Bayonets is a duo project created by the Irish Co,Kerry musician and songwriter Vinnie Flynn who’s now based full-time in Barcelona.
Their distinctive style is a mix of alternative rock, indie, blues and folk. Vinnie teamed up with Nacho in 2022 and started working on a more acoustic based set. Nacho comes from a classical music background when it comes to viola, which compliments each track in a very unique way.
In addition to writing and performing live, Vinnie also works with several publishing companies based in the US who pitch his compositions to prime time TV shows and movies. Bayonets body of work conjures haunting intrigue, each melody luring the listener into a dark and beguiling tale.
Bayonet’s sound is undeniably their own and unclassifiable in any one genre. Bayonets have performed at some of the biggest and best Irish music festivals including Electric Picnic, Vantastival and K-Fest.
Bayonets will be playing a string of concerts and festivals around Barcelona and Spain in 2023.
Watch their most recent release ‘Strawberry Hill’ below:
The ‘Views of the Valley’ songwriting camp, supported by IMRO, took place last week in Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow.
15 Songwriters and Producers came together with Eurovision 2024 in mind and the participants focused on writing for various countries, including Ireland.
Songwriters were able to express interest throughout June and July. After a large volume of expressions of interest, 15 Songwriters, Producers and Artists were chosen to participate. A diverse range of participants were involved, with genres spanning EDM, Pop, Rock and Theatre.
The event was again held on the beautiful grounds of Minmore Mews, and was organised by songwriter Ben Pyne. This was the third time the retreat has been run, with the first taking place last September and the second Pop-focused camp in May this year.
Throughout the week, there were three songwriting days. On each of the days, the participants worked in groups of 3-4 and spent the day writing and producing their song. The result was 15 songs, some of which are already being pitched to broadcasters for next year’s contest.
This highly creative week also allowed for pieces to be created away from the Eurovision theme, with some Artists working on songs for their own projects.
For more information on this retreat and future retreats, follow @viewsofthevalley on Instagram.
Glory Days, is the glorious new single from this Clare based artist’s highly anticipated second album, Street Wisdom For Lost Souls; and as Glory Days was confirmed as a new addition the RTE Radio 1 Recommends List, so was Steo’s contribution to Ireland 100: Old Song Re Sung.
We are also delighted to share the beautiful video for this beautiful track now also:
The video was filmed in Milltown Malbay, Co. Clare and the full credit list is available in the link.
“Beautiful; Steo Wall is worth a good listen”– Christy Moore.
“Dublin accent dripping from each syllable, ‘Glory Days’ is as classic as Irish folk music can get- and at the same time, it’s refreshing and modern”– Hot Press
Referred to by Hot Press as“One of the most pioneering voices in the Irish folk music scene”; this has to be one of the most accurate statements relating to any Irish artist in 2023 so far and with his new single, Co. Clare based STEO WALL, displays with the greatest of ease just why this statement is seamlessly true!
STEO, whose proud Traveller heritage is a big theme in his music endearingly talks of Glory Days;‘‘…It came to me in a few hours during the pandemic, like a musical hug from the ancestors.”Steo continued affectionately; “I wanted to get the words, me auld segotia into a song. Then once I did, memories of old friends and characters from my childhood flooded my mind and I just followed the path. I hope the listener gets the same nostalgia filled buzz from listening as I did from the writing.”
It’s been some week for Steo; he travelled to London to performas part of Glór Nua, at London’s Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Steo and South London based jazz synth musician Rosa Theodora the cultural haven in the heart of London. While in London Steo was told the news of Glory Daysbeing an immediate add to RTE Radio 1’s Recommends list and on his return this week, details were announced for Ireland 100: Old Song Re Sung.
RTÉ, in association with South Wind Blows and supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023, will present this live concert event, which will be free to the public to attend, to mark the first 100 years of the Irish State on Saturday 7, October, 2023 at the RDS. “It is a great honour for me to be part of Old Song Re-sung, marking the end of a decade of centenaries. To sing a song that means so much to me and to my family, is the honour of a lifetime. For my family to feature in this way, in a celebration of Irish culture among some of the most important artists and poets of the century is very special indeed. The ancestors are smiling.” – Steo Wall
Ireland 100: An Old Song Re-Sungcommemorates in performance, song, music, dance and spoken word the hundred years from 1923 to 2023 through the lens of Irish culture. The television celebration will be recorded in Dublin on October 7th and broadcast in a 90-minute special later the same month. Woven into the show are key themes of our 100-year story of achievements, failures, challenges, and changes. Human experience and identity and the cultural and artistic response to these events are at the heart of the show. Together with Steo, this very special celebration also features; Damien Dempsey, Aiden Gillen, Tolü Makay, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Síle Denvir with Bláth na hÓige and Liam Ó Maonlaí, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Loah, Donal Lunny, Martin Hayes, FeliSpeaks, Diarmaid Ferriter, Sally Mulready OBE, the London Irish Pensioners Choir and many more.
