Donal Donohoe

'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