Drogheda contemporary folk artist Stephen Joseph McArdle plays a very special home-town show at the Crescent Concert Hall’s Purple Room this coming Saturday night, January 27th.
SJ is a songwriter, musician and curator, known for his critically-acclaimed RTÉ Radio 1 Album of the Week Old Ghosts In The Water and its accompanying song cycle/stage show PORT, (featuring Carol Keogh (Plague Monkeys), Dermot Byrne (Altan), and Graham Henderson (Moving Hearts)) and for stand-out songs like “Home” (written for his wife upon the passing of her mother) and World War I anti-ballad “The Hard Wind”.
SJ was 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 in 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 along the way.
He will be accompanied for this show by Trevor Hutchinson, legendary double bass player with Lúnasa, The Waterboys, Natalie Merchant and countless others as well as keyboard player Graham Henderson (Moving Hearts) who has played with everyone from Fairground Attraction to Sinéad O’Connor.
