4 February 2025
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Ballymaloe Grainstore will welcome the award-winning Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes for her first performance in the venue on Saturday 22 February at 8pm.
2020 saw Gemma and her family to relocate from London to West Cork. It was there that she reignited her passion for songwriting that provided the spark for what would become her sixth studio album, Blind Faith. “Songs began to murmur, distil and rise up in my mind,” she explains. “I would lock myself in the room, usually late at night when the world was asleep. I knew I needed to capture them before they left me.”
Blind Faith was released in September 2024 to great acclaim, with Mojo Magazine hailing it as “the album of her career”. The critics have been universally generous in their praise of Gemma’s new work which has delighted old fans and won new followers.
The album’s cover art, designed by the German artist Dirk Wüstenhagen, suggests an artist diving back into her art with conviction and a newfound sense of freedom, perhaps even a bit of reckless abandon.
Gemma’s songs have always drawn their power from her lyrical intimacy and lucidity, juxtaposed with her penchant for experimenting with various sonic textures that embrace both the quiet and the loud.
These hallmarks are on riveting display throughout Blind Faith’s nine compositions, produced by Gemma herself alongside Karl Odlum, David Odlum & Brian Casey.
Gemma will be joined on the stage by Éna Brennan and Ross Turner. Tickets for her concert in Ballymaloe Grainstore, the venue on the grounds of Ballymaloe House in East Cork, are €32 and may be booked online at www.ballymaloegrainstore.com.