18 IRISH BANDS TO CHECK OUT

I'm going to assume you've heard of U2, you've heard of Hozier, the late, great, brilliant Sinead Connor, but there's so many other Irish bands out there that I would recommend checking out. So here are 18 Irish acts I think you should check out. I'm going to do these in alphabetical order. I don't like ranking musicians or bands. I will also recommend a song from each.

CMAT

If you haven't heard of CMAT yet, I'm pretty sure you're going to within the next couple of years. She is an absolute force of nature. She's pop rock folk kind of mixed in country in there as well. I got to see her last year in Dublin in Fairview Park and she was unbelievable. You have to go see her live. And the song of hers that I'm going to recommend is Stay for Something.

DAMIEN DEMPSEY

The next person on my list is Damian Dempsey. An unbelievable storyteller, a passionate storyteller. He actually came to my attention when I watched a film by Paddy Considine called Tyrannosaur and his song was in that film. I thought it was such a beautiful song and it is the song I would also recommend - Sing All Your Cares Away

DAVID KEENAN

The next on my list is another singer songwriter called David Keenan. Similar in style to Damian Dempsey in that he is another storyteller, probably more focused on on the melody than the spoken word. I was lucky enough to see him at a festival a couple of years ago in a tiny pub with no microphone just himself and a guitar and the pub was packed. And my strongest memory of it as soon as he started playing and singing there was just silence. It was just incredible. very clever songwriter and very very very talented and the song I'd recommend listening to of his is the Friary.

DENISE CHAILA

The next artist on my list is Denise Chaila. She's an Irish Zambian hip-hop artist. I see her a lot more now on TV presenting a lot of musical shows actually, but she had a really great song a few years ago called Anseo, which is

the Irish word for here. So that's when she kind of came to my attention. Very talented artist, very very powerful singer. So definitely worth checking out

and Anseo would be my song recommendation.

FONTAINES D.C.

Now this band you may have heard of if you've seen Peaky Blinders movie. They pop up a lot in it -Fontaine's DC. In truth, it took me a while to come around to them. I wasn't quite getting it but then their new album came out and I was like, "Okay, I get it. I get it now." Now I'm a huge fan of theirs. They're alternative rock. I think they bring the same kind of level of energy you might see with with CMAT, but a different style of music. And the song I'd recommend is Starbuster.

THE FRANK AND WALTERS

The next band I'm going to recommend is a legendary band from Cork who've been around for a while now. They are the Frank and Walters. They were on top of the pops of Paul McCartney. Noel Gallagher of Oasis was one of

their roadies. Huge fan base. They hail from Cork, my hometown. They're kind of a alternative pop band, I suppose, is what you'd class them as. The song I'm going to recommend is a song you may have heard from around the place, which is After All.

THE GLOAMING

The next band I'm going to recommend is technically an Irish-American band, but they do sing huge amounts of traditional Irish stuff, and they even sing in the Irish language so I think you can almost say they're an Irish band, but they are mixture of Irish and American musicians. And that band is The Gloaming. If you haven't heard of them Glowing, you should absolutely check them out. They are kind of Irish folk instrumental with some singing. They are just unbelievable musicians. If you've seen the film Brooklyn, you might recognise their lead singer who sings a song in the food area after the Christmas meal is served up. The song I'd recommend for them is The Lobster.

JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW

My next recommendation on the list is a guy called James Vincent McMorrow. He's been around for a while now and he's got quite a back catalogue of songs and quite a range of different types of albums. Loads of emotion in his music. I He's just got good hooks all around. I've been a fan of him for a long long time and I think his range of music is just so interesting. The song I would recommend for him is We Don't Eat.

LANKUM

The next band are one of my absolute favourite Irish bands. I'll admit it, took me a moment to really get into them, but now I play them every couple of days. I can't I can't be without them. And they are Lankum. They're an Irish folk band that really lean into the heavier droney atmosphere. They're not your your kind of happy go lucky kind of Irish folk band. They're heavy. I don't think I've ever heard a voice like Radie Peat who's their lead singer. She's just like unbelievable. Unbelievable. That's that's the only word I can think of to describe her singing. Once you're in, you're in and there's no getting out the other side. The recommendation for one of their songs is Bear Creek.

