• Premiere: Alana Henderson – Let This Remain (Live at the Telegraph Building)

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    Released in November last year, ‘Let This Remain’ by Alana Henderson perfectly distils the Belfast-based cellist and singer-songwriter’s carefully-composed, wonderfully idiosyncratic craft. Revealing the nuance and intimate nature of the song is a new video courtesy of Belfast photographer and filmmaker Joe Laverty. Directed and edited by Laverty – with additional camera work from Jude McCaffrey and Sharon Whittaker, and colour grading from Malachy Campbell – the video features Henderson performing the song with accompaniment from Pleasure Beach’s Alan Haslam at the Belfast Telegraph building, a stark, towering space that has since been reawakened as a venue. Unsurprisingly, the performance is nothing short of utterly…

  • Holly Macve w/ Alana Henderson @ Studio 1A, Bangor

    August 23, 2017 - By 

    Far beyond providing mere entertainment, a festival has the capacity to animate everyday spaces and nudge people to perhaps see their habitual surroundings in a new light. Now in its fifth year, Open House Festival has brought Bangor’s spaces – small and large, public and private, mundane and magical – to life, via the arts in their broadest possible spectrum. The transformative nature of Open House Festival is evident in the concert of Holly Macve, the first concert held in the century-long history of the former The Good Templar Hall, re-baptized Studio 1A in April 2017, after extensive renovations and…

  • Monday Mixtape: Alana Henderson

    January 16, 2017 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, fast-rising, Belfast-based cellist and songwriter Alana Henderson selects some of her all-time favourite songs from the likes of Nick Drake, Crooked Still and Ani DiFranco. Ane Brun – Big in Japan I love her reworking of this 80s hit. Her voice is so pure, it gives me chills. Nick Drake – Cello Song Had me at ‘cello’, but there’s more to it than just that. I don’t think anyone can match Nick Drake for gorgeous melancholy. The intimacy of the lyrics in ‘Cello Song’ is what really floors me. Arthur Russell – Wild Combination Arthur Russell,…

  • Video Premiere: Alana Henderson – Song About a Song

    June 14, 2016 - By 

    Before setting off on the very long road as cellist/backing vocalist for Hozier, Dungannon singer-songwriter Alana Henderson (one of our ones to watch last year) had staked her very own captivating claim with her debut EP, Wax & Wane. Released in early 2013, it was veritable pandora’s box of burrowing folk noir, each of the release’s four traditional-tinged chamber tales bounding forth with gallant imagination and delicate, melodic finesse. With brand new material in the pipeline, ‘Song About a Song’ – a perfectly ruminating peak from Wax & Wane that’s had an incredible 5,000,000 plays on Spotify – has been resurrected with a homespun video by David Moody that wonderfully captures the song’s essence.

  • Stream: Alana Henderson – Museum of Thought

    November 12, 2015 - By 

    Before globetrotting as a member of Hozier’s band, Dungannon cellist and singer Alana Henderson had established herself as one of the most promising Irish artists, masterfully meddling in the realm of alternative folk informed with a strong traditional presence. Almost three years on from her sublime Wax & Wane EP, Henderson has returned in her own right with ‘Museum of Thought’, a wonderfully stripped-back, lilting and lullaby-like track co-produced by Phil D’Alton of Master & Dog that positively confirms she has by no means abandoned her own craft and path. Watch the video for the track – featuring images courtesy of The British…

  • 15 For ’15: Alana Henderson

    January 1, 2015 - By 

    Set to feature in physical form in our forthcoming January magazine, we’re pleased to present 15 for ’15, a handpicked selection of Irish acts we’re absolutely convinced are going places in 2015. Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph by our wonderful team of photographers. First up is Belfast-based songstress Alana Henderson. Photo by Joe Laverty. End of year lists are a funny thing. Every year the music industry churns these things out and every year the same names appear top of the…

  • Hozier @ The Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    December 5, 2014 - By 

    Hozier returns to his hometown crowd for the first time since things have really blown up for him. The pride and excitement in The Olympia is palpable. What makes this pride stand out even more is that all of tonight’s acts are homegrown talent. Alana Henderson opens with her cello and piano-driven set. Next up are Wyvern Lingo, who are incredibly impressive, the three piece putting on a show that raises the standard for the night in a way that a support does not often do. With their harmonies, unique sound and stage present, the girls put on a very…

  • Shortlist revealed for Northern Irish Music Prize 2014

    September 29, 2014 - By 

    With Bangor singer-songwriter Foy Vance having scooped the inaugural award last year, the twelve-act shortlist for this year’s Northern Irish Music Prize has been revealed. Recognising the very best albums released in the last twelve months by a Northern Irish act, this year’s ceremony will see Belfast-based singer-songwriter Robyn G Shiels (above), alt-rock heroes Mojo Fury, the Smalltown America-signed More Than Conquerors, Derry indie-pop quartet Wonder Villains, transatlantic indie-rap duo Malibu Shark Attack, singer-songwriter Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse, electro-pop band Ed Zealous, Nathan Connolly’s Little Matador, singer-songwriter duo Sullivan and Gold, Dungannon folk songstress Alana Henderson, Belfast doom masters Slomatics and multi-instrumentalist Peter McCauley AKA Rams Pocket Radio vie for prize. The shortlist was compiled…

  • Open House Festival 2014

    May 13, 2014 - By 

    We’re big fans of Open House Festival and how they do things here at the Thin Air. With an extraordinarily tasteful penchant for the very best in folk, roots and Americana, the team have brought us some unforgettable shows ranging from the likes of Bob Log III, Deer Tick, John Grant to Lower Dens, Cold Specs and Old Crowd Medicine Show. As well as one-off shows and happenings scattered across the years, Open House really flaunts its wares with its annual festival events. This summer they will present two festivals, a Belfast festival and a Bangor Festival. The former, taking place from June 18…

  • Album Stream: Alana Henderson – Windfall

    February 6, 2014 - By 

    Having had an extraordinary breakthrough year in 2013, Belfast-based singer-songwriter Alana Henderson has released a new album, Windfall. Ahead of entering the studio again soon to record some material of her own, the eight-track album is, in Henderson’s own words, “a side-project, separate from my own contemporary writing, in which I recorded an album of re-worked, contemporary arrangements of traditional songs from the North of Ireland.” Featuring the likes of Shauna Tohill AKA Silhouette and Mike Mormecha from Mojo Fury amongst a cast of musicians, the album is available as a limited edition cardboard release with enclosed sleeve-notes. Stream and/or download…