Loaded vocalist and guitarist DUFF McKAGAN has one complaint, that nobody has yet invented a system that would make soundchecks unnecessary. Jackie Hayden interrupted the former Guns N’ Roses bassist at his band’s rehearsal cabin on the eve of their visit to Ireland.
One of the most hotly anticipated events at the Galway Comedy Festival is the show featuring stand-up comedian from the characters of Father Ted. Jackie Hayden talks to the evening's host Frank Kelly, a.k.a Father Jack.
The media is in turmoil, with huge losses being posted by some of the country’s biggest broadcasting and publishing groups. It is a dramatic backdrop to the Hot Press Interview with DAVID McREDMOND, chief executive at TV3. In no mood to mince his words, the independent TV boss repeatedly goes for the jugular, insisting that RTÉ’s dual funding must end, and telling the State regulator to get off TV3’s back.
We’re not accustomed to major corporations in Ireland taking a political stand. But US multi-national Intel, lead by its Irish general manager Jim O’Hara, is campaigning for a Yes vote on the Lisbon Treaty Take 2.
In an increasingly competitive world, there’s an increased awareness that practical knowledge and experience, allied to the appropriate qualifications, can give people the edge over rivals who adopt a more casual approach.
Ever27 are four determined Midlands musicians with their eyes on the main prize. Their frontman Brendan McEvoy, formerly of the much-loved Mesner, is enthused by the support they’ve had from the Mullingar community and beyond.
Dublin singer-songwriter MICHELE ANN KELLY has been nominated as “Advocate of the Month” by the Marriage Equality campaign, having declared her support for the concept of Marriage Equality by dedicating a share of proceeds from the sale of her current single ‘Time’ to the campaign.
Pierce Turner is back in Ireland for a summer tour, but he’s also pre-occupied by his bad experiences in Ireland as a keen music radio listener and has some radical ideas for shaking up Radio 1 and Lyric FM.
Cork singer-songwriter NICOLE MAGUIRE is rapidly making a name for herself with her full-on pop-rock songs, swoonful voice and dogged determination. On the release of her debut album Fight The Score she talks to Jackie Hayden.
To coincide with her first solo album, Imeall, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh talks to Jackie Hayden about the pleasures and pressures of inter-band relationships, motherhood, the Irish language and her solo adventure.
Mick Flannery is just one of the top artists featured singing a track on Seachtain na Gaeilge’s Irish language compilation Ceol ’09, due for release next month. Jackie Hayden talks to him about the experience.
Laughing in the face of a global music meltdown, Colin Devlin has temporarily exited The Devlins to release a solo album Democracy Of One and strike out on a world tour.
Aslan’s Christy Dignam lives not too far from where he grew up in Dublin. He talks to Hot Press about birdwatching, how he stays away from drugs and his disdain for celebrities who complain about fame.
Aoife Moriarty has captivated anyone who’s encountered her debut album Dolls & Jigsaws. She talks to Jackie Hayden about her musical past, present and future.
Snowman FC from Cork won the Irish heat of the JD Sets, played live in the legendary Jack Daniel's Distillery in Tennessee and recorded with REM man David Barbe in Nashville.
TV celebrity chef Richard Corrigan's latest project is his new Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill in Dublin. He talks to Jackie Hayden about his passion for food, tricky customers and more.
Though it doesn't exactly live up to its name, Legend manages to capture the optimistic sprit of Barack Obama in addition to his mastery of soul, pop and hip-hop in this album.
How Wallis Bird's search for a bicycle led her to "the best house in the universe," a three-storey hippy-style Victorian residence in multicultural Brixton, London.
Annmarie O'Grady's second album, 24 Hours, was produced in New York by Malcolm Burn who worked with Daniel Lanois on Bob Dylan's acclaimed Oh Mercy album.
Tower's Wicklow Street store manager Clive Branagan reflects on how the shop's independent stance enabled them to get progressively stronger, while others floundered.
Lesley-Ann Halvey, singer and bassist with the all-girl Dublin four-piece Black Daisy, claims being in a band is different for girls, not least in squatting down to do the ass test in Penneys.
This collection of about 50 Irish and British artists performing folk-rock works mostly written by former music journalist Colin Harper is a seriously handsome affair.
Noise terrorists Paranoid Visions have had their first hit record after 30 years. Is this mere carelessness or part of a cunning plan to subvert the nation?
Theo, aka Terry Quigley, did time in One Half Monk, but now fronts Theo and the Red Beats. Jackie Hayden uncovers the background to their debut album Get What You Came For.
The Monaghan-Cavan area has been a bit of a desert in quality rock terms in recent years, but the new Monaghan-based Venue Promotions is set on changing all that.
Now a provocative solo artist following a spell with the Subtonics, The Mighty Stef (alias Stefan Murphy) invites Jackie Hayden round for some pasta a la Murphy.
Although Ireland's comedy community is heavily dominated by male figures, women like Carol Tobin have overturned the notion that women are intrinsically unfunny.
The Stables in Mullingar has become an essential stopover on the Irish rock touring circuit. Here, the venue's booking man, David McLynn tells Jackie Hayden about the current state of rock in the Midlands.
In the run-up to Bloomsday, gay rights activist Senator David Norris explains why he hates iPods and he wouldn’t have wanted James Joyce as a neighbour.
Jen Connell from Horray For Humans tells Jackie Hayden about the band's campaign to exterminate white runners - and talks about what turns her on in clothes.
Next time you visit Cork City, take a cool look around, for the vista is likely to undergo a major facelift over the next 20 years thanks to the planned development of the Cork Docklands area.
Gary Dunne avoids the pitfalls of mawkish singer-songwriterdom with challenging indie-folk songs that bridge the divide between Cat Stevens and Neil Young.
Will Leahy is a busy man. He works full-time as a solicitor. In his spare time, meanwhile, he moves to RTE’s Limerick studios to broadcast his daily programme to the nation.
It’s shaping up to be the mother of all battles of the bands as Dublin heroes Bravado square up against Waterford’s Gorbachov in the Murphy’s Live 2008 final in The Savoy, Cork on May 15.
After studiously walking the line between rock and pop, Corkonian Jennifer Clarke explains why she now regards herself as a country act, and tells Jackie Hayden about her interest in serial killers.
"Glyder use their twin guitars to the max, and in vocalist Tony Cullen have a gritty frontman who avoids the macho excesses of so many other exponents of the genre."
As a long term drug rehabilitation activist, Sean Cassin knows more than most about the extent of heroin use in Ireland. Now, as a member of the Drugs Policy Action Group, it is telling that he is angry about institutional resistance to progress on the issue.
Aisling O’Loughlin is one of the effervescent presenters on TV3’s Xpose. This week, however, she’s stuck with Jackie Hayden making one of his house calls.
Joanne Hynes is one of Ireland’s most intuitive fashion designers, with a particular love for knitwear. She talks to Jackie Hayden about the vision thing.
Cowboy Robot are four musicians firmly embedded in the rock tradition, with much to offer in terms of originality and a timely sense of good old rock’n’roll fun.
Sue Rose is guitarist and vocalist with The Radio and here she welcomes Jackie Hayden onto her fashion wavelength just in time for some Christmas shopping.
O'Snodaigh's songs exude a confidence and an intelligence that go way beyond the empty platitudes and three-chord trickery of yer standard Irish songsmithery.
From the off, the band's zest and breathtaking energy serve to remind us how lacking in invention most of the live music scene has been since they were last among us.
Claudia Carroll is a busy actress and author, but she still allows our Jackie Hayden the time of day, gives him a hot scoop and introduces him to her haunted room.
Carlow's Alanalda capivated the audience with their twist on folk rock, The Citizen from Clonmel were nigh on perfect and Chaplin rounded off the night with fresh delights.
The use of rock music for soundtracking and advertising purposes has opened up important new avenues for artists eager to get their music out to a mass audience.
Singer Maria Tecce’s wardrobe is as eclectic and as multi-cultural as you would expect from a woman with a repertoire of English, Spanish, Italian, French and Polish songs
Two house calls for the price of one? Jackie Hayden calls in on political satirist Paddy Cullivan and Clint Velour of Camembert Quartet, resident ingredient of RTÉ TV’s Tubridy Show, only to find they are one and the same person!
Supported By Hot Press and Beat FM to highlight emerging local talent, the second in the First Cuts series saw Odi and former Salt House man Niall Colfer supporting local heroes Chaplin.
Joe Jackson re-evaluates Elvis' prolific but inconsistent movie career – and the decisions that would lead to the ultimate downfall of the man known as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The annual Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival has put Longford on the world music map. Jackie Hayden talks to the festival’s originator Chris Keenan about how it grew from initially being laughed at to becoming one of the most important folk festivals in the international calendar.
This is Ozzy's first studio outing in six years, and his first time to record an album sober. It benefits from Zakk Wylde's demented riffs and solos, and the lyrics feature more relevant political comment than you’d expect.
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet consists of four virtuoso players acclaimed across the world for their unique blend of classical and flamenco styles. As they prepare for their Irish debut, Jackie Hayden asks key member Bill Kanengiser how it all works.
In another case of “Bono made me do it”, former hotpress-er and U2 biographer Neil McCormick explains to Jackie Hayden how he ended up living near Bob The Builder and about the travails of interviewing all four U2 men on four different continents in the same evening. Photos by Mark Harrison.
