This week’s edition includes music across traditional, folk, rock, pop and classical. To submit your music, email newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com. 

Dublin folk singer Daoirí Farrell has released his fourth album, The Wedding Above In Glencree. The ten-track record is made of traditional songs such as ‘Sonny’s Dream’, ‘The Foggy Dew’ and the previously released title track. Also on the album is Farrell’s first original composition ‘Damian Walsh’s’ – a jig on bouzouki with guitar accompaniment. Farrell is joined on the album by guest musicians Manus Lunny (guitar, bouzouki and bass bouzouki), Paddy Kiernan (5-string banjo), Mark Redmond (uilleann pipes and whistles), Pat Daly (fiddle and harmonium), Trevor Hutchinson (upright bass), Robbie Walsh (hand pan and bodhran), Alan Doherty (whistles), Geoff Kinsella (tenor banjo) and bluegrass dobro player Jerry Douglas.

Lisa O’Neill has this month released her new album All of This is Chance on Rough Trade. The album, which follows her 2018 debut Heard a Long Gone Song, features the previously released single ‘Silver Seed’, as well as tracks such as ‘Old Note’ and ‘Goodnight World’. Accompanying O’Neill on the record is a band of guest musicians including Joseph Doyle (bass), Cormac Begley, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Kate Ellis, pianist Ruth O’Mahony Brady, drummer Lorcan Byrne, and producer Dave Odlum on guitar, as well as Colm O’Hara on trombone, Brian Leach on hammer dulcimer, Mic Geraghty on harmonium and David Coulter on saw. O’Neill just completed a series of dates across Ireland and is currently on tour in the UK. 

Lankum have announced that their fourth album False Lankum will be released on 24 March via Rough Trade Records. The first single, ‘Go Dig My Grave’, which was learned from Kentucky singer and music collector Jean Ritchie, is out now, along with an accompanying music video. The new album is the follow up to the band’s 2019 album The Livelong Day, which was awarded the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year and saw the band featured in NPR’s Tiny Desk YouTube series in early 2020. 

Also recently released is Celebrating 100 Years of Irish Traditional Music at University College Cork, the compilation album featuring recordings of students and staff at UCC Department of Music. With 18 tracks, the album includes performances by Jack Talty, singer and musician Iona Ritchie, fiddle player Therese McInerny, composer and concertina player Niall Vallely, Connie O’Connell, Bobby Gardiner, Mel Mercier, and many more. It also features ‘Sunday’s Well’, an original composition by Caitlín Nic Gabhann featuring Jack Talty (piano), Sophie Ryan (harp), Ellie Egan (fiddle), Donnchadh Hughes (flute), Iona Ritchie (fiddle) and Nic Gabhann on concertina.  

Also released this month is There’s a Sea Between Us – the debut album by Irish-French indie folk duo Les Salamandas; folk singer-songwriter Karan Casey’s latest record Nine Apples of Gold; Dan Walsh’s O’Neill’s Tunes, album of dance jigs, reels and hornpipes arranged for clawhammer banjo; Dublin rock band Ragerra’s new record When the Time Comes; and Clare singer-songwriter Seán Lyons’s debut EP Juliana.  

Traditional singers Séamus and Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta from Connemara have this month released their debut self-titled EP. The record, which includes tracks such as ‘Anach Cuain’ and a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’, was produced by Brian Whelan and Bill Whelan, and recorded at the Whelan studio at The Fort in Roundstone. Harp and fiddle player Éadaoin Ní Mhaicín and musician and dancer Emily Flack have also released their debut EP Oh Honey as part of their new folk duo LÉDA.  

New singles this month include the double A side by David Kitt featuring Katie Kim, ‘Till the End/Balances’; ‘Abigail (Tomhas Ghobnatan)’ by Limerick singer-songwriter Emma Langford; ‘Happy’ by emerging rock band Luna Sky; folk duo Strings & Things’ ‘Whispers’; and ‘Sea Jigs’ – the new release by Irish and African inspired folk act Pontún (featuring Robbie Harris, Kevin Burke, Stephen Doherty, Éamonn Galldubh, Niwel Tsumbu, Steve Cooney, and Kalifa Koné). 

Singer-songwriter Cinder Well has released a new single ‘Two Heads, Grey Mare’ that will feature in upcoming album Cadence, due for release in April; Belfast rock band The Wood Burning Savages have shared new single ‘Hand to Mouth’ – their first release since the 2018 debut Stability; and Dundalk singer-songwriter David Keenan has shared a new track ‘Aldente Pasta’ that will feature in upcoming EP Crude Boyo, due for release on 24 March. 

Also recently released is the new record by The Piatti Quartet, which features the premiere recording of Irish composer Ina Boyle’s string quartet; and Fermanagh singer Gabriel McArdle’s new album The Fermanagh Blackbird. 

Listen to a playlist of all recent releases below. To submit your release, email newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com.

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