Music
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Brushy One-String: “I’m An All-Purpose Person When It Comes to Music”
In the lead-up to his upcoming appearance at Townlands Carnival festival in Macroom, YouTube star Brushy One-String talks to Mike McGrath-Bryan about his life, his music, and how a chance encounter brought him his fortune. The story of Brushy One-String’s ascent to musical notoriety wouldn’t go amiss in the canon of the great musical underdogs:…
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Gavin James: No Bitter Pill
On the eve of his return to Cork after the biggest year of his career so far, Mike McGrath-Bryan talks with Marquee-bound singer-songwriter Gavin James. Gavin James cuts an excitable figure as your writer greets him at his room in the Clayton Hotel on the quays, ahead of his date at the Marquee. Part nervous…
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Valerie June: Everything In Time
Ahead of a pair of Cork dates, songwriter Valerie June speaks with Mike McGrath-Bryan about Ireland, writing, and being Bob Dylan’s favourite. Memphis-born singer/guitarist Valerie June’s star has been in the ascendant for the last few years now, as tireless, globe-crossing touring has worked alongside a consistently growing media profile at home. It’s paying off…
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Jenny Greene: Nineties Anthems with an Electric Orchestra
Ahead of her Marquee appearances with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with DJ Jenny Greene about the challenges and rewards of rearranging dance classics for an orchestral stage. Jenny Greene has been a stalwart of electronic music in Ireland for nearly twenty years, DJing in clubs and festivals up and down the country…
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Inni-K and Stephen James Smith: The Best of Both Worlds
As singer-songwriter Inni-K prepares for collaborative dates with poet Stephen James Smith, Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with both about how they came together and what to expect. The interaction between music and forms of spoken word has been a recurring feature of live activity in Cork, with an active and vocal hip-hop scene buttressed by spoken…
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Han-Earl Park: Music for the Moment
Ahead of his upcoming performance as part of the Sirene 1009 ensemble at the School of Music, Han-Earl Park speaks with Mike McGrath-Bryan about improvisation, musical machinery and more. For the past twenty years, Han-Earl Park has been on a journey in more than one sense: while travelling the world and collaborating with local musicians…
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This Side Up: Everything Under the Sun
Ahead of their Cuttin’ Heads Collective show on May 19th, Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with Shane Leonard, aka Shaaol, of Sligo hip-hop trio This Side Up. The last twelve months have, for Sligo hip-hop collective This Side Up, surely been a blur. Entering the wider Irish music fray from the ether with debut album Full Fat,…
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Josienne Walker & Ben Clark: Walking New Ground
Josienne Walker and Ben Clarke have been on the rise in UK folk as of recent years, with new album ‘Overnight’ seeing them expand their horizons. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with Clarke and finds out more. It’s a busy time for the duo of Josienne Walker and Ben Clarke, a somewhat iconoclastic double-act whose current album…
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The Bonk: Back to the Primitive
Eschewing finely-honed songwriting for propulsive rhythm and improvisation, The Bonk are a rising quantity in Cork music. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with bandleader Phil Christie. Since emerging in the last two years, The Bonk have become a lesser-spotted, highly sought-after musical animal, with the emphasis of creative head and Waterford man Phil Christie, also of O…
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The Great Balloon Race: Lifting Off
The Great Balloon Race play Coughlan’s on May 5th, launcing a new album and breaking a near-year-long hiatus. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with guitarist Marcus Gordon. A quiet fixture of Cork’s progressive and psychedelic live bills since their emergence at the beginning of the decade, The Great Balloon Race have married folk and jazz inflections to…
Mike McGrath-Bryan 