• The Kino in Cork Set To Reopen With The Mary Wallopers, Junior Brother and More

    July 13, 2020 - By 

    The Kino is the latest Irish music venue set to re-open following lockdown. As well as reopening its café from 8pm Monday, July 20th, the Cork venue will host its first live event on Friday, July 24th. Ahead of further gig announcements in the coming weeks, the line-up for the July 24th show will feature The Tan Jackets‘ Rock and Roll Revue Show. Elsewhere, Junior Brother plays the venue on Saturday, July 25th, and Dundalk’s finest The Mary Wallopers will play a two-night stint on July 31st and August 1st. This show will be broadcast live via a multi-camera set-up.  And for the…

  • Islander Announce Live From Home Concert Set For This Friday

    March 25, 2020 - By 

    Islander draws together four of the finest singer-songwriters in Ireland for a special 2-hour online concert on Friday, March 27. Performing – in half hour increments – are Choice-nominated Maija Sofia, the ambient experimental folk of John Francis Flynn, bouzouki, guitar & piano player Anna Mieke and Junior Brother, who wrote our Irish album of 2019, Pull The Right Rope. Viewers are encouraged to donate whatever you can, if you can, to these artists who have lost at least a month of work, with events cancelled and weekly gigs gone for the foreseeable future. All donations will be split evenly between the artists – you can donate here. Links…

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Junior Brother

    January 1, 2020 - By 

    The premiere episode of The Thin Air Podcast Season 2 features Kerry’s finest singer-songwriter Junior Brother.  With his debut album Pull The Right Rope recently named The Thin Air 2019 album of the year, Ronan Kealy speaks to Danny Carroll about the song’s origin and recording process.  We also hear from the song’s producer Chris Barry (Ailfionn Studios), as well as cellist Claire Kinsella (Lemoncello). Ahead of episodes from TPM, Girl Band, Careerist, Just Mustard and SOAK, stream episode 1 of Season 2 below. Music Featured: 1. The Back Of Her (2018) 2. Hungover At Mass (2017) 3. You Make A Fine Picture…

  • Junior Brother – Pull The Right Rope

    May 29, 2019 - By 

    Imagine Joanna Newsom had gorged on grainy VHS tapes of Richie Kavanagh instead of the modernist compositions of Ruth Crawford Seeger, weaving guitar stabs and tambourine whacks to soundtrack drunken treks through rural Ireland. This verdant picture, brought forward by Kerry bard Junior Brother, glistens to life on his enchanting debut album, Pull the Right Rope, released through Galway’s Strange Brew label. Born and raised just outside of Killarney, the origin story of Junior Brother, the performance name Ronan Kealy nabbed from an early 17th century play he studied in college, is equally as pristine and adventurous as his music.…

  • Junior Brother and PowPig @ The Grand Social, Dublin

    April 19, 2019 - By 

    The outside of Dublin’s Grand Social is littered with both local and foreign football fans, the downstairs bar is a flood of jerseys and half-spilled pints, but upstairs in the smoking area of the bar, a semi-orderly queue is forming. A few strays weasel their way to the front and mutter something about spare tickets, but to no avail. The rest, stand patiently, smoking, drinking and chatting, waiting to enter the venue. One guy bursts in red as a baboon’s hole and takes three maybe four puffs from an inhaler before joining the line. All of these people are here…

  • This Month In Irish Music: March

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    In the latest of a new regular series, Colin Gannon rounds up the very best Irish tracks released of the month just gone, featuring The Claque, Uwmammi, Invader Slim, James Joys, Cassavetes, Jafaris and more. The Claque — Hush Hush, the transfixing single from The Claque — the newly reinvented trio comprising of Alan Duggan (Girl Band), Kate Brady and Paddy Ormond — was this month’s most wiry, propulsing listen. Miasmic textures, beautiful, veiled melodies and bristling, febrile noise collide, ensuring the group avoid immediate categorisation. The eardrum-splitting tautness of Girl Band does come to mind, but the group are…

  • Listen to a New Four-Track Split From Out on a Limb and Strange Brew Records

    March 20, 2019 - By 

    Some collaborative releases were just destined to be. As two of the country’s finest indie imprints, Limerick’s Out on a Limb and Galway’s Strange Brew have spent many a long year championing the worthiest of homegrown sounds. Now, the labels have teamed up for Out On a Strange Brew, a new quadruple a-side collaborative release featuring two artists that we’ve loved from the start: Limerick quartet PowPig and Kerry experimental folk artist Ronan Kealy AKA Junior Brother. Kicking off with two new tracks from the former – the equally assured ‘Mayday’ and ‘Pretty Woman’ – the release culminates on two sublime efforts from the…