Author: Press Officer

Irish bluegrass songsmith, Niall Toner, has released his first U.S. album, Onwards and Upwards, on Pinecastle Records. Growing up in Ireland, a childhood friend of Toner’s introduced him to the music of Bill Monroe, and from then on he was hooked on bluegrass music. Through the years he has befriended, and written songs  for bluegrass musicians who have visited Ireland in addition to being Ireland’s bluegrass ambassador. He even has his own radio show, Roots Freeway, which is broadcast on Ireland’s national radio station, RTE Radio One. With Toner being a lifelong songwriter, Onwards and Upwards is full of stories from his masterful pen. In preparation for the album, Toner wrote or co-wrote each tune on the album. He collaborated with Keith Sewell on four tunes with Sewell also producing the album. The deluxe booklet included with the CD version includes Toner’s own accounts of writing each song as well as photographs from the studio sessions.

“We cut nine new songs of mine, including a tribute to the late Earl Scruggs, called ‘The Pride and Joy of Shelby’, and an     instrumental I composed called ‘Burren Backstep’. Other new titles include ‘Million Dollar Bill’, ‘Judge and Jury’, and ‘Bling’, and the project was produced by Keith Sewell (Dixie Chicks, Lyle Lovett, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs). We also recut ‘William Smith Monroe’ and ‘Tomorrow’, which will be included. 

Keith also played guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and piano; Ashby Frank played mandolin, Viktor Krauss played upright bass, and Rob Ickes played Dobro and Weissenborn guitar. I sang lead and played mandolin, and Wendy Buckner, Fiaz Farrelly, and Keith sang harmonies. The sessions were engineered by legendary Nashville whizz-kid (and old-time clawhammer player) Jake Burns. Thank you, guys, for all your talent.” Niall Toner, The Bluegrass Ireland Blog

The Niall Toner song, Lonely Souls And Broken Hearts, is included in the next episode of Nashville 105 on the ABC TV series on November 7th at 10-11pm ET in the USA.

“I wrote the song at an IMRO Songwriting event held in Clifden in the West of Ireland in 1997, and recorded it on my Mood Swing Album with the Niall Toner Band on Avalon Records. This is a good example of how a composition that’s been around for over twelve years can find it’s way on to a major TV Show, and should act as an example, and an encouragement to other writers who may be suffering from that ‘is anything ever going to happen with my songs’ feeling.”

Judge and Jury, a tale of betrayal, attrition and ‘justice’, inspired by CSI Miami and a BBC series called the Jury, is the first single release from the CD and is currently being delivered to Radio, worldwide.

Niall Toner recently spent nearly a month touring the Southeastern United States beginning with several performances at the International Bluegrass Music Associations’ World of Bluegrass in Nashville, TN. During the tour he interviewed with Jim Lauderdale on WSM radio in Nashville, TN, taped a performance for the “Song of the Mountains” TV show, performed on WDVX’s “Blue Plate Special,” and performed on WCYB-TV in Bristol, VA. As well as numerous other tour dates in the Southeast.

For months Toner’s AirPlay Direct profile occupied the #1 spot on the service’s all-time bluegrass album chart and is currently #3.

Niall Toner’s composition credits include songs recorded by artists like Bill Wyman (The Rolling Stones), The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Albert Lee, Special Consensus, Keith Sewell, The Swanson Family and more. In 2003 Toner was nominated for a Global Artist Award by the CMA. His composition, “Nuns Island Reel” was included in one of the bestselling video games of all time, “Grand Theft Auto IV.” To date, Toner and his Band have recorded and released three CD albums, and they perform their original songs and tunes on a regular basis at Festivals and Venues in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the USA.

Niall Toner Band – Niall Toner Band Video Clip on MUZU.TV.

www.nialltonerband.com   www.pinecastlemusic.com

Villagers are previewing ‘Passing a Message’, a track from their forthcoming album, {Awayland}, with an accompanying lyric-based video directed by Billy Pilgrim. 

{Awayland} is the much anticipated follow-up to Villagers’ Mercury Award-nominated and Ivor Novello-winning debut, Becoming a Jackal. Released on 11th January 2013, {Awayland} can be pre-ordered HERE. http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/albums/21-09-12/awayland/  

Villagers are currently on a UK and European tour with Grizzly Bear, and played a one-off headline show at the Borderline in London last week which earned them a 5* live review in the Independent – “as tonight progresses, it is clear that {Awayland} will be a very special album indeed”.

The band play two headline shows in Ireland next month (including a sold-out show in Dublin) and will be in the UK for a headline tour next February.

