a love of jazz, folk, electronica, found-sound and cinematic landscapes alongside an aesthetic focus on single live recorded takes, come what may. The music combines organic shifting loops underpinned with beautiful harmonies and glitchy electronica. Having performed and recorded for the last twenty years as a side person with various bands and artists (YVA / Beccy Owen / Sharks Took The Rest / Nick Pride and the Pimptones / Slowlight Quartet / HAV / The Rubber Wellies / Matt Stalker and Fables / Giles Strong Quartet / Not Now Charlie) in a whole range of genres from jazz to folk to pop this project is an opportunity to try and bring some of those disparate strands together. 

“A mesmeric haze of bass, harmonics and cinematic electronica, NMBR_1 is a lush and indulgent sound bath for your ears” (NARC magazine)

“A bewitching cauldron of ambient sounds” (Dirge Mag)

“Mesmericlal meandering bass and bird song creates an expansive tapestry of acoustic wonder” (NARC online)

Originating in Limerick, Ireland, SWEETS have become renowned for the blending of liminal, melodic overtones with

blistering guitar work and striking rhymical escapades. This coalescence is on full display throughout their acclaimed

eponymous debut album, ‘SWEETS’, released in July 2024.

SWEETS returned in August 2025 with ‘Assortment’, an EP of remixes featuring reimagined versions of tracks from their

debut, created by some of Limerick and Clare’s most vital producers and hip hop artists.

The roots of SWEETS are firmly entrenched in Limerick’s prolific music scene. The band features members from some of

the cities alternative luminaries such as Tooth, Windings, Japanese Jesus and Trenchknife. Expect dynamic, guitar-driven

songs, laden with unexpected hooks, emphatic rhythms and textured vocals that flips the post-hardcore sound on it’s

head.

In the Fall of 2026, SWEETS release their highly anticipated second full-length album.

Jean Pack is one of the year’s most idiosyncratic new voices – a songwriter whose work blends camp flair and raw feeling, structured chaos and cinematic charm. Her debut EP Allora, recorded at Big Child Studios, Cork with producer Caoilian Sherlock, introduced her as a bold, emotionally saturated presence: a cocktail of melancholia and mischief, poured neat. Breakout single Ruby offered velvet bite and gem-cut polish, while Birthday traced a tragicomic friendship unravelling with dry wit. Describing her sound as “a dirty aperitif with the first pint of the night,” she blends lush harmonies, lo-fi edges, sly lyricism, and storytelling that’s part cabaret, part confessional.

Either solo or with her Slay Babies, Jean Pack has quickly built a strong reputation on the live circuit. Recently named one of the Irish Examiner’s Ones to Watch for 2026, she is currently working on her debut album, with new singles set for release throughout the year. Influences span The Shangri-Las, Nancy & Lee, and The Velvet Underground, yet her voice remains unmistakably her own: vulnerable, glamorous, and half-laughing through the ache.

“Along with her band the Slay Babies, the live show is theatrical and everything you want from rock and roll.”  – Irish Examiner – 14 emerging music acts to watch out for in Ireland in 2026

“Fans of Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra’s illustrious self-titled LP, or anything from The Ronettes and Francoise Hardy will be immediately enamoured with Jean Pack.”  Zara Hedderman – The Bad Arts

“‘Ruby’ is the debut single from the project, the sort of ’60s throwback girl-group indie single that sounds like it should belong in a 7″ record.” Nialler9 – New Albums out today

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.

Justin Grounds: ‘Francesco’ 20 year anniversary show

In 2005 composer, violinist and songwriter Justin Grounds left home with a bag of clothes, a guitar some recording gear , a camera and a dream to dive deeply into a long journey, both inward and outward, living the songs and letting them guide his path. Over more than a year his journey found him writing poetry from the top of a rock in Joshua Tree, singing with monks on a mountain in Oahu, writing songs with Hawaii band The Girlas in a candlelit Kawa bar, squatting in a Hollywood apartment, living in a community for the menatally handicapped, putting on a gig in a local homeless shelter in the gritty downtown eastside of Vancouver, and wondering around San Francisco with a few dollars in his pocket, but a heart full of doves. Settling in an old farmhouse near Melbourne, Australia,  he put down roots for a while and pieced together the songs and recordings he had made along the way.

