PORT is a new collection of songs from Drogheda musician SJ McArdle which he’ll be playing at Droichead Arts Centre next Friday, November 10th before embarking on a tour with the next ports of call being Belfast and Wexford.
PORT is a new song cycle full of timeless, indelible folk songs – work songs, story songs, love songs to the sea. Songs written in anger and written in sorrow. Songs about injustice and change. Songs about people.
Born during a year-long research and writing project around the history and stories of Drogheda’s ancient Port, conducted during SJ’s tenure as Artist in Association at Droichead Arts Centre in 2019.
Along with the critically-acclaimed RTÉ Radio 1 Album of the Week, Old Ghosts In The Water, PORT features Carol Keogh (Plague Monkeys), Graham Henderson (Moving Hearts, Sinead O’Connor) and Trevor Hutchinson (Lúnasa, The Waterboys) along with vocalist John Ruddy and fiddle player Barry Kieran (Kern).
SJ was previously the songwriter and singer in award-winning Irish folk band Kern from 2013 to 2020 and he is also known for his career as a singer-songwriter in Nashville and Germany, which produced 2014’s critically-acclaimed Blood and Bones album (featuring Rodney Crowell). He is also a member of the trad trio Long Woman’s Grave with Nuala Kennedy and Trevor Hutchinson.
SJ’s songs and performances have been featured in radio, film and television and he has toured and recorded extensively in Ireland, Europe and North America, gathering a loyal following and critical accolades in every port along the way.
PORT is produced by Droichead Arts Centre and funded by the Arts Council Touring Scheme.
“An impressive song cycle … the songs are intriguing and evocative; they are rooted in folk but coloured by expansive and imaginative arrangements.” – The Irish Times
“What a great, great collection of songs this is from SJ McArdle. I urge you to go out and get it.” – Fiachna Ó Braonáin (The Hothouse Flowers, RTÉ).
“Bravo for an artist who has taken contemporary Irish music to parts it far too seldom reaches” – Hot Press
PORT ON TOUR 2023/2024. Four more additional dates will be announced in December for March/April 2024.
Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda
8pm, 10 November 2023