Tour Dates
Sunday 11th November – Blackbox, Belfast
Tuesday 13th November – Whelans, Dublin (sold-out)
Thursday 21st March – Olympia, Dublin (on-sale now)

‘Passing a Message’ is available digitally (RUG505D) now HERE <https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/passing-a-message-single/id570741519>

Featuring Danielle de Niese, Nicola Benedetti and Nigel Hitchcock and Released on Decca  

Golden Globe-nominated composer Brian Byrne has written a love letter for the last great walled city in Ireland.  Tales From the Walled City is a complete symphonic suite with eight short movements, written from the point of view of the Great Walls of Derry.   Featuring The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, violinist Nicola Benedetti and soprano Danielle de Niese, Tales From the Walled City is due to be released by Decca on November 9^th

The work was a gift from Brian to the City of Derry in 2008, in celebration of its jazz and big band festival, but while his original intention was to write a four-minute jazz piece, his creative journey took him on a different path and resulted in a fully symphonic suite of eight short movements, some containing no jazz elements whatsoever. Byrne explains, ‘If the Walls could somehow speak, they would have witnessed incredible stories and music over their long and sometimes troubled history.’  The movement titles capture a flavour of the piece: If the Walls Could Speak, Gossip at Tillie’s, The Cannon Speak, Children Play Outside St Columb’s Cathedral, A City Divided, A Love Divided, The Port of Derry and A City at Peace.

Complementing The Derry Suite, the three others pieces on the album have their own individual stories, and stand in musical contrast to heavier orchestrations of the suite.  Each features a star performer as soloist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra: soprano Danielle de Niese, saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and violinist Nicola Benedetti. Shall I Compare Thee, featuring Danielle de Niese, is based on William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 18, while Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra features a more modern sound, with Nigel Hitchcock.

Lament for the Fallen, with Nicola Benedetti, is perhaps the most personal piece on the album. Brian Byrne wanted to end the album with something simple, heartfelt and close to home, and this Lament had two inspirations. The first is that Ryan Tubridy asked him to write a piece in commemoration of the Irish Famine. The second is the recent loss of Brian’s father Jim Byrne, his biggest musical influence, biggest critic and biggest fan, to whom the album is dedicated.

This year continues to be an incredibly successful one for Navan native Brian Byrne, rewarding his move to Los Angeles in 2003 to develop his career. His music for Albert Nobbs has just won two awards at the highly prestigious World Soundtrack Awards 2012, the results of which were announced at the closing night of Ghent International Film Festival on October 20^th. Recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the sound track has also earned him a Golden Globe nomination and a Satellite Award for Best Original Song (Lay Your Head Down, lyrics Glenn Close, performed by Sinead O’Connor) and won him his second IFTA Award for Original Score.

Adding further to the momentum, the new Barbra Streisand album features a song that Brian wrote, arranged and conducted with song-writing legends Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and his score to Orlando Bloom film The Good Doctor has won praise from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety for its subtlety and romanticism. He is also currently engaged in writing the music for the new Riverdance show, entitled Heartbeat of Home.

The album Tales from the Walled City continues Brian Byrne’s long and fruitful association with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, as composer, arranger and conductor. As well as numerous successful live performances together, other recordings include Byrne’s The Island and his arrangement of the Late Late Show theme in 2009, when Ryan Tubridy took over as host. In the liner notes for this album, he thanks ‘the wonderful musicians and friends that make up the incredibly versatile and talented RTÉ Concert Orchestra’.

Brian Byrne has collaborated with such international luminaries as Bono, Barbra Streisand, Katy Perry, Lisa Stansfield, Van Morrison, The Corrs, Sinead O’Connor, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Ronan Tynan, Luis Miguel, Vince Gill and Gladys Knight, to name a few. He did an orchestral arrangement of Katy Perry’s Fireworks for the Australian Grammys, toured with Diane Warren, arranged a song for Sex and the City 2 and played piano on Liza Minnelli’s cover of Beyoncé’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). His two Irish Film and Television Awards are for his scores to sci-fi comedy Zonad and Albert Nobbs.

 www.brianbyrnecomposer.com

The World Soundtrack Academy announced the winners of the World Soundtrack Awards 2012, at the closing event of the 39th Ghent Film Festival which took place on 20^th October. Alberto Iglesias was chosen as Film Composer of the Year 2012, for his soundtracks for ‘Le Moine’ (‘The Monk’), ‘La Piel Que Habito’ (The Skin I Live In) and ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. He also went home with the award for Best Original Film Score of the Year for ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. Brian Byrne received the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written for Film for ’Lay Your Head Down’ from the film ‘Albert Nobbs’. Byrne also won the Discovery of the Year Award. The Public Choice Award went to Abel Korzeniowski for the film ‘W.E.’. Pino Donaggio received a World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by Mike Stoller.