Although Rihanna tries to hit too many different targets on this album, the beats are up and the lyrics are vacuous enough to guarantee a few more hit singles before anybody finds out.
Although Real Girl is too inconsistent to have you rushing down the bookies, nonetheless it’s a steely attempt at spirited urban R’n’B pop, with nods to Mary J. Blige, Macy Gray, Joss Stone and even Jamelia.
Six Semesters could be the first independent Irish feature film with an entire cast and crew made up of students from an Irish university. Jackie Hayden goes behind the casting couch with director John McKeown.
As frontman with The Spikes, Tom Dunne likes to makes sure that he stands out from the crowd. Jackie Hayden asks the former model his views on the links between fashion and rock music.
As frontman with The Spikes, Tom Dunne likes to makes sure that he stands out from the crowd. Jackie Hayden asks the former model his views on the links between fashion and rock music/
As cats all over Ireland prepare to have their fancies tickled, Jackie Hayden reflects on the comedic talents of one of the star turns at this year’s Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival, Tommy Tiernan.
Managing to convince Shaz Oye that he’s not another Fianna Fail canvasser calling round to insult her, Jackie Hayden is allowed in to see where the singer-songwriter works, rests and plays.
A new Dublin-based operation claims to be about to revolutionise the music business by adopting a non-contractual, non-A&R approach to releasing records via key internet music stores. Jackie Hayden talks to the company’s mainman Denver Thomas.
Three bands, 10 venues, 12 dates, four DJ comperes and two high-profile corporate sponsors, including the official national pop station. Jackie Hayden talks to the bands scheduled to play this year’s RTÉ 2fm 2moro 2our, coming to a town near you.
The work of Birr fashion illustrator Sorcha O’Raghallaigh is attracting nods of approval even from those who have little interest in fashion. Jackie Hayden talks to her as her second exhibition comes to Dublin.
This year, Lesley Kane, general manager with both Music Maker and MIDI (Musical Instrument Distribution Ireland), chalks up 20 years in the musical instruments industry. Jackie Hayden gatecrashes the celebrations to quiz Kane on her career to date.
Jeff Martin rose to fame as singer and guitarist with Canadian rock band Tea Party. Now trading as a solo artist, he is currently holed up in a remote part of County Cork where Jackie Hayden tracked him down.
Music Review | Album
20 Apr 2007
Jackie Hayden
Dry County's unique brand of electro-rock mixes conventional instruments, drum loops, synths, buckets, boxes and a nutritious diet of influences, from the Boards Of Canada to Kraftwerk, The Propellerheads and Radiohead.
Singer-songwriter Leslie Dowdall now lives in the picture postcard perfection of the Wicklow Mountains. But Jackie Hayden finds a hive of internal activity within the external tranquillity.
Canyon Songs, his self-produced fifth studio album, sees him in typical downbeat mood, but there’s a subtle country tinge cropping up that might see him expand his loyal fanbase considerably.
The Celtic Woman juggernaut rolls on, shaping up as if it could, in time, eclipse the international successes of Riverdance and all the tenors in one package.
When Jackie Hayden popped in on Channel 6 presenter Jenny Buckley, he hadn’t been warned that her inappropriately-named dog Snuggles was actually a guard dog who had a slight aversion to strangers.
20 years on from their first musical offering, the Indigo Girls thankfully refuse to age with grace and here turn in an album as vital and as edgy as anything they’ve ever done, with fresh subtleties to add to an illustrious back catalogue.
With The Book Of Lightning, Waterboys fans will be thrilled to have Mike Scott back on form, while the uninitiated will get a chance to understand what all the fuss was about.
Jackie Hayden talks to presenter Colm Hayes about his place in the new 2FM schedule and finds a man fired-up for the challenge, but not a little angry at the attitude of his former bosses at FM 104.
This is Louisiana-born alt-country heroine Lucinda Williams’ first album since 2003, and its songs emerged during the period when her mother passed on and she moved from one relationship into another one.
In the run-up to the long-awaited reunion gigs by the legendary eighties folk-rock-jazz band Moving Hearts, Jackie Hayden talks to saxophonist Keith Donald and percussionist Noel Eccles.
Paul Woodfull isn’t just one of the creators of the megatastic I, Keano, but the alter ego of a veritable houseful of send up acts, including Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Glam Tarts, Tony St James and the Joshua Tree.
While the rest of you were off stuffing your faces with turkey, here at HotPress we were busily polishing our crystal balls in readiness for our annual gaze into the future. S
Renowned Cork singer-songwriter John Spillane has joined forces with poet Louis de Paor as the bilingual Gaelic Hit Factory to prove that the Irish language can work in a contemporary context. Jackie Hayden investigates.
2006 has been a busy year for Dublin-born Shaz Oye, capped by the release of her mostly self-penned and self-financed debut album Truth According To Shaz Oye. In conversation with Jackie Hayden she looks back on her story so far.
Annual article: Some of our most promising failures are not really doing enough to fulfil their ambitions. They must try harder next year, warns Jackie Hayden.
Jackie Hayden calls round to visit Miriam Ingram’s current abode at the foot of the Dublin Mountains and gets to hear his first Christmas carol of the season.
One of Ireland’s leading instrument and accessory distributors for 25 years, Keynote will be raising a rumpus at Music Ireland ‘06, according to Mark Walsh.
MIDI are a major force in the distribution of musical instruments in Ireland. Managing director Lesley Kane reflects on the importance of supporting local dealers rather than going overseas.
E-drums, synths and home digital pianos – as Gerry Forde explains, Roland have been at the cutting edge of music technology for decades, and show no signs of slackening off.
For the weekend of November 25 and 26, all musical roads will lead to the RDS in Dublin for the Music Ireland ’06 event. Jackie Hayden talks to the show director Ollie Upton about what’s in store for us at this major annual attraction for musician and music fans alike.
The Radiators were the first true Irish punk band, and with most current rock acts unwilling to confront the broad political realities of today, they may well turn out to be our last.
Jackie Hayden travelled to Nashville, Tennessee for a once-off invitation-only gig starring Frank Black, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Richard Hawley at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery as part of the celebration for Mr Daniel’s birthday.
But whereas previous solo albums had real fire and zest, the 12 tracks on Signature are impeccably played, crafted and sung, and it’s more likely to reveal its worth on repeat visits than hit you over the head on first hearing.
As the summer finally begins to fade and the dark nights of winter start to creep in, many of us look for a last chance to get an away break before the build-up for Christmas begins. Jackie Hayden reviews some of the options countrywide.
With the publication of U2 By U2, the band have finally got to tell the story of their success from their own perspective. It’s got some great pictures too.
As part of the build-up to Music Ireland ’06 in the RDS next month, hotpress has launched a nationwide campaign to encourage musicians to support their local instrument shop. Jackie Hayden explains the central importance of the local store to the Irish music industry – and to every musician’s livelihood.
For Stolen Moments he’s taken a bunch of new songs, two of which were written in tandem with RTE newsman Conor Mark Kavanagh, to Nashville, and teamed up with that city’s conveyor-belt musicians.
To coincide with the launch of his new 'Greatest Hits' DVD , Ed Byrne talks to Jackie Hayden about profanity in Irish comedy, how he fucked up in Edinburgh, the Christopher Reeves joke that some misunderstood, and how he regularly meets people who claim not to know him.
All the trademark Eltonisms are here: the tasty piano fills, the unmistakeable voice, the catchy melodies and lyrics of substance rather than mere frivolity. It could restore him to his rightful position as pop’s queen of tarts.
Jackie Hayden makes a courtesy call on Eleanor McEvoy and interrupts her putting the finishing touches to her new album. Instead of showing him the door, she shows him around!
For her first album since 2001, Colvin’s co-written nine of the album’s 13 tracks with producer John Leventhal, and her guests, including Patty Griffin, Marc Cohn, Teddy Thompson and ace pedal steel Greg Leisz, give the album an overall country/folk/rock feel.
This is the time of year when two major national events, the Galway Arts Festival and the Galway Races, make Galway the destination of choice for many Irish and international funsters. But the City of the Tribes has a lot more to offer – including some of the best live music and clubbing in Ireland.
“Come up and see my snails sometime,” is hardly the best chat-up line ever coined, but an undaunted Jackie Hayden decides to brave all and call on Today FM jockette Ann-Marie Kelly.
Throughout Workbench Songs you get the sense of being in the hands of real craftsmen, musicians who have an unerring instinct for creating the right mood. But, overall, a little more risk-taking might have been required to make a great record of it.
No, not Jim Morrison who died taking a bath. This Morrison is from England, and his vocal style owes more to Paul Young, although there is a soulfulness that suggests he might have heard that other living Morrison.
Kenny Rogers has been having hits since high school back in his native Houston. Ahead of his appearance at Ballinlough Castle, he looks back at his early inspirations and reflects on a long procession of hit records that have endeared him to rock, pop, soul and country audiences.
Most cities and towns have their trouble spots and their danger zones, but Limerick's have been given more than their unfair share of publicity. Such a focus on the negative has tended to detract attention from the positive aspects of this resurgent city, with its vibrant music scene, its buzzing university, the warmth and friendliness of the people, its obsession with rugby, and er, Ryan Turbidy.
Overall, the ultra-smooth consistency of the homegrown production and Gartside’s sugar-coated vocals could make this album a monotonous experience for non-fans.
