Maghera musician Jack Warnock part of TradFest line-up

County Derry musician Jack Warnock will be part of an excellent line-up of performers taking part in Belfast TradFest Winter Weekend later this month.

Traditional Irish music will fill the streets of Belfast from February 23 to 25 when the 3rd edition of the popular festival takes place.

The weekend will see the best internationally renowned talent in both traditional Irish and Scottish music, song and dance performing in concerts, competitions, and even workshops.

One of the concerts called 'The Songs of Shane MacGowan' will feature Maghera musician Jack Warnock, an Irish trad/folk multi-instrumentalist, that released his first solo album called ‘Le Solas Faoithine’ in 2022.

He first started playing music at a young age, starting with piano before moving onto the guitar and falling in love with traditional Irish music.

“I first started playing classical music on the piano at around seven years-old, and then I kept going with that for a number of years," said Jack.

“Eventually, a friend of mine played the banjo and played traditional music. He played a few tunes on the mandolin and the banjo and after that, my sister got a guitar for Christmas."

After borrowing his sister’s guitar, he began playing at 15 years-old and hasn't looked back since.

“I started playing all sorts of music like the Foo Fighters and John Mayer, lots of rock stuff and anything in between,” explained Jack.

“Then obviously I really got into the Transit Brothers, like real old school folk.

“From there, I started to move more into planning sessions and playing sort of more traditional music and it snowballed from there.”

Jack studied Irish and music at Ulster University's Magee campus where he believes his background in piano really helped him, giving him the needed knowledge to move forward with his music.

“When I first started, I practised a lot, plus I had a kind of theory background from playing classical piano," continued Jack.

“Then I went up and I did Irish with music at university in Derry. That was a chance for me to work on developing my own kind of musical style and musical voice along with learning the Irish language which has proved to be really helpful, especially when working with traditional music.

“Just having that knowledge of the [Irish] language, it really helps when you're trying to take these songs and breathe life back into them, especially if they haven't been as popular in recent years.”

During his studies, he had the opportunity to take part in workshops with Irish artists and for Jack that “made all of the difference”.

“When I was in Derry, I had the chance to learn from a lot of different musicians that were passing through for workshops," he said.

Throughout the workshops, he met famous artists like John Doyle and Tony McManus, amongst others.

“I got to sit down with them for one-on-one lessons. It made all the difference and they were able to sort of impart their knowledge of everything that they had learned throughout their musical careers.

“For me, that was just absolutely amazing,” Jack said.

During his studies, Jack had the opportunity to go on placement with Dónal O'Connor, the current Artistic Director of Belfast TradFest.

“At that stage, TradFest hadn't actually taken place at all. [Dónal and I] worked on a lot of TV, audio, recording albums and different things and we sort of grew a working relationship out of that and playing music together as well.

“Part of that was that both of us are traditional musicians and Irish speakers,” said Jack.

After his studies, Jack released his first solo album and travelled around Ireland and abroad to perform his songs in different countries.

One of the challenges Jack often needs to face is to bring back to life old Irish songs to better understand how to perform them.

“Some of the songs go back to the 1600s or even earlier in some cases. You're taking old material that you are trying to breathe new life into it.

“You're trying to find, as people call it, a new old song to do that.

“For me, I tend to go and listen to a few different versions of the song that might have been recorded already. They might be unaccompanied or they can have very heavy arrangements and different things, but just trying to get into the essence of what the song is and what it is about because they're all stories.

“Then try to find the best way of telling that story and the best way for me to tell that story will be totally different from the best way for you or for someone else to tell that story.”

During the festival, Jack will be part of a group of artists celebrating the songs of the late Shane MacGowan. Andrew Hendy, Finnian O’Connor and Lough Neagh singer Niall Hanna are just a few of them.

“As the winter lifts and the days get longer, we’re looking forward to welcoming some of the

most incredible musicians, singers, and dancers of all ages to venues across Belfast city,” said Dónal O’Connor, Artistic Director of Belfast TradFest.

“Traditional music is part of the fabric of this city and in recent years it has become recognised as one of the main attractions for visitors to this part of the world. It’s important that we support the ecosystem of musicians and music here and Belfast TradFest continues this work with our 3rd annual Winter Weekend.

“The festival is gathering a reputation for providing both accessibility and excellence and we are thankful for the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, Ulster University and Dunville’s Irish Whiskey, without whom this festival couldn’t happen.”

For the full programme visit the Belfast traditional music website.