Folk column: Turner Prize

uliet Turner has hit the road again to play a slew of intimate shows. She’s performing new songs prior to going into the studio to record her fourth studio album.
Judging by the rapturous response to her brace of shows at the Spirit Store there’ll be a ready audience for the new LP when it comes out. In the meantime she cracks out a new single ‘Joy’ on her own Hear This! Label on October 6
Turner will be working live with ace guitarist Brian Grace: there’s a crackling musical chemistry between the two that parallels her easy rapport with her audience. The tour continues with shows in The Forum, Waterford on October 7, a double header with Christie Hennessy at the Seven Tower Leisure Centre on October 14 and a Limerick show at Dolans on October 28.
One of Juliet’s former touring partners, Joan Armatrading will be making a flying visit to the Aran Islands to record a live segment for her BBC radio show with the squad from Ragus. Ragus main man Fergal O Murchu has no idea how she tracked them down but given that they’ve now played and danced their way across most of the world there have been plenty of opportunities to impress.
The Willard Grant Conspiracy will be stopping off in Dublin to play a show at CrawDaddy on October 7. Support on the night will be from The Guggenheim Grotto who will be using this as a chance to road test a stripped back acoustic version of their normal live show before they head off to conquer the US on the back of their recent album release there.
Bewley’s Café Theatre will be the target of the next Shay Cotter raid on the capital with a gig there scheduled for October 13. These evenings are now famous for Shay’s habit of springing special guests on the crowd – this time shouldn’t be any different.
In the lead up to the Tain Festival later in the month you might think the Spirit Store would take the foot off the gas a bit but on the contrary the Dundalk venue’s schedule is choc-a-bloc with great gigs this month. October 6 sees Kevin Montgomery re-visit the venue with a solo show this timem showcasing his Gram Parsons and Roger McGuinn tinged songs. His special guest on the night will be violinist Andrea Zonn who is more usually seen in the musical company of Vince Gill and James Taylor. On Sunday 8 Patrick Freyne and his Bad Intentions visit Dundalk as part of a double header with Miriam Ingram. Patrick has toured with The Handsome Family and Willard Grant Conspiracy of late, and will be playing material from his new album. Part folk/country/gospel/punk and set to a dustbowl Americana backdrop of Guthrie and Leadbelly, this could be a gig to really remember. Legendary Scottish singer, songwriter, composer and producer Dick Gaughan visits on Friday 13. His songs have been covered by Billy Bragg, Capercaillie, Mary Black and many more and he is unreservedly one of the most important figures in contemporary British folk.
The following evening Dundalk Outcomers present Louise Killeen plus Lisa Crosby Having won two national song contests and having got to this years final of You’re A Star with her own material, Louise now takes her band and her folk influenced songs to the Store for the first time. The Tall Poppy Club reconvenes on Wednesday 18 with Shaz Oye, Eugene Donegan, Alan Anderson honing their songwriting skills under the watchful gaze of MC Stewart Agnew. Shaz Oye’s jazz and blues tinged songs are both melody and message driven, Donegan has written with and supported Declan O Rourke, and Alan Anderson takes time out from Podracer for this “plugged in” session of solo material. The must-see gig of this year’s Tain Festival is the Wednesday 25 festival opener as James Yorkston And The Athletes hit the Spirit Store.
Eleanor McEvoy has just released ‘Out There’ a collection of 12 brand new compositions, plus a co-write with Dave Rotheray of The Beautiful South and covers of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ and Little Feat’s ‘Roll ‘Um Easy’ It’s an album that breaks new ground for McEvoy in that she has scored all the arrangements and provided most of the music for the album. Liam Bradley joins her on percussion and Dave Rotheray plays bass on ‘Quote I Love You Unquote’ a song composed after Dave and Eleanor became musical associates following the Homespun and Sam Brown tour on which Eleanor was special guest.
Living up to her reputation as one of the hardest working musicians in the country she is promoting the album with a tightly packed tour which takes her from Letterkenny to Waterford (which is about as far as you can go in this island) as well as across the Irish sea for a slew of dates in the UK where she also toured pretty extensively in support of her last album, consolidating her fanbase there.
She’ll also be staging a season of gigs as part of the Wexford Opera Festival under the banner ‘Eleanor McEvoy presents...’ The season kicks off on October 27 with Eleanor and friends at the Wexford Arts Centre, looking forward into November, she presents Oleg Pomonarev and Caroline Moreau with Ariel Hernandez on November 3, November 10 it’s Luka Bloom’s turn to take the spotlight and the season wraps up on November 17 with a special show from Andy Irvine.
During the latter half of November she also be playing the bulk of her own Irish dates with dates in Newbridge at the Riverband Arts Centre on Saturday 11, The Errigle in Belfast on Thursday 16 and The Venue Theatre Ratoath on Saturday 18. The Dublin date will be happening in Crawdaddy on Thursday 23, while Friday 25 sees here make the trip to Limerick to play Dolans. The tour wraps up on Wednesday 29 with as show at St. John’s Theatre in Listowel.
Another of our most respected Songbirds Leslie Dowdall is facing into some pretty extensive gigging with a tour kicking off in the Cobblestone on October 13. The tour then takes in Bandon, Moate, Clonmel, Charleville and Kilworth before heading for a more northerly leg taking in Galway, Westport and Boyle. 
This years series of gigs showcasing diverse elements of the piping tradition, organized by Na Piobaire Uilleann takes place in the Cobblestone in Dublin’s Smithfield. On November 7 long-time fiddle and pipes pairing, Paddy Glackin and Robbie Hannan, team up once again to demonstrate their vibrant, dynamic duet, while legendary sean-nos singer, Sean Garvey will add his unique style to the mix
Glor’s autumn season kicks off with an October 6 show by Dick Gaughan. Colm Gannon & Jesse Smith visit on October 13 and on October 26 three of the country’s finest traditional muisicians, Mick Kinsella (harmonica and concertina), All-Ireland Harmonica champion, Rick Epping (who also plays concertina, mandolin, 5-string banjo and jaw harp) and Seamie O’Dowd, ex-Dervish, is a multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, playing fiddle, harmonica and guitar will be playing their unique blend of Irish folk and Americana at the Ennis venue.