In Song of Myself, the opening poem from his seminal collection Leaves Of Grass, American poet Walt Whitman exclaims, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself… For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” The sprawling and expansive work explores humanity and our connection with nature and each other. And on her third album Hinterland, Naomi Hamilton channels this transcendentalist spirit. Continue Reading…
Joe Mulheron, raised in Belfast, performed with The Men of No Property in the 70s, singing about resistance and civil rights. He was inspired by radical folksingers like Woody Guthrie. He worked with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and some of his repertoire found its way into the Christy Moore songbook. He later relocated to Derry and opened up Sandinos in 1997, a music bar and a gathering place where left-wing movements were celebrated and furthered. Continue Reading…
A few minutes before the production of Good Vibrations at the Opera House, a white-haired guy sits down in Row H. He looks at the stage and measures the scene up there. Hey, it’s an old record shop with pegboard on the walls. There are punk badges plus albums by Bowie, The Damned and Patti Smith. The booze bottles are empty and the dingy surrounds are familiar to generations of crate-diggers. Continue Reading…
A film projector in an attic, adjacent to a window, opposite a motorway. Three film students united by sound and vision, by chord and close-up. Jean-Luc Godard and Thurston Moore. They are Chalk, they are based in Belfast and they are here for the foreseeable.
“We can’t quite believe it ourselves”, says Chalk frontman Ross Cullen. “None of us have ever been in a real band before, it’s just something we thought we’d try because we all like similar music. That’s all.” Continue Reading…
In 2018, he was artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, working his chops and winning friends. This year, Joshua is the headliner dude in the big marquee. Surprising, eh?
Well, not if you’ve seen him at the Elmwood Hall in 2021 or witnessed the sold-out hallelujah in the Ulster Hall, last December. Sometimes he looks like an endearing shambles, but Joshua’s art doesn’t fail and the curve is ever-excellent. Here then, are ten good things about the show: Continue Reading…
You knew that CS Lewis was from Northern Ireland as soon as you read the description of Narnia as, “always winter, but never Christmas”. In the same way you know this is a Therapy? album from the outset, when that unalloyed Andy Cairns east Antrim gulder delivers opener ‘They Shoot the Terrible Master’ like a smack around the chops. Continue Reading…
The Joe Nawaz one-man show, Five Days, premiered at the Imagine! Festival of Politics and Ideas in March and will be returning to the stage in the autumn. Joe is publicist with Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, and a writer and performer who lives and works in Belfast. The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival runs from 27 April – 7 May. This is his Playlisted feature for Dig With It, Issue 10. Continue Reading…
“Sometimes these are the best dreams I’ve ever had,” goes the opening lyric on Mark McCambridge’s latest album under the name Arborist. “….but they’re not real, I understand.”
There has always been a comforting stoicism within Arborist. An indifferent shrug to acknowledge the trauma that is life in the 21st century. None of his songs are particularly optimistic, but there’s enough subtle humour and sonic warmth to make everything feel okay…ish. Continue Reading…
Ferna’s debut album Understudy makes you flinch.
At its core, the record feels like it’s reaching out in a gentle, or sometimes rivetingly forceful, way to shake you out of disconnection or a self-imposed detachment. “Open your mouth wide,” she commands on the opening track ‘Open Up’. With our jaws agape, Ferna breathes life into what lurks beneath the surface of our being, that which we often find too painful to touch. Continue Reading…
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