• Video Premiere: Son of the Hound – I.O.U.

    November 22, 2016 - By 

    Not an artist to get too comfortable in one guise, Belfast-based musician Michael McCullagh AKA Son Of The Hound resurfaced back in August with quite possibly the darn catchiest song we’ve heard from an Irish artist this year, ‘I.O.U’. Something of a curveball when compared with the Omagh artist’s previous, more trad and folk-leaning output to date, its 50s swagger and twang revealed yet another colour on McCullagh’s wonderfully varied sonic palette. Whether you missed it the first time around or fancy a fresh listen, check out the single via Colm Laverty’s brand new video for the track – culminating in…

  • Premiere: Son of the Hound – I.O.U

    August 23, 2016 - By 

    Not one to rest easy on one particular sound or approach, it’s safe to say there are many strings to Michael McCullagh AKA Son of the Hound’s proverbial bow. From his days as guitarist in Colenso Parade right through to his outfit in his previous musical nom de plume Meb Jon Sol, the Omagh musician is back with yet another change of direction in the form of 60s influenced indie rock n’ roll single ‘I.O.U’. Speaking to TTA, McCullagh said: “I.O.U was recorded in Milbank studios, with Mike Mormecha doubling up on drum and recording duties. It was recorded live initially and then cleaned…

  • The Countless Other Gangs of Four

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Having recounted some exquisite tales for us in his previous alias of Meb Jon Sol last year – and with the release of his new single, ‘Pilgrim’, on Friday – Omagh songsmith Michael McCullagh AKA Son of the Hound returns for a new string of columns for The Thin Air. Photo by Tom Nicholl. The train shook the window as it passed. The fixings of the steel bunks shuddered and cream paint flaked from the wall, falling quietly as the noise of the train faded into the Dublin hum. ‘That’s why the room was so cheap’ I said. I heaved my guitar case on…

  • Album premiere: Meb Jon Sol – Southpaw Niños

    October 13, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based folk singer-songwriter Michael McCullagh AKA Meb Jon Sol has been on something of a far-reaching musical expedition since his Colenso Parade days. A far cry musically from the starry-eyed indie pop of the latter – now defunct – Omagh five-piece, McCullagh’s debut solo album bears the lyrical and thematic imprint of wisdom and experience throughout, each track underpinned by the inner workings of wanderlust or quixotic wondering. Preceded by “yeo!”-generating singles ‘Leave All Your Troubles With Me‘ and ‘Captain of this Ship‘, Southpaw Niños strikes a keen balance between self-reflection and knowingly cavalier abandon, McCullagh’s quasi-mystical, eager tales of the open road and distant…

  • Meb Jon Sol: Worried Man, in A

    July 29, 2014 - By 

    I pressed the dusty keys of the old upright near the entrance of the barn. It let out a brace of discordant notes in the close summer heat and left little finger silhouettes in the dirt on the ivory. ’I shouldn’t be here,’ I thought, ‘and it won’t be long until I’m found out.’ The barn was out the back of a farmhouse around the back roads of Leitrim. It had been converted into a studio, but it seemed to have fought valiantly against the conversion. Rusting car parts and stumped farm tools scattered around the stony garden surrounding the…

  • Meb Jon Sol: The Art of Fanciful Begging

    June 23, 2014 - By 

    I felt someone step over me in dark. They slipped quietly out the door and it shut behind them with a soft click, extinguishing the thin strip of light from the hallway that had briefly appeared, casting the room back into darkness. I pulled the sleeping bag tight around me and rolled over, negotiating a fleeting moment of comfort with the unforgiving wooden floor. The room was already stuffy with the early morning heat. I could tell the figure leaving that morning was tense, and I was the reason. I couldn’t blame them. They had generously offered their floor as…

  • Meb Jon Sol: Four More Fish

    June 6, 2014 - By 

    When the battle lines had been drawn a ripple of laughter broke out among the the groups of lads gathered on the playing fields at Lover’s Retreat. It echoed around the high trees that loomed over the banks of the Camowen river at the edge of the pitch. The teams were unintentionally split straight through the middle of Northern Ireland’s religious divide. It was reflective of the past and the present of a perpetually confusing country: together but still separated. ‘Hold on, we’re one down and yous have an extra.’ a voice from our team remarked. ‘Simon, you go with…