15 gigs for October: CMAT, The Altered Hours, Villagers, and Mos Def feature in a busy month ahead
CMAT: Ireland's undisputed queen of country goes under the hammers on reopening day
At the risk of invoking the "nature is healing" meme, there's no surer sign of a slow return to normality than the return of singer-songwriter John Spillane to his monthly residency at DeBarra's.
Having kept faith with his regulars by streaming monthly from the venue, Spillane's first Debarra's gig in front of an audience, and the venue's first in over eighteen months, ought to be a barn-burner.
Having kept himself and seemingly half the industry busy over the course of lockdown with his Twitter listening parties for various classic albums, the Charlatans frontman is back in live business, and catching up on a rescheduled Irish date before his musical day-job gets back on the road for a delayed 'best-of' tour.
Having garnered the pop spotlight over the years, English singer Ellie Goulding has waited half a decade to tour part one of a two-album cycle, Brightest Blue, in a selection of (comparatively) intimate venues, including Dublin's Olympia, befitting the more personal direction and introversion of new material.
It's the only Irish gig this month for Conor O'Brien and co, as they're off to the UK for a tour before returning to Ireland for more dates in November.
Expect a set of old faves and new tunes from the recently-released Fever Dreams.
Not content with marking twenty years in the music game with a re-recorded collection of compositions, David Kitt has kept busy this year, including an album release as Sansbut with free-jazz saxophonist Catherine Sikora, and producing and composing music for 'Cornaleena', a film featuring writer Kevin Barry and composer Jennifer Walshe.
Part of the White Horse's return to live action under the Songlines banner are folk-rock trio Scullion.
Veterans of the '70s folk revival, they've paid visits to Cork in recent times, returning after intimate Coughlan's gigs early in reopening, but any Leeside visit from the trio is most welcome, considering their rich discography and place in the Irish sonic pantheon.
Dublin-based instrumental duo Bicurious have set out take the Irish post-rock template, set by bands like The Redneck Manifesto and And So I Watch You From Afar, into the future.
Debut full-length '(re)constructed', released by Cork label Narrow Door, sees them expand on ambitious early singles, and seeing how it'll all transmute to the live stage is half the intrigue.
Bell X1 have a deep songbook to draw from, taking in over two decades of constantly shifting yet distinctly accessible sounds.
Taking to the Northside's sonic temple for a three-day residency, hand in hand with violinist Éna Brennan's Dowry Strings ensemble, the Kildare outfit will be kicking out fan faves and testing out new tunes.
Ireland's new queen of country has won a lot of hearts over lockdown with a combination of pop nuance, biting humour and a tremendous eye for choreography, drawing on her own dance experience.
With her 'Diet Baby' compilation of early singles in the bag, CMAT heads under the hammers for double duty at Connolly's for what ought to be a pair of magic live engagements.
From a promising voice on Ireland's nascent hip-hop scene to the pages of Vice magazine and the soundtrack of gaming bestseller FIFA 20, JYellowL has become one of the most accomplished MCs to emerge from the island.
He moves now to finally tour debut album 2020 Division, drawing on his life experience and politics degree from UCD to confront ongoing social and economic issues.
Now officially coinciding with the recently-launched Cork Jazz Festival, this collaboration of leading singer-songwriters has already given rise to an acclaimed long-player, 'In the Game', and their big post-Covid step into the limelight of the Opera House ought to place emphasis on their successes with the album.
Promoted in association with Douglas Street folk outpost Coughlan's Live.
Hip-hop legend Yasiin Bey - the '90s rap icon formerly known as Mos Def - performs live on the Cork Opera House stage as the headliner of this year's short-notice Jazz Festival - and doing so with the aid of a full live jazz ensemble.
Another Irish artist whose pre-lockdown momentum hasn't been stopped by events, Gemma Dunleavy's Dublin-accented take on garage-y R&B has found a wider audience via streaming gigs and live shows, when/where permissible in the circumstances.
Fresh off an appearance at It Takes a Village festival, the 'Up de Flats!' singer takes to the stage of Cyprus Avenue for the first time.
Glen of the Downs post-rockers God is an Astronaut have been circumnavigating the world for nearly two decades, and have kept to a singular creative vision that's progressed over the course of ten albums.
Their first Irish excursion since Covid sees them reprise 2005 long-player 'All is Violent, All is Bright', and play tunes from new album 'Ghost Tapes #10'.
Evolving over the past decade in a way that's encompassed folk, psychedelic rock, shoegaze and post-punk, The Altered Hours are a uniquely Corkonian phenomenon.
Forged in the city's mid-recession cultural picture and becoming a pillar of its current cultural scene, the band stands ready for bigger things following tours with Fontaines DC, the announcement of an American booking deal, and the forthcoming release of second album, 'Convertible'.
