Still making great music in the absence of a live stage

This pandemic has had two contrasting effects on the music business – clearly the biggest is that it has robbed performers of their live stage….but it has also provided a source of inspiration for a world of new songs. Like blues-folk singer-songwriter Dylan Murphy – a key figure on the Galway music scene for the best part of ten years. Regularly featuring as a guitarist with a variety of Irish acts, he has championed his solo work with Citóg Records through a string of dynamic EPs.

The past six months have proven to be his least prolific on local stages since his on-and-off living relationship with the city began – but, in lieu of playing songs in front of audiences, there remains an opportunity to release music chronicling that experience.

Dylan’s latest single throws us back into the live environment. Between the Songs tells the story of a burgeoning romance in a packed crowd and it serves as a reminder of the many ways in which the absence of gigs is being felt.

Plenty of artists have rightly commented on the difficulties that come with an extended break from playing shows but there is also a burning desire among gig-goers to get back into venues.

“Gigs are so many things,” Dylan insists. “It’s an opportunity to perform and to go and support you favourite Irish artists but it’s also a schmoozing thing and a networking thing.

“I mean with the Eclectics stuff in the Black Gate – it’s a case of ‘I don’t care who’s playing, I’m going to show up and see friends I haven’t seen in ages’ and it’s a form of communitas.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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