THE FÓGUES

The name of their band, The Fógues, is a play on their surname, as the group consists of three cousins – Jack, Micheál and William Fogarty – accompanied by their friend Ted O’Neill. Based in the north of the county, at the foot of the Galtee Mountains, close to the area known as the ‘Golden Vale’ – a name which lends its title to the album.

Their debut album, released in 2020, was a snapshot of the songs they were playing at the time in local pubs and festivals. Their second album, meanwhile, is a collection of sixteen newly composed songs and a few older tracks. Ted O’Neill takes the lead, having penned half the tracks, with the three cousins writing the other five.
The themes covered range from history and politics to unrequited love and death. There are a few offbeat takes in ‘Monday Club Fear’ or ‘Two Hens in the Boot’. In ‘Western Pirate Queen’, they dwell on the tumultuous life of Gráinne Mhaol (Grace O’Malley), the famous pirate queen of the Irish West. There is also the moving ‘Remember Mitchelstown’, which recalls the massacre of 9 September 1887, when police shot three Land League demonstrators in the town square.

It is rural Ireland that takes centre stage here, with rebel ballads sharing the spotlight with love songs. All the songs on the album are the result of a long writing process and reflect their many musical influences and styles, whilst remaining true to the sound that first brought them to prominence.
Could The Fógues be the new Dubliners?

Autoproduit - www.thefogues.com