Musical trends come and go but the blues continues to thrive. In Ireland, the scene is now stronger than ever. With her reputation growing internationally, Mary Stokes talks about her role as a performer - and her friendships with numerous blues legends. Oh, and Van Morrison's birth sign!
Now that Ronan Keating's finally made it to his natural home, he’s actually blossomed, dropping the fake American vocal slurs and singing in a natural, warm and attractive voice, quite possibly for the first time.
A double CD of 22 tracks from any region is unlikely to be without its dodgy bits, and this collection is no exception. Still - all hail main motivator John Finn for making it happen.
Trad quartet Lunasa, named to honour the Irish harvest god Lugh, who also gave his name to the month of August, have become something of gods themselves within the Irish trad scene. Jackie Hayden talks to them in the wake of the release of their new album Se.
Jackie Hayden talks to Jackie Mason about the politics of humour, discrimination as a good career move, why he'll never go back to being a rabbi, how his middle finger got him into hot water - and why he probably won't be telling Moslem jokes anytime soon.
Today FM current affairs broadcaster Matt Cooper seems to have perfected the knack of keeping his work and home lives separate. But when his house-guest Jackie Hayden calls around, who wil have The Last Word?
For 25 years Music Maker have been a central force in the Irish instruments industry, their premises in Exchequer Street in Dublin a veritable musical mecca for international and Irish customers alike. Latterly they have expanded into distribution with MIDI (Musical Instrument Distribution Ireland) and were also involved in the initiative to create the permanent memorial to Rory Gallagher being unveiled this week. Jackie Hayden talked to the key players about the Music Maker success story, and even heard the one about the man with the child's organ!
If Triniti's ambition is to produce work that is taken seriously as original and creative, they need to dig a little deeper and put more of themselves and their personalities into the music.
Aidan has a top-notch voice, and in the company of seven sterling musicians turns in a finely-recorded – albeit somewhat short – live album, featuring a mere five of his mostly-charmful songs.
This week sees the re-publication of Lee Dunne's novel Paddy Maguire Is Dead which, in one of many outrageous acts visited on our writers, was banned for alleged obscenity by the Irish government in 1972. Jackie Hayden called in on an author who writes because he can't not write.
After a three-year investigation, the Competition Authority has cleared Ticketmaster of any malpractice in the area of concert ticket sales. Jackie Hayden spoke to their MD in Ireland, Eamonn O'Connor.
Surprise has a looser, more atmospheric approach than we normally get from the pristine and musically-disciplined Simon, with lots of swirling textures serving as provocative soundwashes behind the unmistakeable vocals.
With interest in this year’s 10th Roundstone Arts Festival already building up, we sent our very own Roundstone Cowboy Jackie Hayden to check out this year’s line-up.
RTE Lyric FM will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of the late genre-defying trumpeter Mile Davis with a special weekend focusing on a man who is arguably the greatest jazz innovator to have a major impact on rock music. To give you a little something for that weekend, Jackie hayden reflects on one of the true giants of music.
Jackie Hayden drops in on comedian Carol Tobin hoping to catch her doing some air comedy practice ahead of her forthcoming appearance in Kilkenny at the Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival. Instead he meets a woman who seems to be barred from half of Ranelagh and finds out why there are no goldfish around.
On this outing he’s accompanied by a plethora of collaborators, as if his own reputation is no longer enough to hold things together, and some work and some don’t.
The Like are three nearly-out-of-teenage girls who have discovered pop-punk, but instead of taking it down some grotty toilet in Brixton or Brooklyn, they’re going to shake it in the stadiums of the world. That’s the plan anyway, and it could easily work, given the girls’ ability to blend candy-coated tunes with a snappy chord-driven, dirty guitar sound.
The Irish music industry has spawned a number of official bodies and companies, who provide invaluable services especially relevant to artists going the independent route. But what do these operators actually do? Here, we present a handy run-down on the key bodies and expert companies out there waiting to serve you.
Well, skip a light fandango if it isn’t The Pale, back with a new EP after the long absence that followed their massive contribution to the Irish rock scene of the early nineties. The Final Garden sees them re-emerge as a sturdier yet looser musical unit than of yore.
It takes a rare talent indeed to reduce a venue as cavernous as The Point to the intimacy of a sitting room, but Christy does it for 35 songs, over two magnificent hours.
Hebden (drummer with Martha and The Vandellas, James Brown and Miles Davis among others) and Reid (of Four Tet) have made an album exclusively featuring percussion and electronics, a one-take live recording, with neither overdubs nor edits. A swift glance at the titles (‘Morning Prayer’, ‘Soul Oscillations’ are two out of the three), and the existence of two tracks around fifteen minutes long, might give the impression that this is an album for blissed-out new age meditators. Not so by a mile.
Shaz Oye has been described as having the most extraordinary voice ever to come out of Ireland. On the eve of the release of her much-awaited debut album, she talks to Jackie Hayden about her Irish upbringing, and its highs and lows.
With RTE’s new eight part mockumentary television series The Unbelievable Truth rustling feathers of the fans of our most high-profile celebrities in music and sport, Jackie Hayden spoke to its presenter Colin Murphy about celebrity, envy and er, beetroot.
Recipient of the IRMA Honours Awars of 2006, celebrating 30 years of music.
Here we document the stories, sounds, politics and philosophies that have developed with Bob Geldof, from his Boomtown Rats days to his most famous status as a devoted humanitarian.
Bob Geldof recently received the freedom of the city of Dublin. But three decades ago, when Geldof first crashed the Irish entertainment scene, with his band, The Boomtown Rats, he was a thorn in the side of both politicians and priests in a notoriously conservative country.
Throughout the pioneering events of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8, Bob Geldof has repeatedly achieved the impossible, twisting the arms and consciences of self-absorbed rock stars to get them to think beyond their egos and stimulating recalcitrant politicians and a jaded media into doing things that are not really difficult at all but thinking makes them so.
The emergence of The Boomtown Rats inspired a new generation of in-your-face Irish bands who re-energised an Irish music scene that has become moribund and predictable.
This, Roesy’s fourth album, sees the Birr man moving up a few gears, applying a more electric sheen to gloss up his normally acoustic-based and introspective approach.
With Podge and Rodge once again upsetting the nation with their irreverent antics on their twice-weekly TV chat show, Jackie Hayden ventures into their Ballydung Manor where the show is recorded.
Like their English counterparts Flook, Lunasa continue to plough their no-vocal take on the Irish tradition with considerable success, and those who enjoyed the zest and brio of their live Kinnity Sessions will luxuriate in this fresh studio-bound set.
Jackie Hayden looks back over the career of the legendary soul singer Wilson Pickett who died last month, and talks to Andrew Strong about the man’s impact on his own career.
Like his compadres Dylan, Cohen, Nelson and Prine, Kris Kristofferson’s voice is showing the results of too much living, but it still can convey more passion and commitment than a chartful of boy bands.
The boy from San Diego, Jason Mraz, earned enough kudos with his debut album, Waiting For My Rocket To Come, to convince famed U2 man Steve Lillywhite to produce its sequel Mr. A-Z.
This month, the 2006 RTÉ Living Music Festival, sponsored by IMRO, celebrates Steve Reich, arguably America’s greatest living composer. Jackie Hayden meets the 70-year-old whose influences stretch beyond the contemporary classical world to rock and rap music.
The annual Celtic Connections festival is sadly under-profiled in Ireland, especially when it can attract knock-out performances from the likes of Roddy Frame.
When reviewing Noelie McDonnell’s demo in these pages last year, I described the Galway singer-songwriter as a hybrid of John Prine, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. The arrival of his debut album only confirms that he is all that and, indeed, far more than the sum of his influences.
The emergence of what is being touted as Kinks’ mainman Ray Davies’ first official solo album is quite timely, given that the sound of mid-period Kinks permeates much of to-day’s hot “new” acts.
Ireland has changed utterly since the Saw Doctors first enthralled us with their hick schtick, doing for rural Ireland what rap acts did for Compton, but now they’re back with their sixth studio album and sounding as vibrant and celebratory of all things real and Irish as ever.
Knock-knock, who’s there? It’s only Jackie Hayden, making another of his house calls. This time the door is opened by Cork’s Red FM presenter Martina O’Donoghue.
This 18-track compilation is an exhilarating mix of songs and tunes by travellers and their friends. It ranges over the decades, with a track from the fifties by fiddle players Paddy and Stephen ‘Spare Parts’ Rainey, to a comparatively recent version of ‘The Travelling People’ by Christy Moore and Declan Sinnott which is worth the album price alone.
With presenter John Creedon on a roll with his new mid-afternoon slot on RTE Radio 1, Jackie Hayden crosses the threshold of his Cork abode to see what the man gets up to away from the mike.
When Jackie Hayden was enlisted to interview Sugababe Mutya Buena, little did he suspect that he would be loudly upstaged by another woman as he tries to get the lowdown on the Sugababes’ near break-up, Mutya’s concern over the sexing-up of their recent video, the effects of her pregnancy on her career and who ‘Push The Button’ was really about.
For his long-awaited first solo album he’s chosen a bunch of mostly traditional songs and tunes, many of which have mystical (and mist-ical) undertones and overtones.
After a year of extraordinary success, Republic Of Loose are looking forward to a Christmas homecoming show and putting the finishing touches to their forthcoming new album.
