The Kilkenny Rhythm 'n' roots festival promises great music and - just maybe - first encounters with big names in the making, says Tony Clayton-Lea
If it's the end of April and it's roots/Americana music you're after, then it can mean only one darn rootin'-shootin'-tootin' thing: the Carlsberg Kilkenny Rhythm 'n' Roots Weekend.
The primary enjoyable factor of this loose, casual and kinda carefree event, now in its eighth year, is the way the organisers - whose ears are so close to the ground they can hear cowboy boots walking on Platform 3 at Connolly Station - manage to keep bringing in acts few people have heard of. Years back, for example, a singer called Ryan Adams made his Irish debut at Kilkenny - whatever happened to him?
This year there are a few unknowns that might cross the strict genre divide: Michah P Hinson, Jesse DeNatale, Joe Whyte and some weird US singer-songwriter who goes by the name of Entrance. Oh, and a female singer-songwriter named Holly Williams, whose granddad was no other than a man called Hank.
Country royalty, pasty-faced recluses brought out into the light of day, bands with strange names (Omar and the Stringpoppers, Annita and the Starbombers), and more people making a crust through tales of personal loss than you can probably cope with. Will they make the journey from unknowns to household names? Who knows? Ultimately, who cares?
What we know for certain is where we heard 'em first - Kilkenny.
www.kilkennyroots.com
056-7790057
