• Stream: Ciaran Lavery – Can I Begin Again

    January 27, 2020 - By 

    Over the last few years, Ciaran Lavery has proven himself to be, in both song and approach, much more than your cut-and-dry, run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter. The globetrotting Northern Irish artist’s gestation as a songwriting voice, from the days of his old band, Captain Kennedy, via albums such as Sweet Decay and Let Bad In, right up until the present moment has been nothing short of remarkable. All along the way, his clear reluctance to kowtow to expectation has informed easily one of the most colourful and consistently rewarding trajectories of any Irish solo artist in recent years. Lavery’s new single ‘Can…

  • NI Music Prize Line-Up Announced

    September 20, 2018 - By 

    The nominated artists set to play this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize have been announced. Previous winner Ciaran Lavery, Brand New Friend, The Wood Burning Savages, Hannah Peel, Ryan Vail (featuring the Arco String Quartet) and Roe will perform at the event, which takes place at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on Thursday, November 11. The event host is Rigsy (BBC Radio Ulster), with the winners of all four categories to be announced by special guests on the night. The evening will end with an after party at Limelight 2. Charlotte Dryden of Oh Yeah said: “After five fantastic years at the…

  • Ciaran Lavery – Sweet Decay

    January 30, 2018 - By 

    From inauspicious beginnings in Aghagallon, one of Northern Ireland’s most talented and celebrated songwriters, Ciaran Lavery, has announced details of third album. Launched in Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on the same day, Sweet Decay is released on April 13, following on from his 2016 NI Music Prize-winning LP, Let Bad In. Totting up well over 80 million streams on Spotify, he’s one of our most poetically-gifted singer-songwriters, not to mention one of the most wilfully eclectic. As well as scattering soul, hip-hop or R&B on top of what was once a bread & butter strain of heartfelt, earnest indie-folk & chamber-pop, his short collaborative album with electronic producer Ryan Vail won high…

  • Stream: Ciaran Lavery – Everything Is Made To Last

    July 28, 2017 - By 

    If you’ve been in any familiar with what we’ve done over the last few years, you’ll know that we have a lot of time for Aghagallon’s Ciaran Lavery. A rare breed of artist who navigates sorrow, wanderlust, love and the borderline mystical hidden spaces that both join and keep us apart, his music comes from a place of a potent grasp of the human condition. Having been zig-zagging around the continent playing shows over the last few months, his new single ‘Everything Is Made To Last’ is a four-minute distillation of what has made all previous efforts so profoundly listenable. Triumphant…

  • Ciaran Lavery – A King at Night: The Songs of Bonnie Prince Billy

    May 5, 2017 - By 

    Will Oldham, aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, releases his new album Best Troubadour this month, a collection of covers of songs by Merle Haggard , who Oldham describes as his “forever hero”. Yet the prolific Oldham is something of a hero himself to many, name-checked in songs by Half Man Half Biscuit and Jeffrey Lewis, cited as a primary formative influence on a young Arab Strap and covered by the likes of The Frames, Mark Kozelek and even Johnny Cash, yet he remains firmly in the “cult favourite” bracket, where in a more fair and just world he’d surely be subject to the…

  • Stream: Ciaran Lavery – New Partner (Bonnie Prince Billy Cover)

    April 12, 2017 - By 

    With Record Store Day 2017 next Saturday fast approaching, Aghagallon artist Ciaran Lavery is primed to to release his own contribution in the form of A King at Night, an EP featuring covers of Bonnie “Prince” Billy songs. The lead single from that, ‘New Partner’ – which featured on BPB AKA Will Oldham’s 1995 album as Palace Music, Viva Last Blues – makes for an exquisite, wonderfully reflective rendition, where swooning streaks of string, lush harmonies and Lavery’s impeccable vocal delivery marry in very impressive fashion.

  • Vault Lines: Ciaran Lavery

    December 19, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of playing a special one-off show with strings at Belfast’s The MAC tonight (Monday, December 19), Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery waxes lyrical on his love of a lesser-known Luke Kelly gem, ‘The Sun Is Burning’. I’m somewhere between 14-16 years old and I’m standing in the kitchen of my house. Luke Kelly is playing. We grew up with some version of Luke Kelly and The Dubliners’ Greatest Hits or collection of songs to as far back as I can remember.  I’m not sure if I understood the depth of the music or lyrics but I do know that I…

  • Gigs of the Week: Teleman, Peaches, Buzzcocks, Saint Sister, Sarah Neufeld

    November 3, 2016 - By 

    Teleman Limelight 2, Belfast/Workman’s Club, Dublin Friday, November 4/Saturday, November 5 Having released their first-rate, second studio album, Brilliant Sanity, back in April, London indie-pop quartet Teleman stop off at Belfast’s Limelight 2 and Dublin’s and Dublin’s Workman’s on Friday and Saturday. Total newcomer? Well worth checking out on a whim. Peaches w/ Cut Once The Academy, Dublin Sunday, November 6 Supported by Dublin duo electronic duo Michael Hefferman and Aisling Browne Cut Once, electro-pop Queen par excellence Merrill Beth Nisker AKA Peaches plays hands down the best show in the country on Sunday night at the Academy. Brought to…