O’Grady sounds like she could be a serious challenger on the world stage, especially within the American soft-rock market, although those seeking a musical expeditionary may need to look elsewhere.
Liam Lawton is an off-duty priest who writes and sings, and is packaged here in an impressive widescreen production, blending elements of new age bombast with mildly interesting philosophising about the nature of time.
Back in the saddle witha politically charged new album, Burning TimesChristy Moore and co-collaborator Declan Sinnott are putting the agit-prop back into folk. In a rare interview, Moore speaks frankly abot Hattie Carroll and Rachel Corrie, Richard Thompson anoraks, interpreting Morrissey and recently being detained by British authorities under anti-terrorism laws.
Here, without the benefit of studio trickery, Ireland’s leading exponent of the genre pours herart and soul into a carefully-selected bunch of songs that bring out the best in her deeply expressive vocal.
Philip Cawley is one of the mainstays of Today FM's daytime schedule. Recently he invited Jackie Hayden into his country home for a chat and a drop of Jameson.
All twelve songs are at least part-penned by Hazel, and Cormac de Barra’s electric harp is a regular and moving presence, especially on the Indian-bodhran influenced ‘End Of My Days’.
Tracks like ‘Nine Million Bicycles’ and ‘Halfway Up The Hindu Kush’ could easily trouble charts the world over; indeed virtually all the tracks are the epitome of radio-friendliness.
With the singer-songwriters-versus-guitar-bands debate currently making waves, Derryman Paul Casey’s debut album comes as a timely release, effortlessly straddling the divide and likely to keep both camps happy.
Burning Times – sonically fashioned in his usual magisterial style by Declan Sinnott – addresses concrete sprawling issues in songs like Natalie Merchant’s ‘Motherland’ and Rennie and Brett Sparks ‘Peace In The Valley Once Again’.
Just when we thought it was safe to consign most of Paul McCartney’s solo canon to the dustbin of history after decades of underwhelming us with safe, bland tat, along comes his best post-Fabs album since Band On The Run.
As Mikam Sound celebrates its 30th year at the top of the Irish sound-hire and production business, Jackie Hayden talks to its driving forces, Paul Aungier and Mick O’Gorman, about their early days, the changing face of the music industry here and abroad and the phenomenal success of their Mosco Sound Design off-shoot.
With this debut album Julie Feeney announces herself as the most intriguing female voice - bar the criminally neglected Shaz Oye - to come out of Ireland since Sinead O’Connor.
With purveyors of contemporary takes on ancient songs like Mary Black, Clannad and others comparatively inactive, along come The Corrs to resuscitate some standards you thought had been irreparably damaged by bawdy balladeers and drunken uncles at weddings.
It is to Brídín Brennan’s credit that she has decided to forge her own musical path instead of taking the easy option and following the high roads taken by her sister Enya and the family band Clannad.
Three highlights from this show give conclusive evidence that, in Eleanor McEvoy, we have an incomparably assured performer and a composer of consummate wit and intelligence who has yet to receive her due acclaim at home.
Although long regarded as one of Ireland’s more creditable crafters of quality pop songs, Kieran Goss’ recordings have suffered from an overly laid-back, safety-first approach.
Keyboardist Herbie Hancock achieved legendary status through his adventures with Miles Davis and a myriad other jazz outfits, although his profile as an innovator has been lower since his jazz fusion activities in the '70s.
To coincide with the release of the Today FM DJ’s double-CD compilation tracking the history of alternative rock in Ireland, Tom Dunne talks to Jackie Hayden about the state of Irish music, singer-songwriters versus guitar bands and the role of Irish radio.
Duhan’s pedigree stretches back to his founding membership of '60s act Granny’s Intentions and encompasses a later songwriting career that has seen his generally dark and introspective songs covered by Christy Moore (as in the title track here), Mary Black, Francie Conway and Dolores Keane.
Now happily settled in the west of Ireland as commercial manager of Eircom League side Galway United, 38-year-old Londoner Nick Leeson will forever be remembered as the 'rogue trader' who brought about the collapse of Barings Bank in Singapore. He talks frankly, and affably, to Jackie Hayden about his long, strange trip.
Recorded mostly at home in Montréal and in art galleries and hotel rooms by the quarter-Irish, one-woman cottage industry that is Emm Gryner, Songs of Love and Death is a brave selection of Irish pop and rock songs that thankfully avoids the obvious and gives some perhaps forgotten gems an overdue turn around the block.
This is Prine’s first album of (mainly) original songs for nearly a decade, and while it hardly breaks new ground, it does stand up as a worthy addition to a substantial catalogue of songs tracking his no-bullshit vision of white, working class America.
From the getgo, The Conway Sisters have been perceived as a poor man’s Corrs (There’s four of them and they’ve even got a Sharon) and little on this long overdue debut album dispels those first suspicions. In fact, if you do the blind date test here with, say, ‘No Surprise’ or ‘Reason’, the phrase “Corrs’ tribute band” springs effortlessly to mind.
After a gap of half a lifetime, Steve Wall is back living in the house he grew up in and learning to love DIY. He also recalls his days as a greyhound. Photography by Cathal Dawson
When all is said and done, Danú are one of the few trad acts currently on the go who bring a sense of vibrant edginess to their impeccable credentials. For while they always show due loyalty to their heritage they can also invigorate old tunes with new zest and while treating the tradition with total respect they can also have themselves (and us) a bundle of fun.
The central track on this, Plant’s ninth solo album since the passing of Led Zep, is the splenetic ‘Tin Pan Valley’, in which he buries the memory of past triumphs and even turns his back on his former accomplices (“My peers may flirt with cabaret... I’m moving up to higher ground, I must escape their hell”). Fine sentiments indeed, but how odd that his most impressive solo outing to date should also be the one most hung-up on his past.
Kildare’s favourite son and godfather of the singer-songwriter scene, Luka Bloom, talks to Jackie Hayden about his most intimate album to date, Innocence, gigging with The Frames in Australia and hanging backstage with Gabriel Byrne.
The Centre for Public Inquiry is a new Dublin-based and privately-funded organisation recently established in Ireland to monitor aspects of public importance in our political, public and corporate spheres. Frank Connolly, the investigative journalist given the role of the Centre’s executive director, helps Jackie Hayden with some inquiries of his own. Photography by Cathal Dawson.
A mere six months after taking on the role of Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern has been appointed by Kofi Annan as one of four envoys to assist in the reform of the United Nations and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. Jackie Hayden spoke to him last week in his Dundalk office about this key appointment, as well as a range of key issues including the war in Iraq, political bribery, Shannon refuelling stops, Gerry Adams and the IRA, our immigration policy, the Health service, his real hopes for the Peace Process and the influence of Dave Fanning on his musical tastes. Photography by Emily Quinn.
A straight-talking Swede renowned her famously candid – and frequently highly controversial – personal web-blog, European Commission Vice President Margot Wallstrom is not your typical Eurocrat. On a recent visit to Dublin, she took time out to talk to Hot Press about Tony Blair, George Bush, the Irish and the Swedes’ mutual love of alcohol, Bertie Ahern, Charlie McCreevey’s accent, Bono and Bob Geldof. And she even taught us a few Swedish swear words. Interview by Jackie Hayden. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
Since most trad acts are essentially covers bands regurgitating note-for-note copies of tunes they’ve been spoonfed by somebody else, we must be thankful for outfits like Kila, Danu, Altan and Solas who invest new zest into an often clichéd genre. Thus, Waiting For An Echo is a challenging mix of old tunes and new, instrumentals and songs, fast and slow, happy and sad, tight and easeful, with a pot-pourri of influences.
With the release of his second solo album, Running Dog, Nick Kelly has cemented his reputation as one of the leading contemporary songwriters in Ireland. Here, the former Fat Lady Sings frontman talks to Jackie Hayden about the break-up of one of Dublin's most respected bands, financing his solo career through the largesse of his fanbase – and the ongoing joys of artistic independence.
The younger generation of Irish singer-songwriters have tended to obscure Luka Bloom's place in the firmament. But with this more reflective and introspective album (his 10th), he restores himself to his rightful place in the pantheon of intelligent and passionate songsmiths with his uncanny ability to see the power and meaning in the atoms of daily life.
Lou Barlow’s efforts with grunge-pioneers Dinosaur Jr generally took a back seat to frontman J Mascis, while his subsequent work with Sebadoh and Folk Implosion was often unhelpfully mired in no-fi under-production. So his first real solo album, much of it recorded at his home in LA (home-emoh, get it?) sees him crawl from under the noise to deliver a very personal selection of indie folk tracks that bear comparison with the introspection of more mainstream singer-songwriters like Neil Young or Jackson Browne.
This week sees the start of the first-ever national TV campaign on the issue of Violence Against Women under the banner End The Silence. Hot Press talks to a victim of domestic violence and a violent man, as well as getting the response of a leading expert working at the front line of the campaign against domestic violence in Ireland. Words Jackie Hayden
Formed by Eoin McEvoy and Frank Kearns, CWN had the big sound and bombast of acts like Simple Minds and Big Country but, eventually, not enough hits to fuel the machine. Now the re-release of their debut Urban Beaches, plus bonus tracks, and the first release of the cancelled No Shelter give pause for a re-evaluation.
Of course the advantage with dead rap acts is that you can store their phone messages, pizza orders, laundry lists and interviews, then underdub all manner of rhythm tracks until kingdom come, or the fans decide they’ve had, or been had, enough. It’s time to let the ol’ bastard rest in peace.
