16 October 2019
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
If you are travelling to Clonakilty then TheCork.ie can recommend O’Donovan’s Hotel which is just a few doors away from De Barra’s on the same street.
When: Thursday 24th October, 9pm
Tickets: €17.50 incl. booking fee
Widely considered to be one of the finest songsmiths of his generation, Dublin-born
Mark Geary will play an intimate show, as part of his Irish Autumn Tour, at DeBarra’s,
Clonakilty with very special guests, The Strawhall House Band.
Kicking off on Wednesday 16th October with a fully-seated gig at the Workman’s
Club , Mark Geary + The Strawhall House Band will go on to play four other renowned
music venues around Ireland: Campbell’s Tavern in Headford , Co. Galway (Sat. 19.10);
The Black Box in Belfast (Sun. 20.10); DeBarra’s in Clonakilty , Co. Cork (Thurs. 24.10);
finishing up in Cleere’s in Kilkenny on Saturday 26th October.
Ahead of the tour, on Friday 11th October, Mark Geary + The Strawhall House Band
will release a new version of Mark’s song Rosebud , from his 2017 album, The Fool . The
single also has a b-side, Mockingbird , written by Fiacre Gaffney and performed by
The Strawhall House Band.
Mark Geary has just returned from sold-out tours in Italy and Switzerland. This is the
first full tour that he will play with The Strawhall House Band since April 2019.
Mark Geary rose to prominence playing alongside the likes of Jeff Buckley, Sinead
O’Connor and Katell Keineg at the famous Sin é Bar in New York’s East Village. Over
the last 20 years Mark has toured all over Europe, the US and Australia, and has
shared the stage with performers such as The Swell Season, Glen Hansard, The
Frames, Josh Ritter, Bell X1, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders and Joe
Strummer.
The Strawhall House Band features Fiacre Gaffney, Jack Maher, Vinny Kilcullen and
Mark Penny. The band formed from the long running Monday night session at the
iconic Strawberry Hall Pub on the Strawberry Beds Road in Dublin. Alongside
original songs from their debut album Six Days in May, released in May 2017 on
Plateau Records, the band’s repertoire includes covers by great songwriters such as
Lowell George, Ry Cooder, John Hiatt and Guy Clarke.
It’s this infusion of Americana on the new version of Rosebud that adds a distinctive
layer which compliments Mark’s already unique style.
Mark Geary says: “Playing with The Strawhall House Band is an incredible
experience. The idea that I know before I even play a note that every choice they
make is going to be appropriate for the song is astonishing. For me as a singer, that
doesn’t just happen. But with these guys, it happened overnight. ”
Strawhall House Band frontman Fiacre Gaffney says: “There’s a wonderful thing that
happens when you’re playing and you don’t have to think about what the other
people should be doing. It’s total trust. You meet somebody for the first time and
you know you’re on the same wavelength.”
