Bríd takes classic folk song to make her kind of Noise

In the last few years, Bríd Kenny & the Noise have been a regular fixture on the Galway music circuit. While the sound at the core of the project initially revolved around Bríd’s haunting, acoustic folk style, it grew into an ambitious and genre-traversing set that expanded on her work as a singer-songwriter.

And now, after a year of travelling and focusing on other commitments, the Nenagh native is now back with a release that acts as the perfect reintroduction.

She Moves Through the Fair is an Irish folk lament that has been covered by the likes of Sinéad O’Connor and Art Garfunkel. Having performed the song for years, Bríd’s version is set for official release this Friday. It sits her vocals against a doomed and swelling drone, leaving space for the story the song tells – one of a young man’s love for the woman he wishes to marry.

“I think I heard it in school first,” Bríd recalls.

“I’m pretty sure we would’ve learned it in primary school first. And then in secondary school, it came up a lot in many aspects of my life. My Grandad would sing it as well… I used to sing it at parties or at family events. It was one of those songs that I just love, and I don’t get bored of.

“I sang it at my uncle’s wedding and I’m going to sing it at my brother’s wedding as well. It means a lot to me in that way. Even from a young age, I thought the energy was very haunting and beautiful. It kind of reminds me of Ireland and you can just imagine this ghost entity walking around.”

“I definitely get that a lot, that the vocals are kind of haunting or ethereal,” she says of her sound.

“I’m very interested in old Irish singing like sean nós or the Irish folk scene, obviously. Sinéad O’Connor, Damien Rice, Dolores O’Riordan – everyone like that. But even before their time, the Irish ballads and the way of telling stories through songs, and passing them on through the oral tradition, I’m very interested in all of that.”

Pictured: Bríd Kenny (left) and Ella Partington.