It’s the guide Ladbrokes, the Central Bank, Mystic Meg and Mark Lawrenson turn to at the start of each year – Jackie Hayden’s cultural, sporting and political forecasts for the forthcoming twelve months.
Taken individually, the dozen songs on Belle, his fourth album, are finely-crafted works, but the tempos are so invariably slow and the moods so persistently melancholy that it all adds up to a bit of a downer when taken as a complete experience.
Whereas he could have just become this year’s Darius, what’s impressive is that McFadden – aided and abetted by former Robbie W songsmith sidekick Guy Chambers – has opted for a significant break from St Louis’ school of music-for-children. It is a move that required more than a modicum of courage.
One of the many singer-songwriters emerging from the fertile Waterford scene, Neil White has an album in the traps from which ‘Coming Home’ is a tasty trailer.
The 20th anniversary of the death of Luke Kelly is being marked by a double CD The Best Of Luke Kelly, and a week-long tribute Remembering Luke at the Gaiety. The Dubliners are, not surprisingly, deeply involved in both projects, and bandmember John Sheahan here explains all.
The short history of reality pop programmes is littered with the carcasses of mutilated careers, but George Murphy is one of the few to suggest there might be life after Linda.
On the release of a double CD retrospective of his forty years as a performer-songwriter, Johnny McEvoy talks to Jackie Hayden about his early days as Ireland’s answer to Bob Dylan, meeting the great man himself, supporting and introducing The Rolling Stones, defending The Wolfe Tones, not apologising for the troubles in the North, U2 and the key albums that have inspired him.
Instead of a bunch of songs about political, banking and church corruption, or even tales from the Dublin traffic, Emer Kenny disappears into the Celtic mists, offering more retreads of such time-worn clichés as ‘The Parting Glass’, ‘She Moved Through The Fair’, ‘Sally Garden’ and ‘Scarborough Fair. These are fine tunes all, but their inclusion here suggests a paucity of imagination.
It’s getting rather crowded round at Singer-Songwriter Towers, but Declan O’Rourke’s first full album suggests he’s too good not to be given his own room.
Luke Kelly’s passion for literature lead to him giving full value to every syllable in every word and to every note and nuance. But he was equally capable of injecting more than enough gusto into lusty ballads of the class of ‘The Black Velvet Band’, ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ and ‘Home Boys Home’.
While there’s nothing on this newie to replace ‘Rio’ or ‘Girls On Film’, there’s a style and depth in both the production and performances to make it worth watching Top Of The Pops again.
Regrettably, not all Irish singer-songwriters have mastered the art of making records that sound contemporary while still maintaining the focus of song content and artistic intention.
Songwriter to the stars Gretchen Peters on record company inertia, the need for revolutionary new artists, and what it means to be an American musician in these highly fraught times. words Jackie Hayden
Still, it’s great to hear that the man who once told a Hot Press seminar that the secret of life was somewhere between C and A minor is back in the running.
Legendary ballad singer Liam Clancy, of the pioneering Clancy Brothers, kicked off this year’s Fleadh Cheoil in Clonmel with a vintage performance in the Enfer village. Here he reflects on Fleadhs past and their current contributions to Irish culture.
On first hearing it would be easy to dismiss much of this album as music for people who can only handle “nice” music, but repeated listenings excavate veins of deep riches throughout.
Gavin Moore’s voice may yet have to find the maturity, individuality and authority we have come to expect from his clansmen, but this is a move in the right direction.
The Corrs hit paydirt with In Blue, an album of memorable pop songs that topped the charts in over twenty countries around the world. It gave them the breathing space they needed to re-establish their roots, to live a little and to reassess their purpose as a band. Now, with the release of Borrowed Heaven, they’re back in the music biz frontline – slightly older, considerably wiser, but still with the same hunger to make great and honest records.
The fantabulous south-eastern fourpiece Sonic Vista impressed many with their turbo-charged performance in the final of last year's O2 band competition and this single moves them up another couple of rungs on their upward-bound ladder.
With Mike Hanrahan still on a high from the success of the Stockton’s Wing reunion gig, he dropped into the Wexford Songwriters Club for a short but intense run-through of five songs from his What You Know solo album.
There’s lots of great talent around. I’ve been saying so for what seems like centuries, but even my normally positive outlook received a pleasant jolt by the quality of much on offer here.
Rather fatuously billed on the CD sleeve as “the ultimate global stringband”, Mozaik are Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Bruce Molsky (USA), Rens Van Der Zalm (Holland) and Nikola Parov (Hungary), and this album was recorded live in Brisbane two years ago with the lads playing 18 instruments between them. The recording quality thankfully captures all the rapture of a terrific gig.
It was a tribute to both the dynamism of her live presence, and the openness of an audience really here to see bill-topper Juliet Turner, that by the end of a set that made few concessions to three-chord trickery, Shaz Oye had the audience clapping and singing along to an acappella version of Wilson Pickett’s sixties hit ‘634-5789’.
Kevin Moore changed his name to Keb’ Mo’ as part of a cunning plan to pass himself off as your friendly neighbourhood designer blues legend complete with trademark fedora hat.
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of 2FM, Jackie Hayden invites FM boss John Clarke to take an over, under, sideways, down look at 2FM – the station of the stars.
Barely had the new smoking legislation been put in place than the law was broken – in the Dail Eireann bar, by a TD. John Deasy, who subsequently lost his position as fine gael spokesperson on justice, reckons his crime was minor compared to the “criminal excesses” of some of his political colleagues. and he won’t guarantee that he won’t break the law again.
For a man who generally guards his privacy with considerable zeal, this six CD box set is a generous entree into the private realm and thoughts of a man who has chronicled Ireland’s place in the modern world with all the passion, courage and clarity of a homegrown Woody Guthrie.
Rónán O Snodaigh is the singer and bodhránist with Kíla, and the title of his second solo album translates as “Ró’s Waves”. It’s an adventurous concept, an album of a dozen percussion-based songs, richly leavened with Irish language vocal chants and guest offerings from singer Tara Mooney.
Danu may just be the hardest working band in trad. With their fourth album The Road Less Travelled only recently released and another promised for the spring, When Jackie Hayden put a number of key issues to the band’s accordionist Benny McCarthy and bodhran player and uilleann piper Donnchadh Hough he found that they don’t just work hard, they talk hard too.
Many Irish radio fans reckon that the 2fm evening schedule is at its most exciting for years – from 6 pm, when a revitalised Dave Fanning comes on, right through to Hotpress columnist Cormac Battle signing off at 2am. One of the linchpins of that stretch is Dubliner Rick O’Shea. To celebrate his tenth year in radio we sent Jackie Hayden to ask O’Shea a few leading questions and to check out the great man’s credentials with his colleagues.
Johnston is a folk troubadour of the hard travellin’, dusty roads variety, offering wry observations on the ups, downs and sideways of life as we think we know it.
Long before boomtime Ireland there was boomtown Ireland, a country where the national symbol was not a tiger but a rat. to coincide with the release of the best of the boomtown rats, Bob Geldof looks back to the tepid Irish scene of the mid-’70s from which the rats emerged, biting, snarling and laughing, to take on the establishment, Britain and, almost, the world.
Music Review | Live
28 Oct 2003
Jackie Hayden
A decent night’s work, with Brady’s voice sounding as mightily impressive as ever.
This double-album from Ireland’s premier bluesman features eleven new tracks, a sprinkling of previous faves, and a CD of mostly harmonica-led instrumentals.
This is a fitting memorial to Sinéad’s relentless struggle to transcend the mundane, the vacuous and the predictable. As a farewell album it’ll do fine until the next one.
One of the victims of the paedophile priest Sean Fortune – who took his own life before he could be brought for trial – Colm O’Gorman has since achieved national prominence as an eloquent spokesman and activist on all issues relating to sexual abuse. here he talks about his own experiences, the roles of the church and the courts and need for parents to take seriously the distress of young children.
The Irish language is currently enjoying its most significant renaissance in many a year. in a special report, Seán O Héadeáin investigates the rebirth of the most unfairly maligned element of traditional culture
Early this month Beat 102-103 opened for business as ireland's first regional radio broadcasting station covering Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and Tipperary. according to the beat manifesto the station is targeting the 15-34 year old age group with “an upbeat and entertaining programme schedule provided by young presenters, with the aim of giving the youth of the region a service to reflect their tastes and attitudes.
This time he appeared with a string quartet, a sprinkling of keyboards, backing tapes and his various guitars, for a gig that was more restrained than usual.
Both these albums serve a valuable purpose in giving new bands a vehicle to be heard, but more attention in the quality control departments would stop the true gems suffering in the presence of the merely mundane.
It’s been an unusually tough year at IMRO, with the organisation being involved in a number of controversies. with elections to the board looming, however, chairman Mike Hanrahan and chief executive Adrian Gaffney believe that it’s time to look to the future.
Few tracks get the same treatment, yet they all remain anchored in her unmistakable delivery, a package containing a voice, six strings and more truth than you might want
40 years after the Clancy Brothers brought Irish ballads to an international audience and won famous fans like Bob Dylan, Tommy Makem is still committed to the power of song – but appalled at the way modern Ireland treats its own culture.
Sure, this is Roesy live and dangerous on stage at The Spirit Store in Dundalk, but he might as well have been beamed up into your living room, such is the intimacy and immediacy the album creates, despite its miserly 32 minutes.
