Author: Press Officer

Based in Vienna, the Irish / Austrian combo “Shane Ó Fearghail & The Host”, will play their very first Dublin shows on the 4th & 5th June. Shane & The Host play an exciting blend of contemporary Irish and Appalachian music. Their style is Dark Folk & Roots, intertwined with heaps of alternative Celtic Soul. Up tempo and crowd engaging, they don’t disappoint.

The first show takes place in intimate surroundings upstairs at the Wellington; on the banks of the Grand Canal and Baggot Street Bridge. Doors open at 8pm and admission is €10. Support on the night will be the wonderful Jon Ryan. The second show takes place at the YouBloom festival in the Phoenix Park, Sunday 5th at 3.45pm.

“Shane Ó Fearghail & The Host are a wonderful live band. One of those bands that grabs the audience from the first minute and won’t let them go until the end. I love them!” Harald Neger – Donauinselfest / We Serve You Better events Vienna.

For more information: www.shaneofearghail.com

Photo Credit: Sabine Mann 

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) has announced its 2021 winners. Launched in 2002, ISC is considered one of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the world, receiving more than 21,000 entries this year from over 150 countries.

In celebration of the competition’s 20^th anniversary, ISC created a special award this year, the Founder’s Choice Award. It is a one-time award for this year only and is unprecedented because the winner is personally selected by the competition’s founder, Candace Avery, whereas all other winners are selected by ISC’s panel of celebrity judges and music industry executives.

The recipient of the Founder’s Choice Award is singer/songwriter Sean Murphy from Cork, Ireland for his beautiful and introspective song “The Troubled Tears Of Drury Road” recorded and produced by David Virgin, Rohan Healy and Al Quiff at Beardfire Studio, Dublin. He is awarded $10,000 (US) for being the winner of this special award.

“The Founder’s Choice Award is so exciting for me because for the first time in the history of ISC, I actually had the opportunity to select a winner in the competition. I chose Sean Murphy for this award because I consider him to be a rare artist whose poetic songwriting and artistic authenticity transcends most of the music that we hear today. It is an honour for me to be able to give recognition to this very unique and special songwriter.”

Hailing from Cobh in Cork, Ireland, Sean Murphy works under the moniker ‘All The Queen’s Horses.’ He might be relatively new to songwriting, but his songs reflect an old soul. His music is dark, guttural, and mournful, and his lyrics drip with poetic imagery. His stories often go down dark roads and can be mournful and raw, but he writes them with a painter’s brush, delicate and atmospheric. He describes his sound as a “piano and modern poetry driven, singer songwriter sound, incorporating hints of Leonard Cohen, Damien Rice, Mick Flannery and Bright Eyes.” He recently signed with Echoism and Motor Music to release the album, The Dark Below & The Isle of Dogs (produced by Beardfire Music) which includes singles that were high placings in the iTunes charts and a winner in the International Songwriting Competition last year.

In addition to the Founder’s Choice award, many other deserving songwriters also share in the prestige and kudos of winning their respective categories in ISC. These winners hail from all over the world (56% of this year’s winners come from outside the USA) and represent diverse cultures while ranging from talented amateurs to seasoned songwriting veterans. The 23 categories include all genres of contemporary music, from Pop to World Music to Country to Instrumental, and many more.

The competition’s highest honour, the overall Grand Prize, is given to the songwriter who embodies the highest degree of excellence in the craft of songwriting and is selected by ISC’s panel of judges comprised of celebrity artists and industry professionals. This year the honour goes to songwriter and performing artist Stephanie Middleton (aka Notelle) from Richmond, VA, USA for her song “Sufjan Stevens.”

 Additional Irish winners include:

Second Place Winners 

“Angel Of The Emerald Isle” – Clare Cunningham, Patrick Mcmanus (Clare Cunningham) – Collon, Ireland – Performance

“Paris Girls” – Flavia Watson (FLAVIA) – Dublin, Ireland – Pop/Top 40

 Third Place Winner

 “The Troubled Tears Of Drury Road” – Sean Murphy (All The Queen’s Horses) – Cork, Ireland – Folk/Singer-Songwriter

 Special Promotion Winner / $20 For 20

 “Remember Days” – Ademar Stones (Kinetix) – Edenderry, Ireland

 An additional seven songs by Irish songwriters were awarded an Honourable Mention in their respective categories.

