Considering Daoirí Farrell, a former electrician, only formerly launched his solo career in January 2016 at Celtic Connections, he’s managed to achieve something of a musical coup with the recent announcement that he has secured three nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards to be held at The Royal Albert Hall in London on 5th April 2017.
The Dublin singer and bouzouki player who was described by Dónal Lunny as ‘One of the most important traditional singers to emerge in the last decade’ has been nominated The Best Singer Award, The Horizon Award and The Best Traditional Track Award for ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ from his album ‘True Born Irishman.’
He does seem to be breaking all trends, Folk Radio UK’s Johnny Whalley opened his review here on Folk Radio UK for The First Turn with “It’s not often, in fact, I’d guess never, that you’ve found Folk Radio reviewing an album with a release date from 7 years ago.” We were pretty blown away by what we heard, so we managed to secure an interview with the man at FolkEast before the release of his latest album True Born Irishman. Again Johnny rose to the opportunity, and he didn’t regret a minute of it…”I’d found Daoirí, and was left in no doubt that interviewing him could easily turn into a rather one-sided conversation. This was going to be fun.” You can read it here.
By this point, we were all eager to hear the second album. Daoirí described True Born Irishman as a continuation of his first album but as Johnny points out in his review “the choice of songs, the intricacies, and energy of the arrangements, the quality of the recording all go to make it so much more…a force to be reckoned with on the Irish music scene.” Read the full review here.
Anyhow, the good news is that the man’s in town touring the UK this month with the Damien O’Kane Trio (the banter will be great) so don’t hang about getting your tickets. They’ll be going quick.
Daoirí Farrell / Damien O’Kane Trio: March 2017 Tour
Thurs 16th Victoria Hall, Settle / 01729 825 718 / settlevictoriahall.org.uk
Fri 17th The Met, Bury / 0161 761 7107 / themet.biz
Sat 18th The Civic, Barnsley / 01226 327 000 / barnsleycivic.co.uk
Sun 19th Music Room, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall / 0151 709 3789 / liverpoolphil.com
Mon 20th Cambridge Junction / 01223 511 511 / junction.co.uk
Tues 21st Henry Tudor House, Shrewsbury / 01743 361 666 / henrytudorhouse.com
Weds 22nd Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton / 01298 72190 / buxtonoperahouse.org.uk
Sat 25th Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-by-Sea / 01273 464 440 / ropetacklecentre.co.uk
Sun 26th The Marlowe Studio, Canterbury / 01227 787 787 / marlowetheatre.com
Mon 27th The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol / 0117 902 0344 / thewardrobetheatre.com
Tues 28th Exeter Phoenix / 01392 667 080 / exeterphoenix.org.uk /
Weds 29th Kings Place, London / 020 7520 1490 / kingsplace.co.uk
Daoirí Farrell solo: March/April 2017 Tour
Fri 31st March The Ram Club, Thames Ditton / 020 8686 9421 / theramclub.co.uk
Sat 1st April Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth, Glos. / 01453 837 537 / 07977 174 729
Sun 2nd April Devoran Village Hall, Cornwall / 01872 262 466 / hallforcornwall.co.uk
Tues 4th April Mill Race Folk at The Place, Bedford / 01234 354 321 / theplace.org.uk
Fri. 7th April Roots Music Club, Doncaster / 07939 148 603 / rootsmusicclub.co.uk / wegottickets.com