Junior Brother recorded one of his early low-fi records in his kitchen in Kerry. A couple of years and many gigs later, he talks to Martin Cook about his evolution as an experimental folk singer.
Ronan Kealy, known to fans as Junior Brother, took his stage name from a play by Thomas Middleton called The Revenger’s Tragedy. It suited the time period his songs are drawn from, he says. “But it’s also quite mad and experimental.”
The folk singer brings together acoustic guitar and a rhythmic foot tambourine. He sings in his Kerry accent, thanks to the influence of his uncle, who said he should have a listen to Damien Dempsey, who sings in his own Dublin voice, and made Kealy realise that “I can just sing in my own accent and it’s grand.”
Kealy was in Dublin recently to perform some of his songs at Marrowbone Books in The Coombe, including the popular “Hungover at Mass” and “No Snitch”. Before the gig, he talked to Martin Cook about all this and more. Have a listen.
A crowd of about 40 people gathered on Saturday for the unveiling of a plaque honouring Leo Rowsome.
"How do you engage a part of the brain that people fear, in a way that engrosses and rather than repulses?"
“It’s an indulgent thing, a fry-up, rammed into a luxury baguette. It felt like such a symbol of contemporary Ireland, and the perfect identity for the project.”
They're preparing to release their as-yet-untitled sophomore record.
