Dublin based French American musician and composer Zoé Basha – releases new single ‘Gamble’

Zoé Basha, the Dublin based French American musician and composer known for her unique blend of traditional and original music, will share her upcoming debut album 17th April 2025, today she shares the album’s title track, ‘Gamble’.

Zoé says: “This new single touches on desire, disappointment, and the cycle of romantic connections and their endings. It’s a shout-out to the twisted individual baggage we carry with us, and the attempt to find another human who’s baggage functions with yours, and vice versa.”

Zoé’s forthcoming debut album Gamble blends folk, blues, americana, jazz, and Irish influences.

Zoé’s debut is an intimate exploration of identity, grief, the deconstructing of societal norms, and the complexities of human connection, all delivered with a mesmerising voice that echoes the vulnerability and depth of her diverse influences. Inspired by the greats of times passed such as Billie Holiday, The Mills Brothers, Jimmie Rodgers, Joni Mitchell, Texas Gladden, Edith Piaf and The Steve Miller Band– as well as her peers in the Irish folk music scene, Zoé Basha savours the sounds of golden eras with contemporary nuance and shameless honesty.

Traveling by thumb, freight trains, and taking the scenic route with rust-bucket vans, Zoé Basha played music in the streets for years to sustain the journey.​ Of French and American origins, but with some pretty persistent traveling shoes, she was pulled between Ireland and the traveling life for the last decade. For a while, she had a persistent feeling that music wasn’t the most useful endeavour for the world, so Zoé turned to working in traditional French timber framing.

With her passion for music revived through trio Rufous Nightjar starting in 2020, Zoé moved all her tools, her own rust-bucket van, and her dreams back to Ireland. Now having recorded her first solo album with songs that tell the stories of these roamings – through adventures and musings of intimacy, sorrow, identity, celebrating the fleeting, and questioning the whole lot – she’ll be touring it throughout 2025, returning to the towns and cities of her travels.

‘Gamble’ is a collection that reflects Zoé’s distinctive style blending the rich storytelling traditions of Appalachian Mountain songs, the solemn ornamentation of Irish traditional music, and the rhythmic fervor of American blues and ragtime. The album was produced by Zoé, with mixing and mastering by Grammy Award-winning engineer Ben Rawlins. With a combination of guitar, fiddle, organ, upright bass, and a voice that’s often been compared to the sounds of old jazz records, the album is expected to cause a mighty stir in the world of contemporary folk music.

LIVE DATES:
April 17th 2025 – Album Launch with full band at The Sugar Club, Dublin
April 18th 2025 – Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Cork
April 19th 2025 – Tech Amergin, Waterville, Cork
April 20th 2025 – Levis’ Bar, Ballydehob, Cork
April 21st 2025 – Prim’s Bookshop, Kinsale, Cork
April 24th 2025- De Burgos Club, Galway
April 25th 2025 – The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Leitrim
April 26th 2025 – The Duncairn, Belfast
April 27th 2025 – The Record Room, Limerick
May 1st 2025 – Fennelly’s of Callan, Kilkenny
May 2nd – Bray Jazz Fest, Wicklow
May 3rd 2025 – The Crane Lane Theatre, Cork
May 4th 2025 – Blennerville, Tralee, Co. Kerry (co-headling with Rachel Sermanni)

+ more to be announced – https://www.zoebasha.net/upcoming-gigs

Photo credit – Celeste Burdon