Wayfaring Strangers featuring Joshua Burnside and special guests

Belfast based musician and producer Joshua Burnside headlines our night of alt-folk in a bill shared with Donegal fiddler Jack Houston and singer/songwriters Mick Hagan and RUÁ.

Joshua Burnside takes influences from alternative electronica and Irish folk, chopping and blending them with a mixture of found sounds, world music and unorthodox production methods. His 2017 debut album EPHRATA won the NI Music Prize and has received critical acclaim from The Sunday Times, NPR music, The Irish Times, CLASH and others, whilst being championed by BBC 6 music and Radio 1 DJ’s including Laurene Lavern, Tom Ravenscroft, Phil Taggart and Huw Stephens. His most recent album, Teeth Of Time, sits comfortably and confrontationally between the alt-folk realms of Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens while retaining the indie singer-songwriter and traditional folk elements of Josh’s signature songwriting.

Jack Houston’s traditional arrangements are steeped in the Donegal fiddle playing style and inspired by tunes of Ulster and Scotland. His debut album ‘Ómós’ pays tribute to the people and places important to him during his formative years in Donegal and Scotland. He will play a selection of his thoughtful arrangements accompanied by Ella McGroary(keys and fiddle) and Paul McClure(bodhran and accordion).

Fingerstyle guitarist and folk singer Mick Hagan from County Tyrone takes us to Appalachia and back with his traditional blues, country, folk and ragtime playing.

RUÁ’s merging of Irish, folk and world textures brings her music into a dreamlike world existing outside of any one time or place. Playing alongside bandmates Conán Mullan (fiddle, mandolin and guitar) and Steamy McCay (Percussion, synth), RUÁ’s live shows take you on a journey – from intricate guitar lines paired with velvety melodies singing of love, loss, and healing; to vivacious trad-folk-gypsy stories of fortune tellers and ghosts; to synths and drone heavy soundscapes. Throughout it all there is a tangible vulnerability and honesty that guides RUÁ’s songwriting. After releasing her alt-folk debut EP ‘The Healing’, RUÁ is set to release her experimental-theatrical-folk EP ‘The Magic Theatre’ later this year.

Presented as part of the Lasta Young Curators Festival.