HAVE YOU ever been “Dingled”? It happened to Canadian soul/ blues singer Cold Specks on her first night in the Kerry town. Arriving at night, she and her crew strolled along Main Street and went into what they thought was a late-opening clothes shop.
In fairness, Curran’s on Main Street has an array of traditional shirts for sale in the front window, but as you walk in it transforms itself, Tardis-like, into a bar.
A few hours later, with not one article of clothing purchased but with several pints of Guinness consumed, Cold Specks sang Tom Waits songs into the early hours. She woke up with a dusty throat and a sore head to be greeted by a town valiantly bearing up under driving sheets of rain.
Did that pub really have shirts for sale in the window? Oh, yes. She had been, in a word, Dingled.
In the lounge of Benner's Hotel, we bump into Oisín Leech and Mark McCausland of The Lost Brothers, in the company of Frank Murray, their manager and former handler (brave man) of The Pogues. The Lost Brothers are old hands at Other Voices, having performed previously in Dingle and at the Other VoicesNew York event a few weeks ago.
“After playing in Greenwich Village,” says Leech, “we went to upstate New York to jam with The Band’s Levon Helm and Bob Dylan’s touring guitarist, Larry Campbell.”
Nice work if you can get it.
Tell that to Daniel Ryan, the former member of much-touted Irish band The Thrills. Now managing two of Ireland's hotly tipped acts, Little Green Cars and Gypsies on the Autobahn, Ryan is interrupted from what looks suspiciously like a band meeting to tell The Irish Timesthat Little Green Cars have just signed to the American label Glassnote, which was named best US indie label 2011 by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Other Voices 10continues tonight with performances from Band of Skulls, Frank Turner, Cherry Ghost and former Orange Juice singer Edwyn Collins. Other Voices Music Trailscontinues today with Gypsies on the Autobahn and Mick Flannery.
Other Voices 10concludes tomorrow with performances in St James's Church from SBTRKT, King Charles, Spiritualized and Wild Beasts. Other Voices Music Trailsconcludes tomorrow with shows from The Ambience Affair, We Cut Corners and Ham Sandwich. It remains to be seen how many of them will get Dingled between now and Monday.