Winning ISC is a distinction that has helped many artists go on to achieve greater success. Previous winners have included: Tones and I; Illenium; Vance Joy; Bastille; Fantastic Negrito; R.LUM.R; Gotye; Lindsey Stirling; Kimbra; Dustin Lynch; Faouzia; The Band Perry; Kehlani; Gregory Porter; Passenger; Gin Wigmore; Missy Higgins; For King & Country; Tenille Townes; Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief); Jordan St. Cyr; Andrew Bird; and many more.

 For a complete list of winners go to https://www.songwritingcompetition.com/winners

‘Brand New Start’, follows hot on the heels of the spiky electric bristle of ‘We Want the World’ and the Dublin indie outfit have changed tack for their follow-up, delivering a sparse, more acoustically-driven melody. Its delicate verses are disarmingly bare at times, hanging on the drone of a hypnotic guitar line, but they soon swell towards a chorus that delivers a refrain heavy with bruised hope.

“These hands we hold out are praying for some kind of healing, to lift what we’re feeling in our hearts. We carried this guilt, the heaviest weight on our shoulders. Please let us start over, with a brand new start.”

Songwriter Donnchadh Egan says of the song: “I wrote the lyrics in the summer following the repeal of the 8th Amendment. For the first time in years I felt real positivity amongst friends and peers, a sense that something in Ireland was fundamentally changing for the better. The song and the video that accompanies it are an effort to acknowledge the hurt of the past while also being strong enough to be positive for the future. Essentially it’s a song that says ‘We’re turning the page, and bollocks to the guilt of old Ireland.’”

A thundering middle-eight shakes the established foundations of “Brand New Start” as the vocal shouts “no prayers of salvation” and “no threats of damnation” being needed anymore. As the drums thump towards a crescendo and back into an extra-long refrain, the song soars towards its conclusion with an air of confidence not present during its timid opening.

The River Liffey is shown as “Brand New Start” closes with a beautifully bare cello and acoustic guitar arrangement which lilts on in such a delightful way that you could get lost in it. The words “No. More. Guilt.” are then boldly displayed, a final moment of bittersweet juxtaposition.

The Dublin five piece started with Donnchadh Egan and his beautifully crafted collection of songs. Having release a number of EPs since 2017 the band have been a set feature across Irelands festival circuit and have received extensive national airplay. In support of their debut release a number of summer dates are being finalised with appearances with For Those I Love and Kíla already secured.

oskibravo.com

Hot off the back of their Irish tour announcement and with 3 No.1 hits on the iTunes Singer Songwriter Chart, and over 1 Million impacts on Irish radio, The Raines are back, with a summer release, their fourth single ‘Another Lover’ taken from their forth coming debut album.

The Raines (Ruth Dillon, Juliana Erkkonen and Yvonne Tiernan) launch their eagerly anticipated fourth single ‘Another Lover’ on Friday 20th May.

In what is fast becoming the recognisable sound of The Raines soaring vocal harmonies and sweeping strings, the Galway band effortlessly deliver the raw emotion of this universal theme in this original and emotive song.

‘Another Lover’ was recorded in various locations by Ivan O’Shea, Juliana Erkkonen and Cesar Benzoni featuring John O’Dwyer on Bass, Cesar Benzoni on Mandolin and Cormac Dunne on Drums. The award winning Producer Brian Masterson famous for his work with The Chieftains, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson and The Bothy Band, to name just a few mixed and mastered the track.

Speaking of their forthcoming Irish tour, Yvonne Tiernan says “We are thrilled to be kicking off our first Irish tour in Whelans Dublin on 3rd of June and taking the band on the road to play live around the country. The part we love most about being in The Raines, is playing our music to a live audience”.

‘Another Lover’ is out now across all of the major digital platforms.

The Raines comprises of Ruth Dillon (vocals, guitar, ukulele) who has toured and recorded with the legendary vocalist Dolores Keane, is a former member of The Molly Hicks, and has three solo albums of her own. Juliana Erkkonen (fiddle and vocals) has been at the fore front of the Americana musical scene in Ireland and has released 7 albums with a diverse range of acts and Yvonne Tiernan (vocals/ukulele) who has toured as lead singer with ‘The Chieftains’.