Both the ceremony and the concert were attended by world renowned composers such as James Newton Howard (‘The Hunger Games’, ‘King Kong’, ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘Pretty Woman’) Pino Donaggio (‘Carrie’, ‘Dressed To Kill’, ‘Blow Out’, ‘Body Double’, Raising Cain and King’s Speech), and Discovery of the Year 2011 Alex Heffes (The First Grader & The Rite). During and after the ceremony The Brussels Philharmonic performed music by various composers.

Dublin based alternative band Fred and Bob are to be featured in the next Riot Grrrl Berlin Compilation scheduled for release as a free download from October 25^th. The track “Lady”, taken from their Anti-Gravity Love EP was selected for inclusion in the fifth instalment of the compilation, entitled Mansplaining on the Dancefloor. All artists featured on the compilation are from bands with at least 50% female membership, and Fred and Bob fly the flag for Ireland in a compilation featuring artists from twenty countries.

The band have also been receiving further interest from abroad with recent news of tracks from the Anti-Gravity Love EP featuring on several college radio stations across the Atlantic, including CHYZ and CFUR in Canada and the award-winning Radio De Paul in Chicago.

Fred and Bob returns to the road in November for a mini-tour across Ireland:

 8 November – Rόisín Dubh, Galway
15 November – Sweeney’s, Dublin

24 November – The Vault, Cavan

The Anti-Gravity Love EP is available for free download from the Fred and Bob bandcamp page.
 

Contrary to what the name may suggest, Fred and Bob is actually a Dublin based, four-piece alternative band consisting of three girls and one boy. The hard working band has played numerous venues and festivals around Dublin and Ireland including typically energetic performances at Electric Picnic 2011 and the inaugural Camden Crawl Dublin 2012. 

Since 2009 Fred and Bob have consistently received strong radio support. The debut single Hex You received airplay on BBC 6 Music, 2FM, Phantom FM and Today FM. The follow up On a Good Day… EP led to a commendation from Jim Carroll (Irish Times), further airplay from Rory McConnell (BBC Radio 1) and a studio session for Dan Hegarty (2FM).

The bands last single, Caramel Back, cemented their position on national radio with widespread airplay on 2FM, Today FM and Phantom FM in Ireland. Growing international interest was also evident with airplay in the UK, Netherlands and the US. 

 
Dan Hegarty (2FM):
“Dublin’s Fred & Bob are not a duo just in case you’re wondering. They do however have a habit of writing the kind of songs that The Breeders, Sleater Kinney and Veruca Salt would have given their eye teeth for during the 90s! It’s not all retrospective though, these guys and girls have an energy that is so infectious.”

AU Magazine:
“Infectious and punchy in all the right places, the four short tracks hint at great things to come for the band over a full-length studio release.”

Across the Line (BBC Radio Ulster):
“Seemingly on the road to carving out their own punchy brand of mildly anthemic, instantly memorable rock.”

State Magazine:
“Another short, sharp and snappy example of their 90s influenced alternative rock”

Chew Your Own Fat Blog:
“If you love The Pixies, and that whole alternative vibe, then the only excuse you have for not owning this EP is that you’re mentally challenged. I would turn tricks to fund an Albini recorded album by this band.”

The Contemporary Music Centre, in association with the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and Association of Irish Choirs, this week publishes Choirland – An Anthology of Irish Choral Music.

The book is a collection of 15 pieces by Irish composers for unaccompanied mixed choir. The pieces have been selected with the intention of presenting a series of Irish works ranging in difficulty and style that will be suitable for amateur and semi-professional choirs, but also of interest to the wider choral community.

The book is accompanied by a CD recording of the music by the National Chamber Choir of Ireland conducted by its Artistic Director Paul Hillier, as well as performance notes by Anne Barry and Alan Leech intended to aid conductors and singers, whether performing the pieces for the first time or looking for fresh approaches to familiar repertoire.

The project has been realised with funding from The Arts Council/An Chomairle Ealaíon and is an important initiative in the context of the Council’s commitment to realising objectives set out in the choral policy document ‘Raising Your Voice’.  The works were composed between 1951 and 2011, marking the first 60 years of the Arts Council.  It is the first time all three partners have worked together in an initiative of this kind.  The anthology was officially launched by Dinny McGinley T.D. Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht at a reception held at the Arts Council on 18 October.

Choirland is available for sale from the Contemporary Music Centre  www.cmc.ie/shop/choirland