Taken from Steo’s highly anticipated second album Street Wisdom For Lost Souls; Glory Days is the fourth track to be taken from the album and is preceded by Borstal Boy, My People and More Blacks More Dogs More Irish. The most recent single, More Blacks More Dogs More Irishfeaturing vocal powerhouse Toshín was released last winter and is an anti-racism/protest song written as a middle finger to anyone who looks down their nose at anyone else. Steo speaks more on this track later in this document. Written by Steo, Glory Days is produced with Martin O’Malley, who co-produced the new album also, with Steo and is mastered by the inimitable Brian Masterson @Soundscape.
After first breaking onto the Irish music scene in 2018, Steo’s star is on a distinct upward trajectory. Steo can refer to Christy Moore as being one of his biggest supporters’ while also being a most welcome and sincere confidant and a fan. Steo has also captivated audiences throughout Ireland and the UK; his live sets have been described by Damien Dempsey as pure alchemy.
Steo has an eclectic taste which shines through in the multi-genre array of songs on his roster. Having shared a stage with Damien Dempsey on national tours in 2016, 2017 and again opening for Damo’s stage in Vicar Street in 2018 it was obvious Damo had become a fan of Steo and his music. He subsequently featured on Steo’s debut single release called, What’s Wrong With The World Ma?
Steo’s distinct music style and inspiration for writing is only surpassed by his performances; Steo’s mix of spoken word and folk-inspired melodies weave together in an acoustic groove as pure and passion fuelled as you will find, down the road. His musical influences include fellow luminaries such as The Fureys, Bob Marley, Shane McGowan, Sinead O’Connor, Christy Moore and Tupac; artists not afraid to tell the tales needing to be told.
TradFest
Earlier this summer Steo’s My People podcast series, opened Tradfest’s Talking Trad 2023 series with his beautiful conversation with Christy Moore.Talking Trad, a three-part podcast series delves into the rich and often overlooked contributions of marginalized groups to the flourishing Irish music tradition and scene.
My People also featured Steo in conversation with fellow Irish travellers Sharyn Ward, renowned for her captivating performances as a finalist on Ireland’s Got Talent, and young Galway musician PJ Mongan. In addition, the podcast features conversations with veteran Clare-based musicians Tommy Fagan and Oliver O’ Beirne, who bring a wealth of experience and wisdom to the discussions. The series is produced by all round music lover and ridiculously talented individual and former RTE senior producer, Aidan Butler
Follow, say hi and check for upcoming news from Steo here:
Some songs don’t just take the listeners on a journey, they take their makers on one as well. ‘Forever and More’ began life in 1983 as a songwriting collaboration between Carl Corcoran and Rosemarie Taylor, written for the wedding of friends. It quickly became a favourite with listeners, featuring in several other weddings, and constantly in demand by those who frequented !The Minstrel Boy”#in Queens, NYC where Carl Corcoran was resident entertainer from some 15 years.
Forty years after its creation, Carl Corcoran’s career took him places he never would have foreseen in 1983. Returning to Ireland in 1999, Corcoran became a radio broadcaster with RTÉ 1 and Lyric FM, curating, and presenting the acclaimed eclectic late-night programme, !The Blue of The Night” for ten years. After ‘retiring’ from RTÉ, he then went on to create and direct an MA in Songwriting at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, a role he held for a further five years.
Throughout it all, ‘Forever and More’ kept coming back. “It’s the song that keeps on giving,” says Corcoran. “To this day the song is referenced countless times when couples post their Anniversary photos and reminisce about how much the song meant to them.” In 2020 Carl returned to the recording studio after a 25-year hiatus, releasing an EP Three of a Kind in 2022. As he began returning to his previous material for inspiration, one song stood out: ‘Forever and More’.
