Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

A number of Galway artists are set to perform at Ireland’s largest folk music conference in Killarney next month. It is the third year of Your Roots Are Showing, a showcase of folk talent that affords artists opportunities to perform, workshop and network.

The event attracts attendees and artists from around the country as well as the likes of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US.

One representative from the west is Inis Mór singer-songwriter Padraig Jack whose second album, These Shores, arrived in October.

Featuring several songs in Irish, it is a record that incorporates much of the folk and country sensibilities that have so far propelled Padraig’s career.

“I released it independently this time,” he says. “I set up my own label so there was a lot of work involved and all that kind of thing. It was also a great learning process. I’m delighted with the reaction to the songs and the album from people. I did a tour around it and got a great reaction too.”

Padraig is usually tipping away at songs and some of the tracks on These Shores go back several years. The album was produced by John Reynolds, who is best known for his collaboration with Sinéad O’Connor.

“Some of the songs I’d written a good few years ago,” Padraig says. “Before the last album even, one or two of them. During Covid I think is when a lot of the songs were written. There’s one in Irish (Díolta go hIfreann) that’s about Covid – the darkness of the light and that the light will come in the morning.

“The title track as well was written during lockdown. It was at night. I’d started doing a bit of recording at home – very badly but it was a good process for songwriting and composing.

“So, it’s probably a few years in the making but really it was about a year from when I started recording with John Reynolds the producer. I wasn’t in a major rush. I had deadlines but I pushed them back. I had no big label waiting on me or anything, so I had the luxury of that.”

Pictured: Padraig Jack…one of the Galway artists at Your Roots Are Showing.