BTCP: Junior Brother / Ceitidh Mac

Brighten The Corners Presents alt-folk singer-songwriter Junior Brother at The Smokehouse on Saturday 10th February 2024. Support comes from Ceitidh Mac.

Junior Brother is an experimental alternative folk singer/ songwriter from Co. Kerry, Ireland, playing sometimes humorous, sometimes heady tunes. Strange stories, poetic and arcane, unfold with reckless abandon upon an idiosyncratic Guitar and Foot Tambourine accompaniment, taking musical influence from his upbringing in rural Ireland.

Chosen as one of RTÉ’s Rising Irish Stars of 2018, Junior Brother has been steadily building a fanbase in his current base of Dublin, and around the country, winning followers with his unique and powerful live shows.

Ronan Kealy, aka Junior Brother’s untamed voice and alt-folk music are anything but dull – yet it was boredom that initially led him to music.

“When I was nine, my parents finally let me go to guitar lessons,” he says. “I didn’t pick much up from them, because anything like school wouldn’t go in. When I stopped doing the lessons I started messing around with tunings, which was due to boredom. I suppose getting so into playing music was due to boredom as well.”

Kealy grew up in Kilcummin, a small village about four miles outside Killarney, Co. Kerry. There, he experienced a quintessentially rural Irish upbringing, with plenty of free time – and surrounded by the GAA.

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‘Seabird’ is the title of a new EP from alt.folk singer/cellist Ceitidh Mac, set for release on 10 November 2023.

Absorbing in its originality, this EP marks a distinct sound that Welsh born tynesider Ceitidh Mac has been carving over the last few years.

Recorded by Sam Grant (Pigsx7, Richard Dawson) at Blank Studios, Newcastle, Ceitidh wanted to feature the unique sound of the tenor guitar, with warm sub analogue synth to give an earthy sound. Taking inspiration from producers such as John Parish, Ceitidh wanted to keep the arrangement sparse, with everything that made it into the arrangement there for a reason.. Interweaving vocal harmonies growing towards the end, with a single cello line..