“To leave a lasting impression on others is the prized reward for songwriters, and to think that after all these years, the song is still resonating with people who heard it in New York…I just felt that it needed to be given to a new audience,” Corcoran said. His intention was to pass it on to a singer who could give it a whole interpretation, but the singer, or the song, had other ideas: “I came across the beautifully voiced Claire Heffernan a renowned singer from Limerick, who I felt would be the new voice for a revival of the song. Claire kindly agreed but only if I joined her for a duet version—and so this recording was born.” Claire Heffernan is a solo artist from Limerick, with diverse musical influences, embracing soulful contemporary vocals, piano, and Irish harp accompaniments. She can equally be found songwriting, producing, recording, and performing. By her 20s she was studying music to Masters level at the Cork School of Music, as well as at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (UL), graduating first in her class. It was around this time that she quickly became one of Ireland’s most sought-after soloists, while also performing nationwide as ‘Ireland’s Best Wedding Musician’, a title held for 3 years consecutively. In 2022, she turned focus toward her original music. Her self-produced debut single ‘Snow Moon’ reached No.1 in the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts.
‘Forever and More’ was beautifully recorded and mixed by Ben Wanders, with fine guitar work from Ger O’Donnell and the talented Maria Ryan adding her string magic, this recording breathes new life into a song that has resonated with listeners for forty years, and will doubtless continue to do so ‘Forever and More’…
ØXN, the experimental doom folk band comprising Radie Peat, Katie Kim, John ‘Spud’ Murphy and Eleanor Myler, today share an epic nine-and-a-half minute long single, ‘Cruel Mother’, ahead of their eagerly anticipated album release next month on Claddagh Records.
Accompanying the single is an arresting video featuring the incredible Irish actor, Olwen Fouéré who has been the recipient of a string of awards over the course of a career in film and theatre that spans almost four decades, including the Dublin Theatre Festival Samuel Beckett Award, the Herald Archangel Award of the Edinburgh Festivals, the Irish Times Special Tribute Award for outstanding achievement and contribution to Irish Theatre, and The Stage Award for Acting Excellence, to name a few.
ØXN say of the track: “‘Cruel Mother’ is a traditional song, possibly originating from the mid-18th century, intended at the time as a cautionary tale. Women were considered criminals if they had illegitimate children; were considered demonic rather than suffering from mental illness or distress. It’s a song of persecution, abuse, infantilism and guilt based on the version by Andy the Doorbum.”
CYRM, the debut album from ØXN, will be released on Friday 27th October. The band will play two completely sold-out shows at The Sugar Club, Dublin on Tue 31st October and Wed 1st November. Presented by Enthusiastic Eunuch and Foggy Notions, support will be from Iona Zajac (31/10) and Poor Creature (1/11).
CYRM is a six-track album featuring traditional folk songs and covers. Just over 45 minutes in total length, it features ‘The Feast‘, written by Katie Kim; original arrangements of traditional folk songs: ‘The Trees They Do Grow High‘, ‘Love Henry‘ and ‘Cruel Mother‘ – the latter uses parts of an arrangement by Andy Fenstermaker (Andy The Doorbum); and two covers (‘The Wife of Michael Cleary‘ by Maija Sofia and ‘Farmer in the City‘ by Scott Walker).
High flying Irish indie-folk duo The Finns release their long awaited second studio album called Remember This Day produced by the world renowned Bill Shanley. Their first single released from the album is called Passage, an endearing tongue & cheek remembrance song about a friend no longer with us.
Bio
The Finns, two brothers Hugh and Ciaran Finn from County Laois, sound like a mixture of Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, Damien Dempsey and Planxty, have spent the summer of 2023 recording their second studio album with Bill Shanley (The High Kings, Mary Black, Paul Brady, Ray Davies) and touring the United States with a four-day finale at Milwaukee Irish Fest, the world’s biggest Irish music festival, showcasing for Temple Bar Tradfest. Their music has been massively applauded in the US and worldwide.
Achievements
With accolades including success in international song contests and creating original songs for Creative Ireland/RTE for Cruinniu na nOg, and for the Lambay Irish Whiskey brand, The Finns continue to make refreshingly honest original folk music with this new album. Boasting a huge following in the States, and one of the most underrated and hardworking bands on the Irish music scene, The Finns hope this album can elevate them to more continued success both at home and abroad.
Crash Works is an initiative to commission and support the artistic and professional development of music creators (from any genre) at pivotal stages of their careers, offered in partnership with New Music Dublin, Crash Ensemble musicians, and a team of creative minds.
4 music creators will be commissioned to write a new work for Crash Ensemble to be premiered at New Music Dublin Festival in 2025. Each of the music creators will receive a commission fee to write an 8-minute work for full ensemble, as well as taking part in the 2- year development programme.
