Daoirí Farrell

Daoirí Farrell

Sunday, 16 February 2020, 8.00pm

‘Daoirí is one of the most important traditional singers to emerge in the last decade’
Dónal Lunny

‘I’ve been listening to Daoirí’s emerging sounds since first hearing him at the Góilin Singers Club in Dublin when he was a young lad….always a treat to hear him sing.’
Christy Moore

‘Effortless, instinctive, natural…the real deal.’
Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2 Folk Show

A former electrician, who decided to change profession after seeing Christy Moore perform on Irish TV, Dublin-born traditional singer and bouzouki player Daoirí (pronounced ‘Derry’) Farrell is being described by some of the biggest names in Irish folk music as one of most important singers to come out of Ireland in recent years, and has delivered the album to prove them right.

After a promising debut album, The First Turn, back in 2009; Daoirí spent several years studying traditional music and performance at The University of Limerick. It was here that Fintan Vallely introduced him to the singing of the late Liam Weldon, an encounter that was to prove formative to his sound and his approach to folk song.

Daoirí had cut his teeth as a singer in Dublin’s famous Góilin Singers Club, where he was spotted early on by Christy Moore, and at other sessions across the city, many of which he still visits. Following his studies he quickly found work accompanying artists including Christy Moore himself, as well as a list of names that sounds like a who’s who of folk music: Dónal Lunny, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Alan Doherty, Danú, Dervish, Julie Fowlis, Arty McGlynn, The John Carty Big Band, Kíla, Sean Keane, Gerry O’Connor (Banjo), Gerry O’Connor (Fiddle), Lynched and more. In 2013 he won the All Ireland Champion Singer award at the Fleadh in Co. Derry, and in 2015 won the prestigious Danny Kyle Award at Celtic Connections in Glasgow with the line-up FourWinds.

Daoirí finally stepped into the limelight launched his own solo live career at the 2016 Celtic Connections.

His determination not to put out another album until he was sure it was the best he could produce, means the long-awaited release of True Born Irishman in October 2016 was hugely anticipated. And indeed when a stream of the album was accidentally leaked online for around an hour in July, it was being shared and tweeted about within minutes. The ten track album was recorded in Dublin across the first half of 2016 and was produced by Daoirí with Tony Byrne and Robbie Walsh. It features contributions from, among others, Michael McGoldrick, and is dedicated to departed Irish traditional singer Liam Weldon.

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Published by The Journal of Music on 10 February 2020

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