Songwriting legends Nick Kelly and Sean Millar are to release a second song from their new musical collaboration DOGS. A shimmery slice of pure summer Philly-meets-Kilfenora soul-folk, “Heartbeat” follows hot on the heels of DOGS’ recent Irish radio hit “Old Dog Young Dog”.
DOGS have also released final details of The Song Cycle to Glastonbury, which kicks off with a show upstairs in Dublin’s Whelan’s on Wednesday June 15. This unique tour, conceived to start a conversation about more sustainable ways to perform live music, will see Nick pedaling himself and all his equipment from Pembroke Ferry Port to Worthy Farm by bicycle, playing shows along the route. Fellow-DOG Sean will make the same journey by train, joining Nick onstage each night. The Song Cycle culminates with a brace of performances by DOGS at Glastonbury’s Bread and Roses tent on Friday June 24 and Saturday June 25.
Wednesday June 15th – Whelan’s (Upstairs), Dublin
Sunday June 19th – CWRW, Carmarthen, Wales
Monday June 20th – Uplands Tavern, Swansea, Wales
Tuesday June 21st – Porter’s, Cardiff, Wales
Wednesday June 22nd – Cloak and Dagger, Bristol, England
Friday June 24th – Bread & Roses Stage (11:45am), Glastonbury Festival, England
Saturday June 25th – Bread & Roses Stage (12:30pm), Glastonbury Festival, England
NICK KELLY has been described as “Uncompromised and ever-shining, precious” by NME and “The most visual songwriter Ireland has ever produced” by Hot Press. He first came to prominence fronting fabled ‘90s band The Fat Lady Sings. He has subsequently released four acclaimed solo albums, the latter two as Alien Envoy. He was awarded Best Solo Artist at the Irish Music Critics Awards in 1999, nominated for Irish Album of The Year at the inaugural Choice Music Prize in 2005, and voted Ireland’s #3 Best Songwriter in the Hot Press’s annual Readers’ Poll in 2015. In recent years Nick has also gained fame as a film maker. Having been Oscar-shortlisted for his third short “Shoe”, his debut feature “The Drummer And The Keeper” won 18 major awards on the global festival circuit. He has performed his stage show “See:Hear”, in which he mixes live musical performances and film clips to explain how rock’n’roll has taught him to make movies, at both Ireland’s leading music and film festivals, the Electric Picnic and the Galway Film Fleadh.
SEAN MILLAR has been described as “an Irish National treasure, the Poet Laureate of Dublin’s dark side” by The Irish Times and as “Ireland’s greatest lyricist” by the RTE Guide. Also known as Doctor Millar, Sean has released five critically-acclaimed solo albums, and has been nominated for many awards for his work. He is also an internationally-acclaimed theatre maker and composer. Since the late 1990s, Seán has worked as an artist/facilitator on many community-based, socially-engaged collaborative music and theatre performances. His ground-breaking practise in this sphere has been the subject of several academic studies. Most recently he was invited to curate and perform at “Love Song Part 1: Communities of Dissent”, a retrospective celebration of his work on at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.
DOGS is the unlikely result of Sean’s rash offer to house-sit for a friend in West Clare in late 2021, which also entailed looking after the family’s energetic 8-month-old German shepherd Yogi. In need of both moral and physical support for his unexpectedly onerous duties, Sean invited Nick to join him in Milton Malbay on the pretext of writing a few songs together. Somehow, despite (or maybe because of) the hyperactive influence of Yogi, the duo crafted a series of cracking new tunes together over six days, between big feeds, cold plunges and long walks. DOGS’ debut EP “Tricks”, which includes both “Heartbeat” and “Old Dog Young Dog”, is due for imminent release.
