Hello folks. It has been about 2 years since my last post on the Eirecana blog. A lot has happened in my world since then and by circumstance, the Eirecana blog has been left behind. Between getting married, building a new home and all the time that this takes up, it meant that the blog was let slide. So now that I have a bit more spare time, I am planning to get back into Eirecana and dedicate time to it. I have been out of the loop in music terms as well so I am really catching up. I have lots of music to listen to but if there is anything that I have missed in the last year o ..read more

Sometimes I have to go looking for bands. Sometimes they music come to me. Sometimes I feel like going in search for the music myself even when the music does come to me. Today was one of those days. I often consult Breaking Tunes (it’s a brilliant platform for new Irish artists) and happened to come across the melodic tunes of The Southern Fold….my lucky day. With a band name like The Southern Fold, I had an idea from the start what the music of this group might be about and my expectations were rightly justified once I hit play on the first of the tracks they have uploaded on Breaking Tune ..read more

Back to action this week with some Southern Blues. Well it’s not what you think. This band hail from Cork and are exponents of some fine truthful foot-tapin’ blues that you have ever heard. One Horse Pony are a Cork based outfit formed a number of years ago through the very organic process of playing with each other in sessions in the Franciscan Well Bar. Rob Foley (a.k.a ‘Rev. Rob Hercules’) played with Badger (John Noonan) and together with fellow members Nolwen ‘The Meerkat’ Milot, Kevin ‘Frank-From-Germany’ Morrison, and Bart ‘The King’ Kondat started up One Horse Pony. The band started ..read more

Bringing you the best of americana, alt-country and folk from Ireland and internationally. Eirecana Podcast – Podcast VI: The Best of 2015 Welcome to 2016. Seeing as I did’nt get a show up in January, I thought I would celebrate all that the first month of the year symbolisises in my February podcast. Thus the Februaary blues. It’s cold outside and nothing has been straight forward in my world lately so I thought I would celebrate that wih some fine blues. You can download the episode via iTunes here and all other great podcast download services. The playlist is below. Subscribe here ..read more

I often have to search far and wide for new music on the blog. It’s always handy to have a few tools to make my work easier. One that I want to point you to if you are in search for new music, in particular new Irish music, is Breaking Tunes. The non-for-profit website aims to support new Irish artists with a Bandcamp style site that hosts tracks and has a brief spiel about the band. If are looking for new Irish music, this is a good place to start. And I started here looking for new americana artists. “The Whispering Pines” are a five piece hailing out of Cork city made up of members John O ..read more

Continuing my best of 2015 list with my favourite tracks of the year. Yes I am about a month late but still it gives me time to assess fully my favourite tracks of the year. As usual, the tracks selected might not have been released in 2015 but I came across them last year so that’s my criteria for inclusion. As with the albums, the songs listed here are in no particular order, they are all my favourites. So without further ado, let’s take a look back on the best americana songs of 2015. N.C. Lawlor – Torn A man I came across through his name appearing on the line-up for the Doolin craft be ..read more

Happy New Year. So I’m back. I apologise for the delay in getting to these posts. I did promise them a few weeks ago but January has been the post Christmas recovery as I planned. So to start my review of 2015, I plan to feature the best Americana albums of the year. This list highlights the best of the year from international artists. I have gone with just ten artists here. I try to keep it nice and succinct. So here are my favourite albums of the year. They are nearly all American which is no surprise. There is a lot more than americana here. There is a bit of soul, alt-country, americana an ..read more

Bringing you the best of americana, alt-country and folk from Ireland and internationally. Eirecana Podcast – Podcast VI: The Best of 2015 It’s my last show of 2015. As it’s the end of the year, it’s natural to reflect on the year that was. So this episode is the start of my reflection on the year that was. Check out some of my favourites of 2015 below with more to come, I’m sure in January.  You can download the episode via iTunes here and all other great podcast download services. The playlist is below. Subscribe here Artist Song Album Drew Holcomb and the Neighbours ..read more

It’s funny how you come across some artists. I was browsing through No Depression last week and happened to find myself reading Lee Zimmerman’s series on Americana Abroad in which he covers the genre all over the world. One such artist that he mentioned was Aborist, a man by the name of Mark McCambridge. I listened to a few tracks and that has led to today’s post. I was sure I had head Mark’s voice before and only after a bit of digging did I figure out where that was. Mark was once part of The Holy Innocents which I featured on the blog way back in 2012. Since then Mark has went out on his ..read more

After a flurry of media updates, it back to what (I think) I do best this week. It’s an album review of Jayne Trimble’s most recent release “In The Morning”. The album was release in 2014 but as Jayne sent it all the way to me from Canada, I think it deserves my attention. I introduced Jayne’s music on the blog way back in October 2012. At that time she has released a lovely EP; “Run Onwards”. One track “You’ll follow Me” is one that I still find myself humming every now and again. At that time of that blog post I think Jayne was based in the U.S. She has since relocated to her new home of ..read more