It would take you a long time to get to Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland and the obstacles on your way would give you the impression of experiencing a modern version of the Stations of the Cross. Storm Desmond, the train or the plane, and then the bus until you arrive at the far end of Kerry... But the journey would be worth it. Nothing is too big to prevent you from claiming your love to Folk music and especially at Other Voices festival which offers a unique setting to enjoy the music of rising artists and of already established stars in a cozy, refreshing place.
Other Voices is a free festival, set in Dingle since 2002, it is designed to give a various range of artists a chance to perform. Because it is free and not taken into a marketing strategy of bringing the biggest amount of people possible, it proposes an alternative musical scene, offering, each year, a regeneration, a rebirth to folk music. On stage, artists play in front of small audiences, of all age and from all destination. The gigs are set either in pubs or in Saint James Church, for the biggest (still the audience reaches a maximum of eighty people). Major artists have been there, Amy Winehouse - who's supposed to have performed her best gig here - Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan, Glen Hansard, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Snow Patrol,- Florence and The Machine, just to name a few.
In the 2015 session, you could have a taste of it all, of the pleasure of enjoying music in intimate settings. If you took a walk in Dingle streets - dry for a part of the day on Sunday - and stopped for a minute at Crean's Brewery to have one of their famous lager beers, you would have been caught by the sound coming from the back, where the band, the North Sea was playing. This band, made of five Dubliners, has a great energy on stage, this is firstly due to their catchy melodies. But when listening more carefully you would realize that the magic of it all lies in the fact that they manage to perform a music both solar and melancholy, a balance both bitter and sweet in which to find the charm of the group. The voice of the singer, Eoin Kenny, is also captivating, it is a voice powerful but also aching. It is comparable to what we can hear in Interpol's singer voice (Paul Banks) and also in The National, on the part of the lead singer, Matt Berninger. In a different atmosphere, a little further up the street, Paul Creane performed an acoustic guitar show in the very crowded Adams, bringing back to life the pleasure and the whole imaginary linked to story-telling. That night, at the church, Keaton Henson, that is very rare in public because he suffers from stage fright, gave a very intense performance - he was himself overwhelmed by emotion - and was kind enough to give us a key, so perhaps we could start to comprehend the depth of his inner world.
This does not start to describe all the atmospheres and gigs that one could see for this 2015 session at Other Voices in Dingle neither does it do justice to the joy of spending time in that city, you will have to go there yourself and see.