As part of the commission, music creators will join Crash Works – a development hub incorporating Crash musicians, a team of lovely, skilled, talented people, and the composers/music creators, to meet the needs of emerging musical artists in the 21st century. The team will share their knowledge of the sector with you, exploring and supporting new ways of creating music and the people who create this music.
Kate Ellis, Artistic Director of Crash Ensemble says, “We want to fully support the commission and presentation of each new work and to allow time for thinking, creating, collaborating, investigating and redefining what it is to be a music creator. We want to create music in a different way and to explore new ideas, new sounds, and new music.”
For ‘Crash Works I’, Crash Ensemble collaborated with leading Ireland based creators, composers Amy Rooney, Anselm McDonnell, songwriter and composer Laura Hyland, pianist and composer Yue Song, and harpist and composer Úna Monaghan. Each creator had development time with the ensemble over a 2-year period to work on the concepts and ideas for their commissions. Crash Works I culminated in the premiere of their new commissions for full ensemble New Music Dublin festival 2023 at the National Concert Hall. The concert was recorded and is out on Crash Records now: ‘Crash Works I’ https://lnk.fuga.com/crashensemble_crashworks
For details on how to apply for ‘Crash Works II’, visit crashensemble.com. The closing date for applications is Friday 13 October, 12 noon
“For me Crash Works has been a chance to explore in practice the conventions of different music-making traditions – both those of my own folk/pop background, and those of contemporary classical music – and to find ways of authentically communicating artistic ideas across these different artistic methodologies or ‘languages’. It’s been thrilling and challenging in equal measures! I really value the spirit in which Crash Ensemble has embarked on this project, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses over the coming years, especially in its potential to positively and practically address the cultural biases that often stand in the way of collaboration between different music-making traditions.” Laura Hyland, Crash Works 2022-2023
“The time spent with Crash Ensemble working on Crash Works has been a wonderful experience.The group gave helpful feedback on the instrumental writing and electronics during the workshops, and their precise, insightful and efficient way of working is inspiring.” Yue Song, Crash Works 2022-2023
“Crash Works has been a fantastic experience for me: an opportunity to focus on composing one piece over the course of a year, exploring ideas regularly with musicians. Crash provided a supportive and creative environment which encouraged me to experiment and push my imagination to its limits. This is the third piece I have written for them, and each project has been a major step forward in my creative practice as I have had time and support to explore new methods of working and making music.” Anselm McDonnell, Crash Works 2022-2023
Irish Tour Dates including Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Rachael Lavelle announces the release of her debut album Big Dreams for 10th November.
Along with the announcement, she has shared the album’s title track, with a video directed by Bob Gallagher, and details of live dates in Ireland.
A note on the album:
Big Dreams is an existential coming-of-age album that chronicles the journey of a young woman searching for direction and meaning in a very strange world. Inspired by sounds of everyday life and an intriguing obsession with YouTube self-help videos, the album explores romance, directionlessness, ambition and the expectations of the unsatisfied digital native.
Recorded in various locations including an artists studio in Lisbon, the album is the result of years of experimentation and destruction. Written and produced by Lavelle, it was created alongside long time collaborator, multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Ryan Hargadon (moondiver, Anna Mieke, Kojaque) and engineer and co-producer Alex Borwick (Niamh Regan, Inni-K).
“Let Me Unlock Your Full Potential” in June 2023 and now follows up with her new track “Big Dreams”.
On the song, Rachael comments: “Big Dreams is an existential ballad; a meditation on love, expectations, failure and the passing of time. When I wrote the melody, it was as if someone was dying. I was thinking about how, when you die, you experience a flashback of your life. That you are flooded with all the memories of love and people who impacted your life. I was inspired by this idea. That despite all the stress and attempts at success, to live is to be open to the possibilities of life and connection.
It features the voice of the Luas, the Dublin tram system, Doireann Ní Bhriain, who narrates the inner monologue of the millennial mind; the ever-wondering-ever- doubting, the contradicting and the aspiring, concluding: I am open to the possibilities!”
The track was co-produced by Rachael Lavelle & Alex Borwick, mixed by Alex Borwick featuring Ryan Hargadon on Saxophone. Single art is by Bureau Bonanza with a still from the video, directed by Bob Gallagher.
On the video, director Bob Gallagher comments: “There’s a directness to the song that called for it to be performed by Rachael in a transparent way, but there’s also a sense of nostalgia that seemed to fit with the idea of shooting and projecting that performance on black and white film”.
Photo by Cáit Fahey
Live Dates
Rachael will be touring as a three piece for shows around Ireland, presented by Homebeat.