IRISH TOUR

Whelans Dublin 3rd June

Sea Church Ballycotton 10th June

Station House Clifden 12th June

Galway Folk Festival 17th June

Dolans Limerick 18th June

Matt Molloy’s Westport 3rd July

Áras Éanna Inis Oirr 20th August

TICKETS

Tickets on sale now via ticketmaster.com and Galway Folk festival.

Congratulations to Johnny McDaid, along with Ed Sheeran and Fred again who were recipients of an Ivor Novello Award today for their collaboration on Bad Habits, which was the Most Performed Work in the UK last year.

Dave was crowned Songwriter of the Year. Having dropped the surprise Top 10 single Titanium in 2021, Dave’s second album We’re All Alone In This Together then hit number one in the UK.

Best Contemporary Song went to Dean ‘Inflo’ Josiah Cover and Little Simz for I Love You, I Hate You. Sam Fender won Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Seventeen Going Under. Pink Noise, performed and written by Laura Mvula with Dann Hume, won Best Album.

The Rising Star Award with Apple Music – recognising under-25 songwriters – has been awarded to singer-songwriter Naomi Kimpenu, whose debut EP Prelude was released last year.

Daniel Blumberg won Best Original Film Score for his work on The World To Come. Arthur Sharpe picked up Best Television Soundtrack for his score for Sky Atlantic’s black comedy drama, Landscapers. The award for Best Original Video Game Score went to Richard Jacques for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde from Cocteau Twins received the Visionary Award. Paul Heaton was awarded Outstanding Song Collection for his work with The Housemartins through to The Beautiful South and his current collaboration with Jacqui Abbot. The PRS for Music Icon Award recognised two of rock’s most inspiring, influential, and identifiable songwriters – The Cure’s Robert Smith and Simon Gallup.

With a catalogue of over 140 songs and more than 80 million record sales, the Special International Award with Apple Music was awarded in recognition of the global impact and songwriting achievements of Columbian superstar Shakira.

Peter Gabriel received Fellowship of The Ivors Academy – the highest honour we bestow – in recognition of his outstanding contributions as a musician, innovator, humanitarian and songwriter.

Brand new electropop artist Throatsugar is set to release her debut single Ascend on May 20th. Throatsugar is a new project from the multitalented musician Colleen Heavey, a songwriting graduate who holds a master’s degree in Music Technology.

“Ascend started as a project at home and came to life when working in the studio with Mick Heffernan. The track was inspired by the work of James Joyce, as well as the feeling of not wanting to wait around for things to happen anymore. I’m really excited to share it,”  Colleen tells IMRO.

Ascend marks the beginning of a host of exciting releases which lie ahead for Throatsugar. Despite still being in the early stages of her journey through the world of music, Colleen just about has a career’s worth of accomplishments to her name already. She has toured all over Ireland, through the UK and in the USA with her band Brass Phantoms, and has performed at major festivals as well as opening for the likes of Delorentos and The Slow Readers Club. Music she has worked on in the past has been featured by the likes of BBC, RTE, The Irish Times, Hot Press, The Metro, Joe, Spotify Editorial Playlists and more. She has studied music at every level and works as a music educator so that she can share her skills with others, along with working as a producer and DJ around Dublin.

With all that in mind, however, Throatsugar is about embracing her new journey and guiding herself through her career with her multitude of expertise and experience.

Presave Ascend on Spotify here

“Wheels” (Happy Cycling) is the second focus track from this delightful EP, following the recent rush of acclaim for “Wave” which American magazine Two Story Melody calls… “as warm and satisfying as you can imagine”. This time Eileen and Sean have conceived an inventive video clip that perfectly complements the wide-eyed charm of the song’s subject matter. On the making of the video Eileen observes…

“Myself and Sean agreed we would like a simple animation for the video. During a zoom chat we bounced ideas around and came up with the vision of a character cycling over the title of the song. Sean sent on a GIF file that he worked up with the text of the song title. I sketched a character and made up a very simple story board and got in touch with the animators Shaun Kelly and Mark Gallagher. They basically took my sketches and brought them to life, they were wonderful to work with”

On the song itself, she continues…

“Cycling has always been a huge part of my life since I can remember. I’m also a big Boards of Canada fan and one time I had been out on the town for a night and ended up at a party in a penthouse apartment with very affluent people, it was the wee small hours and I was kind of bored so I started looking through the CDs and found a BOC album and played my favourite track “Happy Cycling”. The guy whose apartment it was suddenly jumped up and started talking to me and offering me drinks, he was so impressed by my choice of song he tried to talk me into leaving my boyfriend and going out with him, it was so funny because before I put on the record I was basically being ignored! The power of a good tune! By the way, I didn’t leave my boyfriend”.

