Damien O'Kane, Daoirí Farrell Band

Damien O’Kane is a Northern Irish musician of many talents. Teamed up with master guitarist Steven Byrnes (Treacherous Orchestra/Kate Rusby) and Steven Iveson’s (Damien O’Kane Band) sublime and exhilarating electric guitar playing, this is a trio that take traditional Irish music and song and, in the words of the The Telegraph, turn it into ‘Folk-Pop that is Irish music for the 21st Century.’

O’Kane is a singer. A very good one, too, with a relaxed, assured, hypnotic vocal style that exudes a natural warmth and empathy with the colourful characters who occupy his songs. Added to his accomplished banjo and guitar skills, he is an artist of rich imagination and fearless vision.

Steeped in music, Damien grew up in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, with a deep respect and understanding of the folk tradition, yet which also forged a healthy appetite to explore its broadest borders and test its boundaries. All of which has culminated in his 2015 solo album ‘Areas Of High Traffic’ which, apart from proving he scrubs up well for a cover photo, takes some of the greatest songs in the folk canon – ‘The Blacksmith’, ‘The Banks Of The Bann’, ‘I Am A Youth’ and ‘The Green Fields Of America’ included – and reinvents them in refreshingly original ways.