SMALL PRINT:WHEN VILLAGERS' Conor O'Brien won an Ivor Novello award for Becoming A Jackal last week, it reinforced once again that the Irish music scene is on fire.
Next up is fellow Dubliner James Vincent McMorrow, who this week performs on Later . . . with Jools Holland.
Over the past 18 years, just two Irish bands have been nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize for best album (U2 and the Thrills) but there have been five nominations for Irish singer-songwriters: Van Morrison, Gemma Hayes, Fionn Regan, Lisa Hannigan and Villagers.
While the Irish music scene has shaken off “the Whelan’s Years” (referring to the central musical point of Whelan’s on Dublin’s Wexford Street), we are still producing quality singer-songwriters.
From Swell Season to Damien Rice via David Kitt and Cathy Davey, Paul Brady and Julie Feeney, what is it about Irish singer songwriters that has international audiences entranced?
Top Five Reasons We’re Great At Singer-Songwriters
1. Our boys are sensitive
The aching tales of songs from Irish male singer-songwriters are either results of years of over-Mammyfication or an ability to express themselves more through song than chat.
2. I rish women seem to have genetically pleasant voicesFor some reason, we've always excelled at tone and range.
3. We can can tell a good story and write poeticallyWestlife aside.
4. We don't do divasIrish artists' endearing, humble, unassuming personalities and likeable banter mean they're treated well by international press and audiences alike.
5. We fit a formatLike the influx of Irish comedians to the UK in the 1990s, the Irish singer-songwriter is a very sellable product. Audiences know what they're getting and are as familiar and open to the latest Irish troubadour as they are to Scandinavian indie-pop or West Coast rappers.
I like that you like what I like . . .
FACEBOOK NOT making enough connections for you? Losing out on proper chats on Twitter? Need a greater sense of attachment than Foursquare can provide? Well a new application has taken connecting people through social networks to the next level.
StreetSpark is all about “online serendipity” and uses the information people share online and the interests they show through social networking to act as a virtual cupid, connecting people with similar interests and who go to similar places.
“How many people do you walk past on the street without ever realising how much you have in common with them?” StreetSpark asks, “And what are the chances you’ll meet unless serendipity intervenes? Fortunately, StreetSpark creates this kind of serendipity.”
StreetSpark bypasses more traditional match-making and dating sites by connecting people purely through their slightly more subliminal interests, from bands they ‘like’ on Facebook to who they follow on Twitter. When StreetSpark finds two people who seem compatible it puts them in touch and they can choose to drop one and other a message.
Of course, security is also an issue with the app and StreetSpark says that contact information will never be shared and if anyone is concerned about someone they’ve been put in touch with, there’s a button to “extinguish” the spark.
So not that romantic, then.
