WATCH: Daoirí Farrell leads “resurgence of the authentic in Irish folk music”
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He’s been described as singlehandedly spearheading a “resurgence of the authentic in Irish folk music”, and it's traditional Irish music that he will be bringing to Shoreham
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Hide AdAs he says, his fourth solo album, “combines the rawness of my first album, the impact of my second album and the beauty of my third album.” The culmination of those three albums and more than a decade of recording and touring, The Wedding Above In Glencree is a landmark for Daoirí, crafted and honed over two and a half years.
“The album came out on February 24 and the reaction has been really brilliant. I'm delighted with it. I've not had a moment to myself. My feet haven't touched the ground.
"I needed a new album to come out and when Covid-19 happened I decided to sit down and start recording one and that's what I did. I just had a lot of songs that I had not recorded from the last time around and also some new songs that I've been working on.
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Hide Ad"I started doing this during lockdown though I would not necessarily say it was a lockdown album. There are a lot of traditional songs on there and some newly composed songs. I don't write the songs. I just record them and record demos and see what fits together. I recorded 18 or 19 songs for the album and I chose ten that fitted together well.
“I've done four solo albums at this stage and I started in 2009. I was studying music in between. I did five years of study. I knuckled down. I studied here in Dublin for two years and then I did a bachelor's degree and then I did a masters in music at Limerick and I think I would have finished that in about 2014 or 2015. I think it's just really important to have that education. I was an electrician before that and obviously for that you need to do your training and I think it's just like anything that you go into, you have to put the training in.
“I was an electrician for 14 or 15 years but I was playing music and always had music in mind and I enjoyed it but more as a hobby and then the work as an electrician got a little bit thin on the ground. I was put down to two or three days of work a week and I decided then that something was missing in my life.
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Hide Ad"I knew that I wanted to study music and so I started and after about three weeks of doing that I realised that that was exactly what I wanted and it was just fantastic to do.”
A product of Dublin’s famous club An Góilin Traditional Singers, Daoirí, since launching his own solo live career at the 2016 Celtic Connections, has gone from strength to strength.
As he heads out onto the road, he can boast numerous honours from BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards to ALSR Celtic Music accolades.
Tickets for Shoreham on 01273 464440.