Continuing our series of underrated Irish music since 1960, reader Eamonn would like to draw our attention to Cork trad upstarts Nomos who shone brightly in the 1990s.
Led by Eoin Coughlan (vocals and bass), the line-up was completed by Niall Vallely (concertina), Vince Milne (fiddle), Frank Torpey (bodhran) and Gerry McKee (bouzouki).
We’ve just gone to number one in 15 countries – turns out people want to hear the TRUTH this Christmas – that Bill and Belinda Gates are in the final stages of their plot to control the hearts and minds of us Patriots. They must be stopped at all or any cost. Let’s not let this be our Last Christmas of freedom…
On the eve of the All Ireland Senior final in Croker, Waterford rapper Yung Shakur (top) drops some heavy beats and slick rhymes in support of The Deise in their historic battle against The Treaty county this weekend.
We love the namechecking of Waterford legend John Mullane too.
Last week, with a wintry €25 Golden Discs voucher on offer, I asked: What’s your favourite song by a Canadian artist?
You replied in your dozens – creating a collection of genuinely fine Canadian choonage. Thank you.
But there could be only one winner.
Third Place:
Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan by Buffy Sainte-Marie
Specific Gravity writes:
‘I absolutely adore this evocative and v moving song by the remarkable Buffy Sainte-Marie. The wonderful Katell Keineg did a cover version of it on NIghthawks with Shay Healy in the early nineties and it still haunts me. Love it.’
Runner-up;
The Needle And The Damage Done by Neil Young
Ragamuffin writes:
‘My favourite Neil Young track, a poignant song about the desolation caused by heroin addiction in the 70s. Undoubtedly a great song, but the reason I particularly love it is because it reminds me of driving in the car as a kid with my dad. A deadpan RTÉ Radio 1 presenter ended an otherwise boring segment about oul ones knitting with this track and my dad nearly crashed the car he was laughing so hard. The next day he went out and bought me Harvest on CD, and to this day its one of my all time favourite albums.’
Winner:
River by Joni Mitchell
Henry Porter writes:
‘A melancholy Christmas song. Perfect for these times.’
Above from left musicans Mundy, Mark Redmond, Tolu Makay and Ailbhe Reddy
This morning/afternoon.
Temple Bar, Dublin.
The launch of the programme for TradFest 2021.
Via Tradfest:
Covid-19 restrictions means festival will run from December 2020 through to Summer 2021. TradFest 2021 will kick off with The RTE TV Show ‘Ireland in Music’ on December 29, 2020.The show will receive worldwide TV distribution.
Streamed Events in January will include a major global showcase for Emerging Irish Artists and a series of Headline Concert performances.
Live Covid Safe Concerts will return in the summer of 2021, subject to public health advice
Skerries songsmith Eimear O’Sullivan (top) aka EMR collaborated with Adam Rael to produce three different “visualiser” videos to go with her dreamy song Black Denim.
Further to opposition over the allocation of monies to artists under the covid-related Music Industry Stimulus Package led by the MISP Transparency Group (MISP)…
…Chris Somers writes:
Please post this superb podcast by Mark Graham of the band King Kong Company (top) about MISP, FMC, Yangaroo, IMRO and the recent handling of public funds designated to support Irish musicians.
While much of the discourse around the recent awarding of monies has been labelled sour grapes from unsuccessful artists, Mark has deftly and dispassionately questioned and challenged the optically dubious handling of these funds, for example the unchallenged awarding of €28,000 to distributors Yangaroo, the awarding of funds to acts managed by former FMC board members and journalists previously employed FMC for Hard Working Class Heroes and other FMC events.
The podcast goes well beyond MISP and raises serious questions about how public funding is being managed.
MISP Transparency have done a fantastic job on this recently but this is an even deeper dive.
