Irish singer songwriter Padraig Jack releases his second album These Shores on 18 October. This is the follow-up to his successful debut Making Sand which was released in 2020, was named RTÉ Album of the Week, and also received a nomination for an RTÉ Folk Award for Best Original Song for the track ‘Making Sand’.
Padraig Jack (O Flaithearta) was born into a musical family from the Aran islands. His dad is the songwriter Barry Ronan and he is the nephew of the Irish poet and Aosdána member Mary O’Malley. A native of Aran which has produced writers Liam O Flaithearta, Máirtín Ó Direáin and Breandán Ó hEithir, Padraig is proudly bilingual both as a conversationalist and a songwriter. These Shores features ten tracks in Irish and English further demonstrating his singular bilingual poetic and musical sensibilities. In the titular track, Padraig blends Irish Gaelic and English together which asserts a proud feeling of Irishness celebrating the Celtic ‘culture of our own’ that has been ‘strewn afar’ around the world and the distinguished position that Ireland now holds in the world after centuries of rebelling against its colonial rulers. ‘Lovely Stare’ and ‘Little’ are both love songs, while ‘Father To Son’ is a country-rock anthem featuring numerous members of Padraig Jack’s family. ‘Long Street’ is a feel-good song about looking at the bright side of life and realising that if you’re moving in the right direction at all then you should try to take enjoyment from the journey.
These Shores has contributions from family and friends as well as some Irish music legends. Padraig has included a song penned by his dad Barry Ronan, and siblings Cathal and Aisling, uncle Seamus and cousin Ronan also provide musical input. Padraig has collaborated with his neighbours, and former winners of TheAll-Ireland Talent Show, The Mulkerrin Brothers who lend their voices to the track ‘Oíche Gheal’, while Connemara singer Gráinne Ní Mháille sings harmony on Irish language track ‘Díolta go hIfreann’, a song about the Covid lockdown.
Padraig teams up with legendary producer John Reynolds (Sinead O’Connor, Brian Eno, Belinda Carlisle) for the second time. These Shores also features two former members of The Waterboys: Anthony Thistlethwaite’s mandolin and saxophone play on numerous tracks, as well as Steve Wickham’s fiddle on ‘Little’ and ‘Long Street’.
Padraig kicked off 2024 with a run of shows with Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff in the UK before playing a sold-out show at Dublin TradFest in the Pepper Canister Church and a tour of Wales with Welsh languageartist Meinir Gwilym. He played summer shows in Dublin’s Cobblestone and Galway’s Roisin Dubh as well as a concert in An Spidéal in Stiúdeo Cuan as part of their Summer Concert Series, and made his debut at the Big Top for the Galway International Arts Festival as special guest to the Saw Doctors.
No doubt more gigs are on the way for Padraig Jack to bring the music of ‘These Shores’ to these shores and beyond!
Padraig Jack announces headline show at Pavilion Theatre, Dublin
Wednesday, 23rd April 2025
Tickets from €25.00 plus booking fees on sale Friday, 31st January at 10am from singularartists.ie