Ryders Blü – As Long As I Got You Babe
Blü Monday.
Sonny and Cher, eat your heart out.
Ryders Blü are an indie-pop band based in Newbridge, County Kildare. They are a two-piece: PJ O’Neill on guitar and vocals, and Jake Carrick on drums.
PJ writes:
“For right now… we’re writing really happy pop music. To escape the mundanity of what life can be like. That’s the first act for our project. The second act… well you’ll just have to wait and see.”
Nick says: Ryders on the storm.
EMMO – Still
Enduring love.
Cork newcomer EMMO (top) turns heads with a rousing anthem celebrating a certain four-letter word.
EMMO writes:
“The same exhausted tropes are always in love songs – be it new, lost, unrequited love etc. But what about Love that is resolute? My aim was to credit the actuality of persistent and unfaltering love between couples who have been together for a long time despite the odds. Funnily enough, the song started as a slow moving piece but became this anthem like ballad after my guitar was knocked into a strange tuning from being loose in the back of my car. After some experimenting, the lyrics sprang to life with the new energetic sound from the accidental tuning.”
Recorded in Camden Studios, Dublin, produced by Cian Boylan & mixed by Conor Brady with Darren Beckett (from the Killers) on drums, Dave Redmond on double bass and Kealan Kenny on lap steel guitar.
Nick says: A Corker.
ZOiD featuring Suzanne Savage – Static
The Savage eye.
Belfast soprano and jazz singer Suzanne Savage (top centre)) joins forces with Dubliner Daniel Jacobson (right) aka ZOiD on this single from his album of collaborations ZONGS.
It’s a genre-bending mix of techno, soul and funk.
The video is by Diolmhain Ingram Roche.
Nick says: Funk’s not dead.
Sam Ryder – Space Man
Fluffybiscuits writes:
UK have chosen their entry…singer and ‘Tik Tok Star’ Sam Ryder
I think what stands out is he thinks man buns are still viewed as fashionable…
David Donohue – She Can Do
“Peak to peak, coast to coast.”
In the afterglow of International Women’s Day, Carlow-born songsmith David Donohue (the artist formerly known as The Floors) pays a sweet musical tribute to our record-breaking rower Karen Weekes (top).
Produced by David Ayers who also plays multiple instruments.
David writes:
“This track was inspired by Karen’s recent 81-day solo rowing trip across the Atlantic – the first Irish woman to do so – and her ‘Shecando‘ philosophy which urges females to believe in their abilities.”
Nick says: Oceans apart.
Pic: RTÉ
Clare Sands – Awe na Mná (Praise The Women)
Ladies assemble.
Fancy a song to to mark International Women’s Day?
Read on.
The press blurb says:
“It was a sight to behold – young, old, brave, bold. 100 women on four beaches in the four corners of Ireland, celebrating sisterhood in all its colours. Men fled as women marched, danced, sang, howled and embraced the Dublin, Connemara, Belfast and Cork sands and tides.
“Led by fearless fiddler, bilingual singer & multi-instrumentalist Clare Sands, ‘Awe na Mná’ is the powerful, energetic, and fierce celebration of women through the ages.
“Paying homage to the likes of Gráinne Mhaol, Countess Markievicz, Queen Maeve, Maggie Barry and modern day Irish women the Debenhams Workers, it is a battle cry, a fervent call, a rebel yell, and a passionate proclamation to sing and dance in awe of mná.”
Clare writes:
“The gatherings of women all over the country were joyful, empowering and fierce – and I could think of no better time to release Awe na Mná than International Women’s Day.
“I wrote the song on Inisheer and while I was there, I was struck by how resilient, fearless, and strong the women were. This song reflects on the past, embraces the present & strives towards a brighter future for women in Ireland and all over the world.”
Nick says: Come dance with them in Ireland.
Ruby Moss – If You Are
“I was too late to say goodbye.”
Dublin-based singer Ruby Moss (top), 14, penned this heart-stopping elegy to her great-grandmother Beryl Nestor in the months after her death during the Covid lockdown in December 2020.
It has since reached No.1 in the Irish iTunes charts.
The video was filmed in Crookedwood Studios in Slane, County Meath, by Mark Cahill.
Nick says: Let grief be a fallen leaf.
Fia Moon – By Now
“And all the melodies that I thought you wrote for me:
Are you singing them for her now instead?”
Breaking up is hard to do on Fia Moon‘s new ballad. It comes with a beautifully shot video in County Mayo by Zoë Ardiff.
Fia writes:
“My dad lives in Mayo so it has always been a home-away-from-home for me; a place of refuge. By Now is a very personal song to me and I wanted the video to be a reflection of that. The song is about a painful experience – but also about coming through it.
“For me, being out in nature, out at sunset and around animals are all very soothing and I wanted to give viewers a glimpse of where I was on my healing journey when I wrote the song.”
Nick says: Mayo Moon rising.
Dirty Dreamer – Piano 39
A song in the key of life.
Formed out of the ashes of Come On Live Long, Dirty Dreamer (top) fly the flag for ambient electro-folk on their new single. Their album The Everyday In Bloom is out on April 8.
The trio are Louise Gaffney, Daithi O’Connor and Ken McCabe.
Louise writes:
“Piano 39 was one of those tracks that almost wrote itself. Daithí started quietly humming a gorgeous melody while jamming a middle section. In between chords I managed to hit the mic so it swung around on the stand and just caught it as he was coming up with it. That little passing moment became the hook.
“The final verse is trying to describe one of those shiny moments of clarity you can have at random when you notice an everyday moment of beauty and you are completely pulled out of yourself.”
Nick says: Don’t shoot the keyboard player.
