Ballyporeen Music Maker Festival to rock this weekend

Ballyporeen Music Maker Festival returns this weekend with a superb line-up of music artists to suit all tastes. 

The proceeds from this year’s festival are going to Ballyporeen's GAA development group and the school/community council group for the development of an astro-turf pitch.  

The festival moves outdoors to the sensory garden in the middle of the village with a packed line up from Saturday through until Sunday evening.  The local pubs are also supporting the event with live music over the weekend.

It kicks off with a free event in the sensory garden on Sunday afternoon featuring a wide range of local acts including The Kilshanna Junior Choir, D’Ellas, Amy Casey Kelly and Culleton. 

There will be food stalls with teas and coffee on offer from the Tidy Towns group, which is kindly supporting the Festival. 

Mickey Joe Harte

In the evening there is an opportunity to see Mickey Joe Harte, who has been a mainstay of the Irish roots and popular music scene for more than 15 years.

He has multiple Platinum records to his credit and many Top 20 hits on the Irish charts. Back in 2003 he represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest with "We've Got the World" and placed 11th. The song reached Number 1 in the Irish Singles Chart. 

The single releases of “Come Gather All' and "Bring it On, Bring it On" are two recent writing collaborations with internationally acclaimed Irish songwriter 'Paul Brady'. 

Harte's current album “Forward to Reality” represents some of his best songs yet, offering an amazingly diverse range of themes, sounds, and subjects.

The album was recorded in the USA with John Condron and Flipworks Productions. It includes the acclaimed songs "Bordertown" "Unstoppable Train", and "Living in our Town". It also includes the hit radio single "Practical" featuring Irish folk legend Finbar Furey.

Mickey has gained a reputation for his outstanding live shows and this promises to be a cracking event.

He will be supported by artist Ciaran O'Gorman on Saturday.  Ciaran is an outstanding talented local artist who brings huge energy to his live gigs. Ciaran will also play in Casey’s directly after the show.

The line up for Sunday also has a host of outstanding artists. It promises to be a great family day out with food and teas and coffee available.  

Before the Ghosts from Mitchelstown kick off the Sunday session.  Locals will be familiar with this band as they play the pub circuit regularly.  They have a brilliant sound and play a host of crowd favourites.

Clare singer-songwriter, David Hope, also performs in the Sunday afternoon session. David has undoubtedly drawn influence from blues and American folk music. His sensibilities, wit and wistful melancholy are unmistakably rooted in the west of Ireland.

David Hope

Hope has gigged and toured extensively in both his native Ireland and mainland Europe, averaging in excess of 200 shows per year. During this time, he has built a reputation as one of the very best live performers on the touring circuit today.

Siobhán O'Brien is a singer-songwriter, who performs acoustic guitar and harmonica. O'Brien has performed with Bob Dylan, The San Diego Symphony, The Chieftains and supported such acts as Christy Moore, Donovan, Damien Dempsey, Pete Cummings, Sharon Shannon, Henry McCullough, Maria McKee, Mick Flannery, Paul Brady and the Cranberries.

Her solo work incorporates traditions of American song, including folk, blues, country, rock and English, Scottish and Irish traditional music.

Singer/songwriter Siobhan O'Brien 

Rounding off the afternoon in the sensory garden is GREENSHINE. GREENSHINE is a Cork based family trio comprising Noel Shine, Mary Greene and their daughter Ellie.

Their material straddles the boundaries of contemporary, folk and roots and includes many self-penned songs.

GREENSHINE 

The band is known for striking family harmonies and excellent musicianship. Noel is a multi-instrumentalist, turning his hand to guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and traditional whistle. This musical dexterity meant he was much in demand as a session and band player by artists as diverse as he Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and funk and soul legends The Republic of Loose amongst many others.

Mary brings rhythm guitar to the mix and her voice is a wonderfully versatile instrument.

She has added her talents to the albums of Christy Moore, John Spillane, Mick Hanly and Frances Black as well as cult psychedelic outfit Dr. Strangely Strange.

As a duo, Noel and Mary have released three critically acclaimed albums to date ~ The Land You Love the Best (placed no. 3 in The Irish Times Folk albums of the year of its release), Unspoken Lines (described as ‘The heart and soul of folk music, coming from a deeper well…,’ by John Spillane) while Mary’s solo, Sea of Hearts, earned an impressive 8 out of 10 in Hot Press.

The Festival concludes with popular local artist  Leanne Dixon playing in Meaney’s Bar.

All the details of the full line-up are available on the Ballyporeen community Facebook page.

Tickets are available on eventbrite, or at the post office and Pat Russell's shop in Ballyporeen. The community council thank everyone supporting the events. The proceeds from this year’s festival will go to the GAA Development group and the School/Community council to help fund the Astro-turf development. The community Council also thank Tipperary County Council for supporting the Music Maker Festival.