In the best possible sense, of course! For fifteen years, Gerry Ryan has been a mainstay of Irish radio. Though his few forays intoTV thus far have been ill-fated, his latest small-screen venture, Ryan Confidential looks set to reverse the trend. Here, Ryan discusses the ups and downs of his career to date
Christy Moore, who headlines this year’s rejuvenated Lisdoonvarna Festival, recalls the first flowering of music festivals in Ireland – and looks forward to this year’s event, when once again the challenge will be to weave that spell
After doing time in the greatest power trio of them all, the late Jimi Hendrix experience bassist Noel Redding spent the rest of his life coming to terms with being ripped off by the music industry.
The Moondogs were one of the original wave of late ’70s Northern Ireland punk bands. Now reformed, they have no less than two albums slotted for imminent release. Bassist Jackie Hamilton tells all.
Using a basic rock band approach dressed up as required with synths, programming and even a glockenspiel, Salthouse have crafted an album that’s uncannily focused for a first effort.
His decision to take care of business may have been a turning point but, at heart, Kieran Goss remains primarily preoccupied with his guitar and his pen.
Cruelty Without Beauty achieves what many reincarnated acts fail to do, in that it sounds unmistakably like the Soft Cell of then – while at the same time coming on like a work very much of now.
New age, techno pop and world music are the main ingredients for the hybrid Metisse stew, as well as Professor Skully’s inventive work in the synth lab and the stunning presence of Aida’s lush voice
Ten years on we come upon a timely update showcasing some of the artists featured on the first album as well as a pleasure cruise through some not catered for back then
The world might not have been staying up late waiting for a double-CD of moaning delta blues and stirring gospel tunes from Chris Rea, but then the world has never been too hot at knowing what it needs
One of Ireland’s premier singer/songwriters whose work has been covered by Christy Moore and the Corrs, Jimmy MacCarthy’s latest album The Moment illustrates a lighter side to his character. Below Jimmy gives us the inside track on the songs, the singers and the craft of writing
Christine Collister has provided enough magical moments over the past two decades to justify her entry in the history books, but her latest offering sounds generally tired and lacklustre
New album Higher Ground sees them continuing to plough the fresh fields of contemporary funk and soul, shining the light of the Lord and reaping their own uniquely harmonious harvest
Eva Cassidy didn't merely sing songs. Instead, she moved into them, rearranged the furniture and left them usually in better condition than she'd found them
Of course this is not the real Jim Hendrix Experience, nor does it pretend to be, but it's probably as good as we’re likely to get this side of judgement day
Of course this is not the real Jim Hendrix Experience, nor does it pretend to be, but it's probably as good as we’re likely to get this side of judgement day
Gilpin has a natural feel for folk, rock, blues, bluegrass and country and on this album he makes a true marriage out of what can often be a shotgun wedding
Baxter inhabits a soundscape very much of the moment, with lots of atmospheric noises, shuffling rhythms and shifting arrangements that have you on the edge of your seat for most of the album
His debut album, steers a mainstream melodic rock course reminiscent of the likes of Deacon Blue, but with nary a hint that D'arcy has heard much to influence him over the intervening years
The setting was most appropriate given the band's literate lyrical approach and the brooding intensity and intelligence they bring to contemporary indie rock
The first solo album in nine years is an inspiring example of how a legendary superstar can still make challenging music long after what one might justifiably have assumed to be his sell-by date
With an Irish tour approaching and a new album in the shops, Luka Bloom looks back on three decades that have taken him from busking in a pub in Newbridge to the big stages of Europe and America. In this candid interview with Jackie Hayden the man also known as Barry Moore talks about brother Christy, overcoming stage fright, finding an original voice, dealings with the music business, the need to combat racism - and why he remains a wannabe bogman
A potent collection that allows Coughlan's seeringly honest voice to straddle the hinterlands of jazz, blues and rock like few other Irish artist would dare
The introduction of Ryan Tubridy's breakfast show and the rescheduling of Dave Fanning's slot have led critics, both inside and outside 2FM, to claim that the station is buckling under the pressure of increased competition and limited financial resources. Jackie Hayden reports
In which Amy and Emily try to do what they do best, crafting poetic, witty and observant vignettes about love-life as we know it, with all its worrisome twists and turns, set to an eclectic mix of folk-rock and country
If there was a competition to replace St. Patrick with someone else worth honouring on a national day, who would you choose - and why? Jackie Hayden consults a living Irish legend and canvasses celebrity opinion
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the final of a four part series, Jackie Hayden meets No Disco founding-presenter, new-music savant and legendary nighttime DJ Donal Dineen
Armed with just his guitar and emotive voice, Bloom magically transformed a large theatre into an intimate bedsit, for this was not just a gig but a celebration of life, love, sex and the Irish weather
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the third of a four-part series, Jackie Hayden breakfasts - as do more Irish radio listeners than ever - with morning-show helmsman Ian Dempsey
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the second of a three-part series, Jackie Hayden meets IRMA winner, Hot Press Readers' Poll champion and Pet Sounds-smith Tom Dunne
A communication from Peter Lundy comes in response to my recent musings about how Irish songwriters might choose to write from their own experience rather than recycling second-hand views
The Government recently launched its National Anti-Racism Awareness Programme under the slogan "Know Racism". JACKIE HAYDEN talked to the Chairman of its Steering Committee, JOE MCDONAGH
Despite the old saying, you can spot the occasional sprig of moss growing between the tracks and cracks, but that said, this album sees the solo Stone in top form.
On the eve of his unprecedented 23-night run at Vicar St., PAUL BRADY reflects on a dazzling career and describes the long and sometimes difficult process which has led to a new and resounding declaration of independence.
Interview: JACKIE HAYDEN
Just as demo recordings are showcases of what songs and bands sound like when recorded, live showcases are essentially demos of what artists can deliver to the ticket-paying public
The Hype are one of countless brave bands struggling to make headway with no money to spend on recording and saddled with a manager in a similar plight
Mention the word 'demo' and one invariably thinks of bands and songwriters. But others make demos too, including the better class of radio DJs, as opposed to those who simply want to make love to themselves on air.
Those more familiar with Dylan’s modus operandi know that he has latterly treated the recorded versions of his songs as mere rough demos and starting points from which he walks a tightrope of adventurous reinvention from which he sometimes topples off.
Rua are Liz Madden and Gloria Mulhall, classically trained musicians who write and perform a mix of their own original material and versions of Irish folk tunes.
At least 95% of budding musicians and songwriters currently touting their wares around Ireland will probably have given up in frustration within five years
the biggest grossing tour of the year or just the grossest tour of the year? Jackie Hayden encounters tales of everyday madness and sadness in the trail of St Therese
Sometimes putting together this fortnightly column is far easier than you could possibly imagine, and this particular one has been a truly effortless breeze.
This venture is the brainchild of former punk folk-poet Patrick Fitzgerald (then Patrik) also famed for his efforts with Kitchens Of Distinction, and written and recorded in deepest, darkest Connemara.
Following the unprecedented success of her song ‘Only A Woman’s Heart’ in 1992, Eleanor McEvoy could have taken to her easy chair and basked in the accruing glory and the mounting royalties, stirring only to attempt to rewrite that song every couple of years.
He once claimed that an old raincoat never lets you down, but Rod Stewart has proven otherwise time after time, giving us both the sublime and the ridiculous, and often at the same time.
In which LeAnn finally abandons her country roots and makes a play for the anaemic end of the MOR pop market, from Nashville to Trashville, as it were.
Basking in the warm glow of that first day's successful recording may tempt you to imagine that it's all over but for the fame and fortune. Wrong, and double wrong. JACKIE HAYDEN considers music marketing and PR.
Calling all up-and-coming music stars! The path to success can sometimes seem dauntingly steep. But, in an ongoing series, JACKIE HAYDEN looks at the various challenges which face new bands, and how to overcome them. This issue: RECORDING. Photo: KAREN CAULFIELD
Dublin songwriter Paul Nash from the band Rainbow Chaser has delivered a demo of his own songs which he calls Fireflies And Rainbows. Unfortunately there are fourteen songs on the CD and I have a life. So, as most people I know would have done, I listened to the first three tracks only.
While the great unwashed will be familiar with the voice of Eddi Reader from the Fairground Attraction radio staple and TV-commercialised 'Perfect', more learned students will have gloried in her contribution to Donal Lunny's Coolfin album.
Sometimes it's hard to be Irish, and this is one of them. Imagine, if you must, an amalgam of Sham 69 without the songs; The Wolfe Tones minus the voices; Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly without the wit; the worst thrash metal band you've ever heard; the infantile macho posturing of American wrestling and The Saw Doctors at their shoutiest - and you've taken just one small step to comprehending the atrocity they call Dropkick Murphys.
I've been taken to task by reader Brian Bolger from the band Cushy for the compulsive need I and everybody else in HP seems to have to put every band into a descriptive compartment.
Heart's Quest is the brainchild of David Downes (oboe, cor anglais) and David Agnew (whistles, keyboards) augmented by whatever musical battalions they need from track to track.
Music Piracy is a continuing problem, and it s not just internet innovation which is fuelling its rise. COLM O HARE spoke to some of those trying to
preserve legitimate music
Five years since her last album and Enya produces a new one with all of thirty-seven minutes of fresh material. It isn’t exactly what you’d call an excess of productivity.
