Today sees the release of Junior Brother’s new single, ‘Take Guilt’ (also our Song of the Day), accompanied by a Lyric Video by Dylan Gomery. He is currently at work on album number three, with famed producer John “Spud” Murphy (black midi, Lankum) at the helm.
The fact that Junior Brother has released a new song should be cause for widespread celebration. The County Kerry-born singer-songwriter, real name Ronan Kealy, has steadily been drip-feeding us with joyous, angry, ribald lo-fi folk poetry – usually with only a guitar and a tambourine for company – since recording his first demos in 2010, while still a teenager. Two critically acclaimed albums – Pull the Right Rope (2019) and The Great Irish Famine (2022) – have cemented his place at the heart of Dublin’s resurgent alternative folk scene.
Kealy’s idiosyncratic and highly original style have made him a hit with his peers, and his new single, Take Guilt, should gain him even more followers amongst the wider listening public. He’s one of those singers you can easily become addicted to after hearing one song, and Take Guilt is one of his best songs yet. An impassioned rant against the hypocrisies and injustices of the modern day and a brutally honest self-examination delivered in his own raw and inimitable style, Take Guilt rattles along with a defiant strum of acoustic guitar. But it is a bigger and broader beast than much of his earlier material, fleshed out by pounding drums and a full band sound, before much of the instrumentation falls away in the song’s closing moments, and Kealy’s voice rings out starker and truer and more distinctive than ever.
Junior Brother on Take Guilt:
“Things in the world are hard to ignore. Some things are almost impossible to forget. Privilege is reaching the end of the article and closing the paper – guts wrenched, heartbroken and everything forgotten by dinner time. Modernity unburdens itself, desperately trying to progress past history’s horrors – but horrors that used faces as currency will forever look back at us in the mirror’s reflection.
“Small disgraces face minorities closer to home every day. I’m white and male and I have done nothing, but the crimes and horrors done in my face’s name requires me to take guilt. I’ll bring this guilt with me to escape hate, as the news of morning clears into the long dead day.”
Stream Take Guilt: https://soundraiser.io/link/junior-brother-take-guilt/
LIVE DATES:
To celebrate this new single, Junior Brother will perform a special intimate show at Bello Bar October 19th, with Peter Mc Gann on support and DJs playing til late. Limited tickets will be made available. For priority access, sign up to Junior Brother’s mailing list at: https://junior-brother.ck.page/6dbb50fac9
The first 25 people signed up to the newsletter will get FREE entry +1 until 11:59pm this Thursday19th September. Limited Tickets will then be on sale from Friday at 10am.
Junior Brother embarks on a UK tour in October and will round out the year performing at The Pogues’ 40th Anniversary Performance of Red Roses for Me, at the 3 Arena, Dublin, Tuesday 17th December. Fellow special guests also joining on the night include: Grian Chatten and Tom Coll from Fontaines D.C., Nadine Shah, John Francis Flynn, Ian and Daragh Lynch from Lankum, Kojaque, Iona Zajac, + Stick in The Wheel.
Junior Brother Tour Dates
2024
19.10 – DUBLIN, Bello Bar
22.10 – LIVERPOOL Kazimier Stockroom
23.10 – LONDON Omeara
24.10 – BRIGHTON Prince Albert
26.10 – EDINBURGH Voodoo Rooms (Speakeasy)
27.10 – YORK The Fulford Arms
17.12 – DUBLIN, The 3 Arena (The Pogues ‘Red Roses for Me’ 40th Anniversary Celebration)
2025
20.03 – CORK, Live at St. Luke’s
22.03 – BELFAST, Black Box
Tickets available at: https://www.juniorbrother.com/tour