Greenshine are finding their own Nirvana with latest album

"I SEEM to write a lot of songs about dead people. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older,” Mary Greene smiles ruefully. She’s describing how a tribute to Kurt Cobain ended up on the latest album by Greenshine, a Mukerry-based family trio comprising Greene, husband Noel Shine, and their daughter Ellie Shine.

Singer-songwriter Greene’s current single on release with Cork troubadour Hank Wedel, ‘Too Gone Too Young’, pays tribute to Irish songwriter Noel Brazil, and she’s penned songs in honour of Gram Parsons and Rick Danko of The Band. But Greenshine’s gentle roots sound is a far cry from Cobain’s heroin-fuelled torment.

“I was actually listening to a lot of Nirvana when I wrote ‘The City of Dreams’,” she says. “I stumbled across an article in the Irish Examiner, an interview with the late Desi Blair. Desi was a great promoter of music and a great music fan; it’s amazing how often those two don’t go hand in hand. Desi told an anecdote about the time Nirvana played Cork.”