KATIE KIM

Katie Kim is a singer, songwriter, solo artist. I've listened to her for quite a while now. She was actually born in London to Irish parents and moved back to Waterford when she was very, very young. Her style is Irish folk electronic style. And the song I would recommend listening to first of hers is Pause.

LISA HANNIGAN

If you've if you've heard of Damian Rice, which I'm sure many of you have, and you've listened to his first couple of albums, you would more than likely have heard Lisa Hanigan singing. If you've listened to the whole album, you definitely would have. Very soft, beautiful, angelic style of singing. Her own albums are probably a bit poppier than what you'd get on the Damen Rice stuff, but it doesn't take away from the beauty of her voice, which is just gorgeous. The song I'm going to recommend of hers though, is off the Song of the Sea soundtrack (which she did not write but did sing on). It's an animation by the guys at Cartoon Saloon and she was one of the singers on it. She was the perfect choice to sing this song.

LISA O'NEILL

Lisa O'Neill took me a while to get into it, but I feel like with many great bands, it can take a while to get into them but they tend to become your favourites. I saw her doing a live performance of a song and I thought, "Wow, she's just so captivating." She has a very unique style of singing. Now, I'm a huge, huge fan of hers. She did the one of the final songs in the Peaky Blinders movie as well. It was a Bob Dylan cover called All The Tired Horses. The song I would recommend is Rock the Machine. So, give her a bit of time. It might take a few runs through, but I think you'll really start to fall in love with her style, which is completely her own.

ORLA GARTLAND

I love Orla Gartland. I think she's brilliant. She's pop, rock, bursting with energy. She's great. So much fun. She hails from Dublin but I think she's living in London now. And the song I'd recommend of hers is More Like You.

OXN

OXN are a kind of a a super band of sorts. An Irish super band where there's a number of different musical artists have come together. Radie Peat - the lead singer with Lankum, just unbelievable voice. Katie Kim, another unbelievable singer. So, two of them together. Eleanor Myler on drums and then Johnny Spud Murphy, the Lankum producer also involved with them. Similar style to Lankum. A bit more leaning into the female vocals, why wouldn't you with Radie Peat and and Katie Kim? So really if you like Lankum, you'll like OXN. The song I would recommend of theirs is The Trees They Do Grow.

SODA BLONDE

I only very recently started listening to Soda Blonde and I fell in love with them immediately. They did a concert with the Irish National Symphony Orchestra and it's just unbelievable, that's where I heard them first. I'd highly recommend checking it out. At the moment, they're probably the band I've listened to most. The song of theirs I would recommend is Why Die for Danzig.

TALOS

Next on my list is Talos which was the stage name for Eoin French. Sadly, last year, Eoin passed away. He had a huge impact on the music scene. I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times. An absolute gentleman. Really sad to lose someone like this so young. Very, very gifted, talented music artist. Sigur Ros, Bjork kind of feel to his music. The song I'd recommend actually of his is his final collaborations which had the poignant title of We Didn't Know We Were Ready.

VILLAGERS

Villagers are techincally a band, but it's led by one person called Connor O'Brien. Some of you might actually recognize his voice because he is the voice that went up to sing when Adam Scott was singing in Big Little Lies. So, it was Conor O'Brien's voice doing that song. What would you class them as? Folk, pop is probably the best category for them. The song I'd recommend is one of my favourites, which is 27 Strangers.

YE VAGABONDS

Ye Vagabonds are a pair of brothers from Carlow. Folk music for sure. They do their own take of a lot of the traditional songs and they've just beautiful voices and lovely harmonies. The song I'm going to recommend listening to start off with the guys is Lowlands of Holland. That's one of my favourite tracks of theirs.

Thanks for reading! I have a playlist of all the bands listed on our Youtube page here