Trad and Americana at Monroe's in Arts Fest lunchtime gig

From Hughie O’Donoghue’s massive paintings to Cillian Murphy’s tour-de-force turn in Misterman, this year’s Galway Arts Festival offers an assault on the senses.

As well as the major events, there is also work that is moving in a quieter, yet equally affecting, way. An example of this will be the lunchtime session from singer Noriana Kennedy with guitarist and vocalist Gerry Paul in Monroe’s Live this Saturday, July 23. Gerry Paul’s accent points to the southern hemisphere but he has ties, both familial and musical, to Ireland.

“I was born in Dublin, my parents moved over to New Zealand when I was about six,” he says. “Then we moved back in 1998, to go to secondary school. I’ve been pretty much playing music full-time since then.”

After returning to New Zealand for a year in 2000, Gerry Paul returned to Dublin to finish a civil engineering degree. But due to complications with fees, he was unable to complete the course and found himself instead in Ballyfermot, doing a traditional music course. There, he joined Gráda, the band he still plays with today. The group drew him to the West of Ireland (lead singer Nicola Joyce is from Headford) and six years ago Gerry moved to Galway.

“Dublin got a bit busy,” he says. “You’d be sitting on a bus for an hour just to get into town. Galway seemed like it had everything – a nice compact, little city with an artistic community. I’m living out in Salthill, there’s something magic about being next to the sea, with the creativity.”

Gráda regularly tour Europe, the US and Australia. Their last album, Natural Angle was recorded in Nashville with Americana legend Tim O’Brien, who worked on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou. The band mixes Irish and American music, something Gerry continues to do with Noriana Kennedy.

“Earlier on – we’re going ten years with Gráda – it was very much a jazz influence,” he recalls. “Andy, the bass player, came from a jazz background; Alan’s got a real improv style. Over the last few years, because Nicola’s really into the Americana music and I am, it steered in that direction.”

The tight-knit nature of the Galway music scene means Gerry can call on a host of like-minded players.

“A lot of brilliant collaborations happen,” he explains. “You get to feeling like you know people and you can sit it and jam with anyone. Those Salthouse [Bar, Ravens’ Terrace] sessions we have on a Sunday afternoon – anyone could be there from Noriana, Kelvin Busher, Niall McTeague, Tom Portman, Mark Sullivan from the Lazy Blues Band, the guys from No Banjo.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.