If you’re Jordan, or maybe Kerry Katona, you are probably well used to the pop of flashguns and the lunge of a lens in your face. Nowadays, however, it would seem that no one is now immune to the celebrity treatment. Even Tadhg Cooke (“Tiger” to his friends), whose curves, we are told are entirely natural, has had to put up with the incessent attentions of the cameras as he wended his way on a radio tour of Ireland. By which we mean to say he has been broadcasting 'microgigs' to fans with a mobile phone camera held to his face. Now that's what we call thinking outside the box.

If you want to see him under dimmer lights, there are still a few shows left on the album launch tour. He’ll be playing along with Pearse McGloughlin in the Hub, Ennis on Friday November 19, and at the Sitting Room Sessions in de Barras of Clonakilty on Wednesday 24. And if you wrap up warm and make the trip to Kilkenny, you’ll be able to catch him as part of the Cellar Sessions in Matt the Millers, right by the River Nore on Tuesday December 14.
Kimmie Rhodes is one of those people who don’t ever switch off. A central figure in the Texas country scene for the last 30 years, she has released records, written a cookbook, exhibited paintings, co-written with Willie, Waylon and Emmylou and scored films and theatrical productions but every year she finds time somewhere to sit down and write a Christmas song. It may be a kind of old-fashioned notion in a way but there is something in that discipline that zeroes in on the act of songwriting. Supposedly all this started many years ago when she sat and watched Willie (Nelson, that is) unwrap parcel after parcel of platinum discs for his Christmas song ‘Pretty Paper’. As inspirations go it may appear a little mercenary – it reminds me of the story of Jimmy Kennedy who, when asked by a rookie journalist what his inspiration was for writing ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’, supposedly replied ‘A cheque for twenty seven pounds from my publisher’.
Still, if we were to start kicking songs off our Christmas list on the basis that the writer stood to make a few quid, we would run out of Christmas cheer fairly sharpish. This year she has committed these songs to record, along with a cover of Patty Griffin’s ‘Mary’ and two classic Christmas songs – ‘The Carol of The Bells’ and ‘What Child Is This?’
She has assembled a Christmas supergroup for the record, with Iggy Pop’s percussionist Hunt Sales joining Alexander Escojedo’s cellist Broan Standefer, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s hurdy gurdy player Nigel Eaton and Joel Guzman who plays accordion with Joe Ely and Los SuperSeven on the songs.
Kimmie, accompanied by her husband Joe Gracey, will be touring before Christmas with their inimitable mix of songs and stories. Sunday November 28 brings her to the Flowerfield Arts Centre in Portstewart and on Thursday November 2 she’ll be visiting the Seamus Ennis Centre in the Naul before heading back up North of the border where she plays a pair of shows on December 3 and 4 in the Bronte Centre near Rathfriland.
Also out and about in the lead up to Christmas is Kieran Goss, who has spent the best part of the year touring abroad with the Kieran Goss Trio. He will be doing some solo shows around the country for the first time in quite a while. He’s planning to reach the parts that other singers don’t quench with gigs in Matt Molloy’s in Westport on Thursday November 18 and The Forum in Waterford the following evening, before crossing the country for a show in the Carnegie Arts Centre on Saturday November 20. He’ll be in Kilcullen Town Hall Theatre on Friday November 26 with the only Dublin date of the tour coming in the shape of a Cherry Tree gig on Saturday November 27. Thursday December 2 finds him in Athlone at the Olive Grove and on Saturday 4 he’ll be plaing in Kilkenny’s Set Theatre. The only gig announced so far North of the Border is in the Courtyard Theatre, Newtownabbey Monday December 13.
Much farther into the future, the green shoots of recovery we’ve all been hearing so much about recently have inspired the re-launch of the Bristol Folk Festival which will be making its return after an absence of 32 years. So far the details are a little thin on the ground but Bellowhead (named by the Independent as the best live band in Britain with the exception of The Who) have been confirmed as the headline act for one of the three nights.
The extraordinary, multi award-winning 11-piece folk juggernaut will bring the three day Bank Holiday festival to a flamboyant finale on May Day, Sunday May 1 at Colston Hall. Voted Best Live Act in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards an unprecedented four times, Bellowhead – the brainchild of frontman Jon Boden and box player John Spiers – play an incredible 25 instruments between them. They edge into world, jazz, rock and music hall with songs that are often bawdy, invariably anarchic and always impossible to sit still to. Bellowhead will also be programming their own invited guests throughout May 1. Headliners for the two other days are expected to be announced soon.
Gerry O’Beirne, best known maybe for gracing other people’s records with his fantastic guitar playing has just released another record of his own, again in the company of fiddle player Rosie Shipley. It’s called Yesterday I Saw The Earth Beautiful and it’s available from Gerry’s website and CD Baby.