The glowing red lights bathed Nicole Maguire as a gentle, soothing, yet commanding voice brought an instant presence to the crowded room. The lyrics, "Dreams of the past, not meant to last" infused the venue with emotion, as she moved from heartfelt tracks to more upbeat sounding guitar melodies, that divulged wary travel tales of regret and growth. Her voiced soared effortlessly, not needing to force or strain her vocals in any way.
Nicole was in Whelan's promoting the milestone of her second album Wishing Well. "Hello everybody, thanks for coming out to the launch of album number two. It's cool to say that, album number two," she said beaming. Her one-liner, "It's been two years since my last confession", elicited a hearty laugh from the audience.
At every turn, Nicole managed to display more and more of her personality and charisma. Before every song she would regale the audience with little anecdotes about each track. "The last time i played in Dublin, I was playing in front of a thousand people, and I said to the Dublin crowd, 'I'm from Cork'. There was dead silence. Then, a good minute later, someone shouted at me, 'at least you have your health,'" she said giggling reliving the incident.

Check out the photos for Nicole Maguire's album launch here.

"Over the last couple of years, I've been able to travel to some amazing places, one of which was Switzerland. I joined an all male choir. I don't speak German or French, but I learned the phonetics. That lasted for two shows," she quipped. She concluded her yarn with the hilarious line, "If you ever want to go to church in Switzerland, Holy Mary is on wheels there."
After four songs, she invited three more members of her band to play on stage, which added an extra depth and layer to the performance. Of course, one of the most thrilling moments of the night was when Paul Brady stepped upon the stage to perform with Nicole. "The moment your hero joins you on stage the night of your launch...God xx," she adoringly wrote on Facebook.
Nicole Maguire is an exceptionally strong talent, with lyrical gravity, and a rich and textured voice, that vocally relies on the adage of less is more.