The record ‘Francesco’ is a musical document of a young artist finding his vision in the world, and was released on the Creative Vibes label in Australia in 2006, gaining acclaim and reviews likening it to Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake. The striking final song on this eclectic record, recorded in front of two microphones in a dark Canadian studio at midnight, seemes to sum up all that has come before it; “Time…it brings jewels and it brings pain/And sometimes they’re the same.”

Grounds settled in Clonakilty, Ireland in 2008 and quickly became a part of the vibrant music scene here, as a violinist and collaborator, which saw his musical vision expand to the eclectic range of work he produces today, both in his studio and in the community at large.

This special one-off show is a celebration of the record that started his musical journey 20 years ago, and the songs that grew out of a deep yearning and love for the world he found, in all it’s raggedness and beauty. Grounds will be joined by 2 special guests – Marcus Flack  (drums) who helped produce and mix ‘Francesco’ back in 2006, and is coming in from Amsterdam; and bassist Dodge Paterson (OUTRI), who has collaborated with Grounds in many projects over the last 25 years, and is coming in from Newcastle UK.

‘a rare, hidden gem’ – the Herald Sun

‘a superbly crafted album’ – PBS fm,

Porter Boys Social Club, where do we start? 

Reared on the highlands of south Monaghan with dubious politics and the odd ballad, the Marron brothers channelled their political radicalisation into haphazard noise they call music. 

Fearing they hit a wall, the brothers stumbled across the wizard of mid Louth, James Luckie. 

Now with the unstoppable folk configuration of two brothers and another fella they have been described by Hot Press as “if Woody Guthrie joined The Velvet Underground,” the band have denied these rumours claiming it sounds more like a mangled badger got into a scrap with James Luckie. 

If you like pints, pageantry and political indoctrination, you might just tolerate Porter Boys Social Club on their quest to make ballads loud, punk catchy and debauchery fashionable again.

The Gladstone Band is a trad and folk trio formed in 2024 in Dublin, and is made up of brothers Adam and Patrick Hutton, Tim Sheridan, and Jamie Kealy. Their stripped-back, high-energy sound harkens back to that of the early Dubliners, while their layered harmonies recall musicians such as Stan Rogers. They play a mix of traditional and folk standards, alongside their own original repertoire. 

Growing up in a household in which music was easy to come by, the Huttons naturally began playing music in their local pub scene. The bilingual Irish-English group originally played with guitar and concertina before adding fiddle player Tim Sheridan in early 2025 and drummer Jamie Kealy in December of 2025.

In less than two years since consolidating their line-up, the band has sold out their headline show at Whelan’s Upstairs venue in December 2025 and sold out a single release show at the Cobblestone in April 2025. The band has also done support slots at The Grand Social (Main Room) and at Workman’s. The group has played events such as Dublin Tradfest 2026, Banjo & Bovril Festival 2026,  Whelan’s (Trad and Folk Festival 2025), and Electric Picnic 2025 (Hazelwood Stage and Puball Gaeilge). The group was personally selected by the TG4 production team to record for their “Beo ó EP” TV show, featuring on episodes aired 31/08/25 and 04/01/2026. The group has also appeared on Irish language radio stations such as RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta and Radio na Life. 

The group recently performed in London for St Patrick’s Day and is booked to play multiple festivals across Ireland this summer, such as Electric Picnic 2026, Éalú Le Grá, Féile Solas, Clonakilty Guitar Fest, and Skerries Tradfest. The group has also recorded an album with Jejune Recording Studios, which will be released in stages over the summer months. Finally, the band is organising a small tour of Ireland in the autumn, which will include venues in Clonakilty and Sandinos in Derry City.