Redundancy proved a blessing in disguise for singer Norianna

Being made redundant was a blessing in disguise,” says Norianna Kennedy, a Dublin-born singer who has been based in Galway since 2005. Norianna is a member of Mad Uncle Harry, an Americana outfit who are in high demand in sessions across the city.

Mad Uncle Harry formed last year when Norianna teamed up with Dutch singer/songwriter Christof Van Der Ven and fiddler Liz Coleman. Paddy Kennedy, Norianna’s brother, joined the band as a drummer and the line-up was completed by double-bassist Paul O’Driscoll. Although gigs as a full quintet are infrequent, the individual members of the band are kept busy with acoustic pub sessions.

“Some pubs need the extra pull,” says Norianna. “Mad Uncle Harry play music that’s really easy listening and good craic. The pubs seem to be taking and we pull a crowd, and that’s all they care about.”

Up until last year, music had to take a back seat in Norianna’s life.“I had moved here five years ago with the intention of playing music,” she says. “But I had a degree in environmental science and looked up the phone book. At that time the company [I joined]was growing. It was the planning side of environmental consultancy, so I ended up getting jobs in monitoring construction sites for air and water quality.”

“But then the recession hit, all my sites were shut down and I was made redundant,” Norianna continues. “I’d just turned 30. I took the time out and just went ‘right, I can play music and see how it goes’. And not put any pressure on myself to find more work, because I knew there wasn’t any more work out there. Everything was just going belly up.”

Before starting Mad Uncle Harry, Liz, Norianna and Paddy played in Nábac – a five-piece trad band that toured in Australia and Europe. But Norianna also cites influences from outside the folk tradition.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.