6th Oct – Grand Social Ballroom, Ireland Music Week (showcase), Dublin
23rd Nov – The Black Box, Belfast
24th Nov – Project Arts Centre, Dublin
30th Nov – Mick Lally Theatre, Galway
1st Dec – The Record Room, Limerick
6th Dec – Prims Bookshop, Kinsale
7th Dec – Coughlan’s, Cork
8th Dec – Connollys of Leap, Cork
9th Dec – St Michael’s Church, Waterville, Kerry
1. Travel Size
2. Let Me Unlock Your Full Potential
3. Soft Colour Palettes
4. Eat Clean
5. Gratitude
6. Perpetual Party
7. My Simple Pleasures
8. Night Train
9. Sleepy Gal
10. Big Dreams
‘Its Gonna Be Alright’ is a rock ballad outlining the benefits of positive mindset, optimism and the strength of our inner core.
A lyrical story of a period in 2003 when TURPS was producing a folk album in Hamburg, dealing with great challenges the music gave him strength and ability to continue in life.
Recorded and in his studio in Tuam Co Galway, Bigger Picture Mixing Suite. The Saxophone was remotely recorded in Pescara Italy by Manuel Trabucco, Drums in Suffolk England by Jamie Parks, Cello in Buenos Aires by Juan Ignacio Ferreras, Electric Rhythm Guitar by Thomas Niland, Backing Vocals by Hannah Wujiw and Conor O’Donnell.
‘The Field’ is a psychedelic rock ballad.
Being a fan of alternative rock music TURPS wanted to paint a sonic picture of a hallucinogenic journey through the matrix.
Taken into the present day and including TURPS spiritual, humanistic and soul experiences and growth through his journey through this mad realm we call the world. With Thomas Niland on Electric Rhythm Guitar, Odhran Lynch on Harmonica, Hannah Wujiw on freestyle and backing vocals and Conor O Donnell on backing Vocals. TURPS needed a soulful voice with humanistic qualities and definition, so he asked Tuam Musical Artist and Poet Seamus Ruttledge to record the part, and Seamus duly obliged, TURPS had just listened to RUTTLEMUSH, Seamus latest album and said, that’s the voice the song needs, and it happened.
Live appearances are being planned for 2024/25.
TURPS is currently completing a project production for Tuam solo artist Conor O Donnell.
A member of the Choice Music Prize winning band Delorentos, singer-songwriter Ro Yourell announces his arrival as a solo artist with a freight train of a single called ‘Freedom’, out on Friday, 22 September, 2023
Produced by Tommy McLaughlin (Ailbhe Reddy, SOAK, Villagers), ‘Freedom’ takes aim at the rigidity of our structures and institutions, and the unwillingness of those in power to rectify inequality. After all, as Yourell sings, we ultimately all face the same fate: “Crunching over others’ bones, ‘til all is dust and we are just the same.”
Many of us feel a lack of agency in the face of poverty, war, and climate emergency. ‘Freedom’ is about how fear can be exploited and vulnerable people turned against each other.
“It’s my state of the nation address,” says Yourell with a wry smile. “Knowingly or otherwise, I’ve always been something of an outsider. Having struggled to fit into and understand the systems within which I grew up, I’m at a place in my life where I can look at them more objectively and better articulate their impact.”
Yourell is best known for his work as a member of Delorentos, a band that’s enjoyed massive success in Ireland and internationally. The four-piece have played stages across the world and racked up a RTÉ Choice Music Prize win for their acclaimed third album Little Sparks in 2012. Ro Yourell (vocals, guitar, piano) , Kieran McGuinness (vocals, guitar), Níal Conlan (bass, backing vocals) and Ross McCormick (drums, backing vocals) last played live as Delorentos in 2019.
“We’d been going solidly for the guts of 15 years by then, but got to a point where our lives were moving in different directions,” Yourell explains. Our band has always been about four songwriters working in collaboration. For the time being, we can’t make music the way we would like to, so it felt natural to take a pause.”
Making his own music is a freeing but at times daunting experience. Having played in bands since he was 16, Yourell found it strange on his own initially: “I forged an identity as part of a collective, so I had some existential moments along the way asking, ‘Who is Ro?’”
Yourell ended up embracing this deliciously frightening unknown. He says: “An exciting thing for me in terms of my solo work is the scope. “I don’t have to take anyone else into account. I can be selfish, following the song wherever it leads me.”
As heard on ‘Freedom’, Yourell’s solo sound focuses on meditative, intimate lyrics with a distinct poetic flair and driving melody.
Follow Ro Yourell across socials for news of new music and upcoming live dates.
