2022-11-04 Mairead Carroll - Moat Theatre, Naas

Every now and then I have a choice of gigs to go to... This night, I could have driven into Dublin to see Meryl Streek in the Workmans Club, or I could stay local and go see Mairead Carroll in the Moat Theatre in Naas.

Well, it was a no brainer. The weather was terrible and, well, I felt terrible too, so I figured I'd stay local.

Mairead has played the Moat Theatre before, but always as support, never as the main attraction. Tonight, would be her debut headline performance and she didn't let anyone down!

I'm not quite sure how to describe here music. It's not folk, it's not trad, it's not country or rock... It's. well, it's very light and soft and calming. Mairead is a poet who, only relatively recently, has started putting her words to music. It's a very relaxing affair! Her songs are very personal, and, at first listen, you might think them melancholy, but then you hear the joy and the love in them, and you start to see them for what they are, songs about the joy of life.

I'd a great time at the show. Pre gig, I finally met with up Mairead for the first time. It was strange, we'd chatted online, and I'd photographed her before, but this was the first time we'd physically met.

Support on the night was from Sarah Buckley. I've known Sarah for about 6 years now, and I still haven't managed to get a good photograph of her performing. One day I will, one day...

Anyway, on to the photos, first up is Mairead:

And now Sarah:

2022-03-26 Buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin

I took a walk around Dublin today, thought I'd check out the buskers on Grafton Street. There's a fine history of busking in Dublin, acts like Hothouse Flowers , The Frames , Rodrigo y Gabriela , Damien Rice , Paddy Casey , Kodaline and a host of others all cut their teeth on and around Grafton Street. It stands to reason that some of those busking today will be successful in the future! So, who did I get to see today? Well, check out the photos below: Zoe Clarke Allie Sherlock Paul Jenkinson

Bye Bye Spotify...

I ditched Spotify Premium this weekend. Why? Well, I read an interview with Daniel Ek , the CEO of Spotify, and I profoundly disagreed with what he said and his attitude towards musicians in the interview. So I said 'F*ck it', and closed my premium account. I still do have a free account* as many bands choose Spotify to release their music, so I'll keep it for that reason. What now though? Well, I'd created a large library of music on my home server over the last 20 years or so. Every time I bought a CD, it got ripped to the server. Every time I bought digital music from Bandcamp , Google or 7 Digital , they too got stored on the server, and that was fine for home use, it worked well. But now I'd dumped Spotify, what could I do, how could I access my music outside the house? I'd played around with software called Plex a few years back, but had no use for it. I ended up doing nothing with Plex, but for this project, I decided to revisit it. I knew that i

Pete Kavanagh - Mercy Video Shoot

I've been asked a few times if I'd be interested in shooting a music video. Each time I said no because, well, I'd no idea what to do. I'm not technical behind a camera. I know the look I want, I take my photos and, that's it. I honestly don't know what I'm doing, it just works for me, sometimes (they're the photos you see!). I've known Pete Kavanagh a long time. We both grew up in the same Kildare town and know many of the same folk. Over the last few years we became friends through music. He played, I listened and or photographed. So, when he asked me if I'd shoot his video for 'Mercy', I said yes, albeit a hesitant yes, one filled with self doubt! Day one of shooting came around all too quickly for me. I'd looked in to shooting video, read up a bit on how to do it on my camera, what settings to change and so on, just so I wouldn't look clueless on set! I charged all the batteries and lights, packed all the gear away an

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