Eileen Gogan has been a fixture on the Dublin music scene for a good many years, performing in various bands including The Would Be’s, The Revenants and The Drays, and more recently recognized for providing vocals for the Microdisney re-union shows in Dublin and London in 2018. Her breakthrough moment came in 2020 with the release of her second album “Under Moving Skies”, which received a 4-star review in MOJO, play on Gideon Coe’s BBC6 Music show, and widespread praise from Irish and UK media and radio. The Irish Times called her… “one of Ireland’s most underrated artists” while Americana UK magazine called her album…”a showcase for Gogan’s beguiling vocals”.

Sean O’Hagan has a very storied career in music as a performer, writer, arranger and producer. Born in the UK to Irish parents, he moved to Cork as a teenager and formed the highly revered Irish band Microdisney with singer Cathal Coughlan. He was an early member of Stereolab before leaving to form the highly influential group The High Llamas, and across a series of consistently brilliant albums, practically invented the sub-genre known as ‘chamber pop’. His credits as arranger and producer include Paul Weller, Gilberto Gil, Sondre Lerche, Tim Burgess, Fryars, Gruff Rhys, Bill Callahan, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and more.

Together these Anglo-Irish luminaries have found a fascinating synergy that has resulted in the new EP “Another Golden Day”.

“Eileen Gogan’s ‘Another Golden Day’ EP takes up little more than ten minutes of your time, but the quartet of songs filling that span each possess elements of epiphany. Daily experiences – walking, swimming, cycling – present as instances of wonder, seemingly reflecting shared sensations of the last couple of years where much has, of necessity, been pared down to the simplest of pleasures” – Bucketful Of Brains 

Cork native and former Microdisney and Fatima Mansions frontman Cathal Coughlan returned to active duty after almost a decade’s absence in 2021 with a critically acclaimed new solo album ’Song Of Co-Aklan’. Now a year later, Coughlan is offering an intriguing addendum to that album in the form of a digital-only EP via Dimple Discs, which contains three unreleased songs from the ‘Co-Aklan’ sessions plus a remix of “Crow Mother”, one of the album’s highlights. Kevin Sharkey’s remix transforms a theatrical fable into a 6-minute acid house-tinged odyssey, of which Coughlan notes…

“Crow Mother II is the point where all the recent provocations come home to roost. We’ve insulted one another’s beliefs and holy ground, sold each other lethal products as though they were merchantable, and added poison to the leisure drinks. So it’s time. Kevin Sharkey’s Unrepentant Acid mix seeks to create a Third Summer Of Love, wherein the wise veterans of London’s acid house scene are shipped in time-lapse pods to view the end of the Anthropocene era, post-conflict, where the plankton inherit the nutrition and the real estate of Earth – but the individual plankters also, it seems, enjoy a good individual rave-up amid the murk of the deepening ocean. Can the plankton’s own Stone Roses second album bust-up be far off?”

The video for “Crow Mother II” (Kevin Sharkey Unrepentant Acid Mix) was directed by Andy Golding (The Wolfhounds, Dragon Welding), who was also responsible for Coughlan’s February 2021 video release “Owl In The Parlour”

“The lyrics are uniformly excellent…Coughlan reminds you again and again just how good he is” ~ The Irish Times
“Each slice of spiky post-punk/pop is every bit as intriguing as his witty and acerbic lyrics” ~ Sunday Times
“Coughlan’s sixth solo album is a real gem” ~ Hot Press
“Definitively affirms Coughlan’s place amid Ireland’s poetic pantheon” ~ MOJO (4 stars)
“Song Of Co-Aklan is a more than welcome return from a puckish master of social observation and surreal manifesto” ~ The Wire
“…shows off a rich, Scott Walker-ish voice that’s aging superbly…a welcome return” ~ Uncut

Tracklisting:

1. Laszlo Plantagenet Loves The Sun
2. Tangerine
3. Crow Mother II (Kevin Sharkey Unrepentant Acid Mix)
4. Victory MindCloud

EP available to download on Bandcamp at: https://cathalc.bandcamp.com/album/e-p-of-co-aklan