The delicate instrumental title track that opens A Day Without Rain promises much in that it’s lead by a warm piano and features attractive widescreen strings.
Isn t it ironic, as Alanis was just saying the other night, that in an age in which both global and local communications are expanding and developing on a daily basis, some of the most consistent criticisms of young bands relates to their apparent unwillingness to get their message across.
After seven albums the tried and tested Beautiful South formula of sophisticated melodies, transparent production and quirky lyrics is wearing a bit thin, if not actually verging on the irritable.
Though they are on his label, Marah don’t sound a whole lot like Steve Earle. He has described them as “a literate AC/DC” but that only partly touches on the truth.
Hardly had the ink dried on the last issue s item of advice for would-be entrants for the revised Bacardi Plugged band competition than a number of missives arrived in asking why there was no advice for those who might be thinking of entering the song part of the same project. As some of the senders know where I live I d thought I better oblige.
Saddled with the worst band name since Voice Of Cheese, The Sea And Cake often sound like The Beautiful South after two weeks in Benidorm studying jazz construction. And it works for the American four-piece's first album in three years, with vocalist Sam Prekop's soft voice bringing a wistfulness you hadn't known you missed so much.
Despite being the proverbial big in Japan, the Nebraskan Matthew Sweet is still one of the music industry's best kept secrets, and even the most cursory listen to this round-up of eighteen of his most glorious back pages will offer incontrovertible proof of this.
This is Victoria Williams' third album since contracting multiple sclerosis in the early eighties, and it's her first outing since Musings Of A Creekdipper in 1988.
Bacardi Unplugged hasn t gone away, you know, it s just mutated into Bacardi Plugged to facilitate all those bands out there who want to be adored and drooled over in all their electric and electronic glory and add value to shares in the ESB. And who are we to deny them? And so recording studios and home recording units all over the country will be wearing out their red lights over the coming weeks. Tempers will boil, relationships will crack, egos will be bruised, nerves will fray and budgets will go bust under the pressure. But when that ace take s in the can you ll know all the tears weren t shed in vain.
JACKIE HAYDEN meets a man who claims that the Lost Ark of the Covenant is buried on the Hill of Tara. Oh yes, JOHN HILL also says that he s the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah
They make few out and out pop albums like this any more, with songs that shamelessly attempt to make you fall in love with them at first sight and wherein catchy hooks (sorry) are far more important than meaningful lyrics.
Jo Dee (great country music name, y’all?) has won awards, achieved double-platinum status and, according to the press release, “believes in the life-changing power of dreams”. Sadly, she obviously doesn’t believe in the life-changing power of originality.
It s probably an indelible part of what we are, but we seem to have an over-developed tendency in this country to wring our hands and whine about this, that and the other, often forgetting that the energy, effort and time thus expended might be put to better use in actually doing something positive.
Dara is a noisy bastard. Think ELO with Baby Bird Jones vocals, a solid if conventional rocking band, a Bangle or two to leaven the mix of sumptuous strings and a blustering stadium rock ethos, and you’ve got half an idea as to what your ears can expect from The Eye Of The Clock .
No sooner had the smoke cleared from a recent issue of this column than I had a phone-call from a band called Bungalow, whom I d just written about, revealing that a fan/friend had just discovered a Kentucky band using the same name. A couple of days later they read in a fanzine that a Scottish band called Bungalow had issued two singles on an Indie label.
The late Tim Buckley, father of the less talented Jeff, was a sixties singer-songwriter whose extraordinary vocal range gave him one of the most lyrical voices of his generation.
This double-CD by a variety of generally B-list alt-rockers gallantly falls somewhat short of their hero’s achievements.
Charlie Watts once famously said of the first 25 years with the Rolling Stones that it was five years of music and twenty years of waiting around. What a pity that those twenty idle years were not used for such splendid projects as this rewarding adventure with that equally decent skinsman Jim Keltner.
One of the most useful lessons re-learned during the Heineken Green Energy Careers In Music seminars in Dublin, Cork and Galway is that while those in the business have a reasonable grasp as to how it works and why, from the stand-point of a seventeen-year-old would-be, the Music Industry can appear like one ginormous complex monster.
A few weeks ago I had a lengthy chat with the A&R man from a major London-based international record company who was in Ireland checking out the talent and trying to prise demo tapes and CDs off me. During the conversation I asked him to spill the beans on what goes through an A&R man s head from the time he seriously considers signing a band until a decision is finally taken.
Enniscorthy-man Clive Barnes is a 24-year-old blues singer-songwriter who, unlike too many of his European blues counterparts, doesn't sing in a fake American accent about going down to Chicago.
With their album catalogue now into double-figures, the Vermont-raised Phish (not to be confused with that big bloke from Marillion) have yet to stamp their indelible mark on Irish earlobes, . . .
Artists and record companies are losing millions of pounds every year through piracy. New developments like Napster and MP3 will bring further challenges. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
Journey is not merely a trawl through the ubiquitous Donal Lunny's back pages but a compulsory purchase potted summary of three decades of Irish trad and the company it's been keeping.
During the Careers In Music Seminar in Cork over the recent bank Holiday weekend, one of the American delegates, Barbara Lindberg, posed an interesting question.
As in most branches of the arts and entertainment business there are two types of musicians: actual musicians and would-be musicians. Just like all those would-be writers who could have written Ulysses but went for a drink instead, there are countless Irish bands who could have been as big as U2 but just didn't want to bother with all that business shit. With a reputed #80 million in the bank I bet Bono really regrets having anything to do with all that business shit, poor sucker.
Despite claims to be an "observant world traveller" in Global Village Garage, Texan novelist-turned-songwriter Richard Dobson has recorded an album of fine songs in Germany which are so Americocentric they mock the very title of the album.
Inspired by a renewed interest in Christianity, MAIRE BRENNAN of CLANNAD has spread her solo wings again. It s better to be addicted to faith than to drugs, she tells JACKIE HAYDEN
By the time you read this I may be an ex-person, having just received a poison pen letter threatening to do a number of unspeakable, and probably illegal, things to me. It s a good one as these things go, unsigned, of course, written completely in capital letters violently gouged into the page, with a sprinkling of misspellings and words like arsehole , fucker and bastard underlined twice and three lines under bolox and cunt . Can t be a regular reader, then.
In an age when former angry young men like Elvis Costello have become all-round family entertainers and half the nation's youth seem to be blissed out on the music of Westlife et al,. . .
Speaking recently to bands involved in the IMRO Showcases it became quite apparent that there was one major question on most minds, whether to look for a record deal or go the independent route and release their own records on their own label.
They rarely come any rootsier than this, Mick Hanly with a basket of all new songs (bar one) and a bunch of skilled musicians locked in producer PJ Curtis's cottage in Clare for four days.
This is a motley collection of original album tracks, live recordings and re-recordings. It rollercoasters through several Scullion incarnations built around the Sonny Condell-Philip King axis.
This fortnight s postbag brings another serious dilemma from an unsigned Irish band. Last year they recorded a demo and it aroused some record company interest.
Kieran Goss live gigs are jolly affairs, almost to the point of being comedy shows. Goss introduces songs with self-deprecating humour and tells hilarious stories that often have nothing to do with anything much.
In the first part of a two part special on the vital areas of songwriting, publishing and copyright, Jackie Hayden talks to Irish singer-songwriter Kieran Goss about his craft, on the eve of the release of the Northerner's new album Red Letter Day, his follow-up to the multi-platinum Worse Than Pride.
A recent postbag brought a cry of despair and bewilderment from a band who had been offered a management contract. An accompanying letter gave them about a week to sign it, otherwise they would forfeit a gig which the management had lined up for them. The band wanted my thoughts on the matter.
Rent-a-lip Kirsty MacColl from Croydon has spent the last half-decade trawling around Latin America soaking up the Latino vibes and this is the result, thirteen hot tracks that should be kept on permanent stand-by in case the summer falls below expectations.
In the 80s, every second person you met was setting up a video production company. I was reminded me of the late Peter Cook s response when he met an out-of-work actor at a party and on being told he was writing a novel, Cook retorted, What a coincidence, neither am I!
Today, instead of writing novels or setting up video production companies, setting up websites is the buzz phrase, especially for those associated with young bands.
Anyone who ached with Shane MaacGowan on the Late Late Show will not be surprised to find him missing in action from this new album apart from some co-writing credits.
In today's music industry, it s vital that artists know as much as possible about the key business decisions they will be called upon to make. JACKIE HAYDEN talks to some of the organisations which are there to help.
When your friendly local A&R man (and yes, he's almost certain to be a man) sits down to wade through his latest intake of demos, what exactly is he looking for?
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it s not a new game we ve invented to pass slow days at HP Central, just a reflection on the confusion you can face when a CD or tape arrives which is recorded and packaged so well that you don t know whether it s a demo or an actual release that should be re-directed to the Album Dissection and Resuscitation Department.
Despite an impeccable pedigree that goes back to the bands Na Sulteoiri and Oisin in the '70s, Geraldine McGowan is one of the most unsung female singers on the home folk circuit, a situation partly exacerbated by her domicile in Germany where she is one of the dominant figures on the live music scene.
The Nashville foursome The Mavericks breezed into our lives with the unstoppably classy pop hit 'Dance The Night Away' which has gone on to become a permanent staple on our radio stations.
