The Jerimiah’s!!

“One of the most exciting bands to come out of Ireland in many a year. Their new album is a cracker” Mike Harding Folk Show

One of the freshest bands in Irish traditional music” Séan Laffey Irish Music Magazine

’Superb musicians who engage with their audience to produce a memorable show, definitely not to be missed. Irish Music at its very best.’ Charles Devlin, Director Ireby Festival”

I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on The Jeremiahs since reviewing their debut album in 2015. That album revealed them as a force to be reckoned with on the ever-vibrant Dublin music scene and was heavy with the promise of future delights. Since then there have been a couple of personnel changes. When I saw them at the 2016 Gate to Southwellfestival, whistles and flutes had been taken over by Calum Stewart who also added his trademark Uillean pipes. For this second album, though, the line-up has been reduced to a core trio plus guests. The trio is Joe Gibney on vocals and stomp box, James Ryan, guitar, bouzouki, harmonica, backing vocals, and Jean-Christophe Morel on fiddle, bouzouki and shakers. And as for those promised delights, The Femme Fatale of Maine delivers them in abundance.

In 2015 Joe Gibney’s voice was already one that could raise the hairs on the back of your neck and over the last two years, his vocals have grown in stature and confidence. Reflecting that, the ten tracks of the new album include seven songs as opposed to the five song-five instrumental split of the first. An even more welcome shift is that five of the seven songs are band compositions, songs with lyrics and arrangements that show a creative maturing of both the band and its individual members. Given that the only original song on the first album had been chosen by Christie Moore as the winner at the 2015 TradConnect Songwriter Showcase, an enhanced focus on the band’s song writing was surely inevitable. Less of a certainty was that the new songs would equal it in quality, at the same time exploring a range of styles and subject matter.