Month: April 2011

 Have you got the Q Factor?

Shouting At Planes' highly-anticipated debut EP, "Surrender", will be released on Easter Sunday (April 24th '11) marked by their first headline gig of 2011 at The Academy 2. Support on the night will be from Miracle Bell and She's A Beauty.
Their EP is available to stream for free for a limited time at www.breakingtunes.com/shoutingatplanes. A flavour of the album "Keep  Kicking The Darkness Until It Bleeds Light" which is due for release in Autumn 2011.

'Slipstring' is Donal Donohoe’s third album release since returning to live in Ireland and follows on from 'Midnight 'til Noon' released in 2005 and 'Ceol 's Rann' released in 2007.  It is an album of original songs accompanied by jazzy folk/baroque finger style acoustic guitar that creates a sound and mood that goes beyond the mainstream. Some of the eleven songs on ‘Slipstring’ touch on the personal and political, others are story songs written about people,  places and events that originated as seeds in the artist’s imagination before being woven into the songs on this album. It is available from Donal Donohoe’s official website, from CDBaby.com and can be downloaded on iTunes, Amazon and other online digital stores either as single tracks or as an album. 

Born in Dublin Donal Donohoe started playing guitar around the age of ten. His early influences included folk music and blues, later embracing the sounds of rock, Latin and jazz music. He went on to develop his own unique and original guitar style. Early influences included Bert Jansch, Davy Graham and Mississippi John Hurt, all of whom left a big impression on his guitar playing during his teenage years. Some of his first original songs were written in this period and usually employed the fingerstyle 'folk baroque' approach on guitar first pioneered by the aforementioned influences as the main accompaniment. The harmonic and rhythmic possibilities that this style opened up would be something that he would work with and develop for the rest of his life, eventually incorporating the sounds of jazz into the mix of folk and blues. Donal started playing in small clubs around Dublin, then travelled in Europe for some years playing gigs and working on his music. He now lives in the hills south of Dublin and continues to perform live and write and record new songs.
 

"Eschewing samples and drum machines he still manages to create a sound that sets him apart from the herd." – HOTPRESS
 

"This pleasantly mesmerising CD would do equally well for post-club chilling or the stressed-out commuter’s dawn battle against the traffic." – EVENING HERALD
 

"Donohoe is a gifted guitar stylist in a Bert Jansch/Nick Drake vein, and nearly all of the songs on the new album would work equally well as instrumentals." – HOTPRESS
 

"Sounding not unlike a Gaelic Bert Jansch at times, ‘Ceol ’s Rann’ inhabits a quiet solitary beauty." – fROOTS

Glasgowbury have announced plans for its return in July and tickets for the event have just gone on sale.

Following countless sell-out shows including a special guest appearance with Mumford & Sons,  Jupe are set to release their new single ‘’Blind Eyes’’ unto the global stage.
This Dublin new wave quartet, have already made their imprint on the international media front, with radio appearances on numerous North and South American prime time radio stations and are touted as:
 

‘’The next band to make it outside of Ireland’’ – KNBR San Francisco

The 15th Blas International Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance takes place in the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick from June 20th – July 1st 2011.
 
Blas is now firmly established as one of Ireland’s most prestigious summer schools, attracting students (16 & over) from around the world to spend two weeks gaining one-to-one access to the expertise of some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, singers and dancers.  Blas attracts musicians, singers and dancers who are already familiar with the Irish traditions and who want to extend their technique, repertoire and knowledge therein. It also attracts many performers from other genres who find it beneficial to study with us as a form of induction and acculturation in the Irish traditions before diving in at the deep end of the main traditional scene of endless sessions, ceilithe, fleadhanna and festivals.
 
Apart from tuition and master classes, Blas students can expect a whole range of activities including lectures on Irish Traditional music topics, field-trips, sessions, lunchtime and evening concerts, céilís, and above all, the opportunity to share tunes with some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians.

Martin Hayes continues as artist-in-residence for the Irish World Academy & Blas for this year.  Other tutors for the summer school include Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Dennis Cahill, Donal Lunny & Geraldine Cotter (accompaniment), Siobhán Peoples, John Carty & Eileen O’Brien (fiddle), Niall Keegan, Kevin Crawford, Majella Bartley, Aileen Dillane & Conal O’ Gráda (flute), Catherine Foley, Mats Melin and Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain, Carol Leavy Joyce, Michael Ryan & Breándán de Gallaí (dance), Sandra Joyce, Karan Casey, Roisin Elsafty & Seamus Begley (song), and Jim Higgins & Tommy Hayes (bodhrán), with many more being added all of the time.

An exciting development for Blas 2010 was the introduction of the Paul Brady Blas Scholarship. This is providing €20,000 in endowment funds over three years, offering 25 places for deserving musicians, singers & dancers on the Blas programme. The recipients of the scholarships will benefit from master classes and tuition from Ireland’s most distinguished traditional musicians, singers and dancers. Applications for this year are open until Friday April 22nd

Singer and multi-instrumentalist, Úna Keane, releases her new single, “Mr Icarus”, on Friday 6th May. The track, taken from Úna’s debut album, “Trees”, which was released last November, will be available for sale via iTunes.

Úna’s debut Album ‘Trees’ was released in November 2010 on Marabou Records, her own cottage industry label. She wrote, arranged, recorded, co-produced and promoted the record herself. Her distinctive mixed media Artwork has been gaining a lot of fans too.

Lead single ‘Alice’ worked its way onto an impressive number of playlists, supported by a 6-date Irish Tour in November. Recently Úna has signed a distribution deal with Indi Entertainment for the album.

To co-incide with the release of “Mr Icarus”, Úna has announced a series of live performances taking place in April and May.

20.04.11    The Spirit Store, Dundalk (downstairs)
29.04.11    Feile na Bealtaine, Dingle (supporting Julie Feeney)
11.05.11    Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny
14.05.11    Roisin Dubh, Galway (upstairs)
16.05.11    The Old Oak, Cork
20.05.11    Bewleys Theatre, Dublin
26.05.11    The Stables, Mullingar

For more information see www.unakeane.com

Northern Ireland music collective, FFWD NI, have compiled a promotional double album to showcase the best of Northern Irish music.

The compilation, entitled, MMXINI, was put together to highlight the extraordinary creativity, confidence and individuality of the current crop of music makers in Northern Ireland. MMXINI was distributed to numerous international music industry heavy weights at the recent SXSW Festival in Texas.
 

The White album showcases bands and artists who above all are master songwriters – mostly genre defying but displaying pop craft and lyrical sharpness, often with ‘more than a nod’ to folk and roots influences.
 

The first half of the Black album showcases the dynamic new ‘indie’ and ‘pop’ acts coming out of Northern Ireland of late, while the second half showcases the strength of Northern Ireland’s hard and post rock.
 

For more information see FFWD NI – www.ffwdni.com