Mama Kaz Band New Single Release ‘Mama’s Express’ with Bonus track ‘Can’t Afford Me’ Mama Kaz Band Mama Kaz is the blues and soul sensation from East Belfast who, in her solo outings, has raised the live performance musical bar in Northern Ireland. Her recent solo CD and video , Lipstick & Cocaine, have [...]
Hard Working Class Heroes – 2012 Ireland’s Annual Showcase Festival and Conference for New Music – 10th Birthday!!! Thursday 4 / Friday 5 / Saturday 6 October – Dublin I dropped in briefly to the launch this evening for the 2012 HWCH, what a well turned out and well behaved bunch of people. Ambassadors, not [...]
GREG CLIFFORD by Greg Clifford. Greg Clifford is a talented, multi-instrumentalist from Dublin. Greg’s style is an amalgamation of singer songwriter with rock, blues, jazz and folk. A BA in Music and a masters in contemporary composition audibly augment his undoubted abilities as a guitarist. On this self titled EP Greg also extends his talents [...]
MISTER ALIVE E.P. Review by Liam Oragh. I know we should never judge a book or CD by its cover – but first impressions really can make a difference and heighten expectation; so when Gary Day’s debut E.P ‘Mister Alive’ landed on my lap for review, with its cool title and front cover of a [...]
Mama Kaz ‘Lipstick & Cocaine’ E.P. Review by Robert Craven. Belfast’s Mama Kaz is a singer in the tradition of Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin and Sandy Denny, but like them has the nous not to overdo it. Her ‘band’ too sound like they have lived on the road for a decade or more taking their [...]
ONLY 2 LATE IF UR DEAD – ORAGH – CD Review So here was I sitting outside the ‘Red Room’ at the HP Music Show waiting to hear the musings of some of Ireland’s great music journalists…… This young man sits down beside me and enquires if I have anything to do with the music [...]
I must admit, I got a huge shock tonight, when I saw two 18 year old entrepreneurs, Ryan Ashmore and Liam Webb, walk away from the Dragon’s Den (‘Shark Tank in the US’) with £50,000 ($75,000). It wasn’t their age, but that their business was a brand new start-up record label, which had recently signed [...]
Martyn Mulhere, born in Dublin, Ireland, has been playing music in Paris for the last eighteen years. He is a very talented live performer and songwriter. ‘Somewhere Nowhere’ is a collection of Martyn’s songs recorded over the last couple of years. It features 4 live tracks and 11 studio. The live tracks have a lovely [...]
Radiohead without the grunge, Sting on a good day, Floyd for the Noughties – make up your own mind. Matt (Withnailus, from the movie Withnail & I) has been steadily releasing tracks of fantastic quality onto the internet for around 5 years. This album brings together some of the very best – and at only [...]
ALAINA BLAIR – Self Titled CD reviewed by Robert Craven
‘Alaina Blair’ Self Titled CD reviewed by Robert Craven . Describing her music as ‘soulful pop-rock’ 20yr old Alaina Blair belies her youth with an accomplished album with each tack showing a high degree of nous for radio-friendly airplay. Citing her influences as Joss Stone, Sheryl Crow, Grace Potter and Norah Jones, Aliana’s debut album [...]
MT Saturdays (1) Darkey Kelly’s
MT Saturdays (1) Darkey Kelly’s May 18th. 2013. Our first Saturday afternoon MT session in Darkey Kelly’s. Music and song by Ciaran Brennan, Brian Aherne, Sean O’Neill and Tony Floyd Kenna. Book reading by Robert Craven. Poetry reading by Daniel Wade. An easy going relaxed vibe contributed to this very successful mixed media presentation. . [...]
CONTEMPLATING THE MUSE – No. 2 – Linda Ibbotson with guest Ryan Cole
CONTEMPLATING THE MUSE – No. 2 – Linda Ibbotson With guest Ryan Cole. . “The idea is to write it so the people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart” Maya Angelou A warm welcome and thank you for joining me. I invite you to pull up a [...]
BANNED FOR LIFE (Paperback) by D. R. Haney, reviewed by Robert Craven
BANNED FOR LIFE (Paperback) by D. R. Haney – reviewed by Robert Craven Just as bebop was the soundtrack to Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg and Neil Cassady, so the sounds of CBGB’s, The Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, The Clash, The Sex Pistols and New York Dolls fuel D.R. Haney’s odyssey `Banned for Life’. [...]
ROBERT CRAVEN – Writer and music reviewer, in his own words.
Robert Craven is an author and music reviewer for Musicians Together Magazine. Robert lives in the seaside town of Rush in County Dublin, Ireland. . I have two novels; ‘Get Lenin’ and the sequel ‘Zinnman’, published by Taylor Street Publishing and which are currently available for Kindle download and paperback on Amazon.com and Amazon UK. [...]
SONGWRITING REFINED – Justin (Oswlek)
Songwriting Refined Justin (Oswlek) Hello everyone, welcome to my initial foray into the writing-about-songwriting realm. This will either be the first of several installments on a series of different subjects, or an experiment gone horribly wrong. Time will tell. I should admit that I have no great qualification for this role. I’m neither an acclaimed [...]