Damp In The Attic, composed of ex- and current members of De Danann (Colm Murphy on bodhrán), Chatterbox (Martin Murray on fiddle), the Tulla Ceili Band (PJ King on accordion) and Fisherstreet (Cyril O'Donoghue (vocals, bouzouki), is the first signing through Magnetic Music's newly-opened Clare office, and a fine debut it makes for all concerned.
The Winner In Me - Don Baker's Story, by Jackie Hayden, is the painfully honest account of the private life of one of Ireland's best-known musicians, and describes his efforts, as an adult, to come to terms with an unhappy childhood and a past littered with violence, crime and alcoholism. In this exclusive extract, Don describes how he believes his troubled childhood relationship with his mother left him with an enduring fear of betrayal in his relationships with women.
It’s hard to know why these records actually get made at all. Sure, it’s marginally interesting to hear if and how some of the best rock tunes, by one of the top bands of the last two decades, work in a pseudo-classical context, but would you actually want one in the
house?
In spite of the numerous critical and artistic successes she has enjoyed since her defiant Heaven 17-led reincarnation in the ’80s, Tina Turner has never matched the frenzied assault of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ with ex-hubbie Ike in 1966 – and she probably never will.
This batch of twelve new cuts finds Randy Travis mining a familiar vein – accessible songs and a sparkling production polished to US country radio perfection.
The pirate music industry is now making millions of pounds each year. But that s at the expense of those legitimately entitled to earnings from their work. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
This is actually the Manhattan-raised Sophie B Hawkins’ follow-up to two successive gold albums, but some folks round these parts may only know her from the catchy ‘Lose Your Way’, included here, as heard on the Dawson’s Creek compilation.
Despite their protestations, the Dixie Chicks are being marketed as the Spice Girls of country (references to Chick Power can’t be mere coincidence), but that shouldn’t take away from the spunky aggression of the three former buskers from Texas, nor prevent the unconverted checking out Fly, their second album.
A friend of mine who works in the music business in London recently received an unsolicited demo tape from an Irish band. Nothing exceptional in that alone, other than the fact that it had seventeen tracks on it and was accompanied by a note to the effect that tracks 5, 8 and 11 were, in the band's opinion, the best and should be listened to first.
HELEN SHAW has been RTE s Director of Radio for two years, ultimately charged with bringing the national broadcaster s four stations into a new era. Interview: JACKIE HAYDEN.
If the Leaving Cert results didn t pan out as expected, don t worry. There s lots of alternatives on offer if you ve got the right stuff. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
Singer and virtuoso folk guitarist Martin Carthy was one of the key figures in the English folk revival of the sixties and seventies. This collection is culled from his '65-'71 period, a time when folkies were still singing songs that told stories rather than serving as therapy sessions to ease their inner pain.
Irish-born Peter Baxter is yet another songwriter with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Having grown up in Australia, this is his first European release, with tracks culled from his two previous albums using a radio friendly set of musicians who rarely let fly.
Oh to be a fly on the wall of the U2 office when somebody plays the opening of track 2 of the Lisahall album and thinks, "Oh, how nice, a cover version of 'Numb'," only to discover it's really called 'Connection 17'.
The referendum of late 1995 at long last made divorce legal in Ireland. But lawyers are now charging #7,000 for even the most straightforward cases, if they can get away with it. JACKIE HAYDEN gives his own personal account of attempts at a legal rip-off. Pics: Sasfi Hope-Ross
Stand are in the vanguard of a new generation of Irish bands who don't believe in hanging about waiting for somebody else to give them the green light. Consequently they've already notched up two Irish chart hits on their own label, both included here.
Albums named after the artist often betray a paucity of imagination that bodes ill for the fan, but Martin Stephenson’s latest opus might just be an exception that proves that rule.
Luke Kelly and Brendan Behan had much in common. They were both Dubliners to the marrow, sang a lot, drank a lot and caused more social unrest merely by strolling down Grafton Street than an entire army of Irish "rockers" would achieve in a decade.
Though known to couch-potatoes merely as the new singer-songwriter who brings welcome interludes to the Ally McBeal television series, By 7.30 is actually Vonda Shepard's fifth album.
The Revenants have been as quiet as a small-town library since their debut Horse Of A Different Colour jollied us all up back in 1993, and while that delay is hardly a career-enhancing move, Septober Nowonder follows the debut's tuneful guitars-bass-drums formula with neither hesitation nor deviation.
We have at least two reasons to worship the Pretty Things, the seminal r'n'b influenced '60s band who teetered permanently on the brink of self-destruction: they were probably the only act to score higher than the Rolling Stones on the "lock up your daughters" panicometer and, with SF Sorrow, they produced a classic concept album whose stunning soft-psychedelic songs transcended that much-maligned genre.
Along with Liam O'Flynn, Davy Spillane has done much over the years to convert new worshippers to the haunting sound of the uilleann pipes, and few will ever forget his high-octane contributions to Moving Hearts at their peak.
This is Tyrone-born, Leicester-domiciled Cathy Bonner's second album. She gallantly treads a dangerous path between bland pop-country and the more studied classiness of the younger Emmylou Harris and manages to come out on the side of the good guys. But at times it's a close call.
The New Mexico-based Hazeldine are in the vanguard of the American alt (alternative) country movement. In real musical terms, that means they are doing what the country rock bands of the early seventies did, a little louder than Tammy Wynette and a little punkier than The Eagles and that's about all, y'all.
On paper this recipe should only work when disasters are the special of the day; take some down-your-throat production values, stir in guitars big enough to fill the most ravenous appetite, nourishing Led Zep drums, some unapologetic spice for the soul, hippy-dippy lyrics, bird song, Johnny Foreigners singing in strange tongues, lavish helpings of sitars and tablas, a telephone ringing, a bagpipe to taste, and, er, the kitchen sink.
JACKIE HAYDEN speaks to students and organisers of SOUND ACCESS, a Dun Laoghaire-based programme which helps people with disabilities advance in the music industry.
Two CDs here, one a 'best of' and the other comprised of a dozen brand new outpourings from one of the legendary Northern bands of the punk era, paint a graphic sonic picture of Belfast's social eruptions.
Jackie hayden meetsjournalist turned PR guru, Tony O Brien and speaks to him about his rock n roll adventures with the likes of U2, Michael Stipe and Bruce Springsteen.
In an increasingly competitive market, more musicians are returning to the classroom to learn the hard-nosed facts of the business. JACKIE HAYDEN investigates what the LONDON MUSIC SCHOOL has to offer them.
Live on your TV and your wireless, 2TV will be broadcasting all summer long. JACKIE HAYDEN goes behind the scenes on the show that shakes up Sunday mornings.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the G. Ryan Show on 2FM, JACKIE HAYDEN talks to the mainman himself while various team members and seasoned observers select the best, worst and weirdest moments of the show that's grabbed the nation by its ears.
Even without a record deal, industrious Northern Irish reprobates watercress have a back catalogue to be proud of. jackie hayden meets band linchpin dan donnelly.
Even without a record deal, industrious Northern Irish reprobates watercress have a back catalogue to be proud of. jackie hayden meets band linchpin dan donnelly.
They're fronted by a dead ringer for Xena, Warrior Princess; they've just won the Heineken Hot Press Best New Band Award; and, like inbreeding, they're big in Alabama. They're junkster, and here, deirdre o'neill and graham darcy tell jackie hayden exactly what they've been up to since they first "trespassed" on the American Dance Charts.
Having survived their initial mauling at the hands of the British music press, Asia-obsessed psychedelists KULA SHAKER have returned for a second innings. Frontman CRISPIAN MILLS lays off the poppadoms for long enough to chat to JACKIE HAYDEN about his band's new album, Strangefolk.
As none of the three people named in the title of Something Happens new album Alan, Elvis And God was available for interview, Tom Dunne, Ray Harman and Ted Ryan took on the roles of all three to discuss how the planet-fab foursome are moving into overdrive with the acquisition of a new record deal and the imminent release of that new album.
Tape: JACKIE HAYDEN.
As none of the three people named in the title of SOMETHING HAPPENS new album Alan, Elvis and God was available for interview, TOM DUNNE, RAY
HARMAN and TED RYAN took on the roles of all three to discuss how the planet-fab foursome are moving into overdrive with the acquisition of a new record deal and the imminent release of that new album.
As the countdown to the 4th Hot Press Bacardi Unplugged final continues,
JACKIE HAYDEN speaks out against those who would protray band competitions as irrelevant anachronisms.
JACKIE HAYDEN reports on IMRO s recent CONFERENCE ON PIRACY in Dublin, where the music industry movers and shakers joined forces to discuss ways of fighting back against the pirates.
I used to sit up nights fretting about LiR, puzzling over their hyper-intricate arrangements and their gratuitous exhibition of their flawless, and often pointless, musical technique
On March 12th eight Irish teams of songwriters and performers will contest the National Song Contest, their enthusiasm fired by the possibility of eventually winning the Eurovision Song Contest and all the fame and fortune that one assumes accompanies victory in what is probably the biggest song competition in the world. But is even an outright Eurovision triumph all that it is cracked up to be, even in the land that has provided six winners, including an unprecedented three in a row? JACKIE HAYDEN talks to one half of last year’s victorious Rock’n’Roll Kids duo, PAUL HARRINGTON, and discovers a man bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the entire experience.
