Ruth Clinton

We chat to Ruth Clinton and Cormac MacDiarmada of Poor Creature about their debut album, All Smiles Tonight. A deep dive into its making, their influences (from the Cocteau Twins to Ellen Arkbro) and more. The album feels like a new high point in the constantly evolving experimental folk scene centred around Dublin and a thoroughly modern foray into ancient musical territory. But is it folk?

Tension, contrast and juxtaposition are words that inevitably come to mind at multiple points throughout All Smiles Tonight. Poor Creature are masters at harnessing that tension and creating soundworlds that are utterly compelling from start to finish. This is music that straddles darkness and light, and traverses the blasted terrain of loss in wholly unexpected ways, picking apart and reassembling the whole idea of folk music as it goes.

Poor Creature, featuring Ruth Clinton of Landless, Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum and John Dermody of The Jimmy Cake, share their latest single and video, ‘All Smiles Tonight’, the title track of their forthcoming debut album. “This song is about seeing your fella on the dance floor with another woman, except it’s 1879. The video, directed by Ruth & Cormac, was filmed in Las Vegas and Sligo.”

Featuring Ruth Clinton, Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody, Poor Creature share an animated music video for their new single ‘Adieu Lovely Erin’ and announce additional tour dates.

Featuring Ruth Clinton of Landless, Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum and John Dermody of The Jimmy Cake, Poor Creature announce debut album ‘All Smiles Tonight’ and share video for ‘The Whole Town Knows’.

Irish Quartet Landless, featuring Lily Power, Méabh Meir, Ruth Clinton and Sinéad Lynch, announce new album ‘Lúireach’ and share video for The Fisherman’s Wife – a song written by Ewan MacColl for the 1960 BBC Radio Ballad ‘Singing the Fishing’.

Today marks the release of ‘What Will Become of England’, the new single from Jim Ghedi. He collaborated with Poor Creature – friends Ruth Clinton (Landless) and Cormac Macdiarmada (LANKUM) – on a truly unique music video.

Watch Poor Creature, the new duo project from Ruth Clinton of Landless and Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum, in a special BYOL Session to launch Féile na Gréine in Limerick City.

Poor Creature is the new project from Ruth Clinton of Landless and Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum. While taking inspiration from the Irish tradition, their approach is experimental, edgy and refreshingly original.