The Inside Track: hello baby blue

Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James are rarely cited as musical touchstones and probably wouldn’t even register on the radar of your average singer-songwriter. But Aindriu Conroy is anything but average. Listening to his latest confection ‘Close To Cotton’, one concludes he has the soul of an aging Deep South bluesman in the body of a skinny white boy from Kildare.
The six-track album was recorded in London with Ian Grimble and has already generated quite a buzz in the UK. Catch him conjuring up these Delta ghosts upstairs in Whelans on May 13 and 22…
Also in Whelans, on May 9, Kilkenny’s Saving J bring their infectious brand of power-pop to the stage. Still riding high on the success of latest single ‘Valentine’ this is a show not to miss…
The very wonderful Halves release Haunt Me When I’m Drowsy on May 16 and celebrate this momentous occasion where else but Whelan’s on May 17. The beautifully packaged CD includes seven tracks (we have categorised it as an album so check out Lauren Murphy’s review in this issue). In July the band will be heading to Europe for a brief tour culminating at a festival which will see them sharing a stage with Mogwai, Efterklang and …
Fans of sadly defunct Daemien Frost will be delighted to hear of the release of the Spirito Di Daemo CD and DVD which is now available from the Learn To Love website. It features four new songs, a documentary, five music videos and a remastered version of Corpus Damo, their first album…
Galway’s The Kanyu Tree release their second single ‘Congratulations’ at the end of May. The band, who formed a mere 12 months ago, have shared the stage The Saw Doctors, The Blizzards, Republic of Loose, The Bluetones, Ocean Colour Scene and I’m From Barcelona and scored a Top 20 hit with debut single ‘Tanglewood’. The band comprises brothers Daniel (guitar and vocals), Shane (drums and lead vocals) and Oisin Cluskey (bass and vocals)...
Dublin’s Niall Duffy has just released his debut long-player entitled Time Sleeps For No One. The album was recorded in Salt Recording Studio with Frank Kearns of Cactus World News legend. Frank also plays guitar on the record and ex-CWN skinsman Wayne Sheehy plays drums. Garvan Gallagher who has worked with Mary Black and Scullion is on bass duties…
On the subject of Nialls... Niall Colfer recently launched his new single ‘After All That’s Happened’ in Crawdaddy. The track is taken from Niall’s forthcoming solo album, Lines And Space, due for release in September, which was produced by Gareth Mannix (Republic of Loose, Delorentos). This is his first solo outing after two critically acclaimed albums with Salthouse….
Also going the solo route is Cork artist Daniel Jones (formerly of The Guests) who has just released his debut EP ‘Faces, Girls, Monsters’ on Index Records. Daniel has spent the last few years writing and recording in Chicago, an experience which has shaped the new songs. The CD features ‘Rip It Up’, ‘Bouquet’, ‘Barefoot Childstar’ and ‘Taunting The Tide’ and runs the gamut from emotional balladry to indie pop riffery…

For live updates tune into The Last Splash, Sunday nights 8-10, with Alison Curtis on Today FM
(email: [email protected])