Clive Barnes has been trekking across the US for most of January, playing at some pretty tasty venues and bringing his wistful desert-hearted acoustic blues to its spiritual home.
He’s back on Irish soil now, and after hitting the Crane in Galway virtually straight off the plane, he’ll be keeping up the pressure with a string of tightly packed dates around the country – the Cobblestone on Thursday January 25, Dolans in Limerick on Friday 26th, Cork’s Half Moon Theatre on Saturday 27th, Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny on Sunday 28th and Murphy’s of Ballymore Eustace on Monday 29th.
He’s back with another few shows towards the end of February, including a gig at the Coast Guard Station in Tramore on February 24, the Roundy in Cork on February 25, and a rare but welcome trip north of the border for a Belfast show in the John Hewitt on March 4.
Although he has toured extensively in the US and in Europe, Barnes is still lamentably undervalued at home. I have to confess I was a late adopter, only discovering him at Dundalk’s Tain festival in 2004 where he played a venue so packed he almost had audience members sitting on his knee.
His live performances are incandescent. He's one of those performers whose intensity takes him off into a hypnotic world of his own and he wears his virtuosity lightly, always making it work for him, never a slave to his flawless technique.
Although I think he deserves a much wider audience, he suits the intimacy of these smaller venues, and although the guitars will be acoustic, the atmosphere will be fully charged.
In the midst of gearing up for their onslaught on the hearts and ears of Europe (and feeling considerably happier now that it looks like the competition will include Morrissey in the red corner for the UK) Dervish will make a rare Dublin appearance at The Olympia Theatre on Sunday January 28, as part of the Temple Bar Irish Music and Cultural festival.
Special guests for the evening with be Lunasa, who will need absolutely no introduction, and Julie Fowlis, the Scottish singer and general all-round ‘girl most likely to’ who won’t be anywhere near as familiar to Irish audiences.
She has been voted best Scots Gaelic singer at the Scots Trad Music Awards and has also bagged herself a much more mainstream BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award for Best Emerging Artist.
Widely tipped new folk duo Ultan John return to Dundalk’s Spirit Store on January 26 opening for Chrome Horse. Having already played the Tall Poppy Club at the venue they’ll know how receptive a Dundalk audience can be.
The Bewley’s Theatre series of gigs have, over the past couple of years, consistently presented great acts and it has become one of those special venues where little pieces of magic can happen. The odds seem stacked against it, with a stage stuck in a corner and bands playing against the often incongruous backdrop of whatever play is currently being staged, but for whatever reason, fantastic performances have a habit of being drawn out of people.
On Thursday February 1 Jenny Lindfors, who is no stranger to the place, will be bringing her own show to the stage there. With an album due out imminently, she’ll presumably be previewing material and hoping to build on the success of 2005’s Carry Us Away EP which picked up some very favourable press.
Taking time out from his duties as a Waterboy and leading light with No Crows, Steve Wickham and his guitarist brother Henry will be playing a two handed show at Bewley’s Theatre on February 8. The material will be drawn from Steve’s first solo venture Geronimo (named after his fiddle) and as well as playing guitar it seems Henry’s main role will be to egg Steve on to greater heights.
On February 16 Eithne Ní Chatháin will be playing a gig to celebrate the release of her debut album. Two years in the making, the album, entitled simply Eithne, is a reflection of her varied musical journey to date. It was recorded in Dublin and Lahinch where she has been exploring and developing her songwriting talent both in English and in Irish. Her gigs are a wonderfully intimate, fresh and varied experience. Her repertoire includes her own songs accompanied by piano and guitar, beautiful sean-nós songs, fiddle playing, contemporary folk and other music that inspires her.
The banjo has to rank amongst the least sexy of instruments (the ukulele takes the prize hands down) but if anyone can drag it kicking and screaming into the bright light of day for all to see then Bela Fleck has got to be the man for the job. Not content to be pigeon-holed in any of the various genres to which banjo is generally consigned, he has built up a fan base which contains the great and the good of classical, jazz and pop music, as well as the bluegrass and folk aficionados you might expect.
The last year alone has seen him debut a composition with the Nashville Symphony, record with McCoy Tyner, perform with Natalie McMaster, Carlos Nunez and Hayley Westenra (at the same time!) and work on a duo CD with Chick Corea. Despite all this he still manages to find the time and energy to bring the Flecktones out on the road and he plays Vicar Street on Friday January 26. Maybe not as exotic as his recent trip to China, but it should be a stunning concert nonetheless.
Moving Hearts have added two shows at the Highland Hotel in Glenties, Donegal on Friday and Saturday, February 2 and 3 to the already advertised Vicar Street dates on February 8 and 9.
Richmond Fontaine, who release Thirteen Cities, the follow up to 2005’s lo-fi masterpiece The Fitzgerald in Ireland on February 9, will also be playing a date at Whelans on February 16 as part of a European tour to promote the album. Seen as one of the most exciting emerging alt-country bands out there at the minute, they recorded the new album in the same Wavelab studio in Tuscon, Arizona that has seen the recording of classic albums by Calexico, Giant Sand and Neko Case. While the songs on The Fitzgerald looked at the cast of characters observed by lyricist Willie Vlautin while holed up in a casino in Reno, the new album takes a more expansive look at the cast of drifters and losers he has run into across the South Western United States.
The Corofin Traditional Festival takes place this year from Saturday February 24 to Sunday March 4, with the main events happening between Thursday 1st and Sunday 4th March. Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne share the bill with Tara Breen and James and John Carty with Francis Gaffney on Thursday 1st, while the next evening will see the stage at Teach Ceoil occupied by Noel Hill, Tony Linnane and Brian McGrath, Martin Quinn and Angelina Carberry with John Blake. On Saturday 3rd it’s the turn of Michael Rooney and June McCormack, Paul Brock and Enda Scahill with Ryan Molloy. That evening many of the performers will join Paraic O’Reilly and the Corofin Chamber Orchestra in a performance at St. Brighid’s Church.