In what promises to be the gig of the weekend, contemporary Drogheda folk artist SJ McArdle will be joined by Graham Henderson (Fairground Attraction, Moving Hearts) for an intimate acoustic show full of songs and stories in the Purple Room at the Crescent Concert Hall this Saturday, February 8th.

SJ is a songwriter, musician and curator, known for his critically-acclaimed RTÉ Radio 1 Album of the Week Old Ghosts In The Water and its accompanying song cycle/stage show PORT, (featuring Carol Keogh(Plague Monkeys) and Dermot Byrne (Altan), and for stand-out songs like “Home” (written for his wife upon the passing of her mother) and World War I anti-ballad “The Hard Wind”.

SJ was the songwriter and singer in award-winning Irish folk band Kern from 2013 to 2020 and he is also known for his career as a singer-songwriter in Nashville and Germany, which produced 2014’s critically-acclaimed Blood and Bones album (featuring Rodney Crowell).

His songs and performances have been featured in radio, film and television and he has toured and recorded extensively in Ireland, Europe and North America, gathering a loyal following and critical accolades along the way.

SJ’s musical foil on the night will be legendary keyboard player Graham Henderson who has played with everyone from Fairground Attraction and Sinéad O’Connor to Eddi Reader and Iarla Ó Lionáird. For more information and to purchase tickets, see sjmcardle.ie 

“(Old Ghosts in the Water is) an impressive song cycle ... the songs are intriguing and evocative; they are rooted in folk but coloured by expansive and imaginative arrangements.” – The Irish Times

"What a great, great collection of songs this is from SJ McArdle. I urge you to go out and get it." – Fiachna Ó Braonáin (The Hothouse Flowers, RTÉ).

“All the ingredients of great folk songs” – Lynette Fay (BBC).

“SJ McArdle … can’t fail to capture your attention, with a sonorous voice – not unlike Garnet Rogers’s – that can be gritty and gruff yet also unexpectedly tender, even vulnerable. His writing exhibits a similar versatility.” – Sean Smith, Boston Irish.

“Quite lovely … McArdle’s voice has a breathy gruffness to it that is commanding without being loud, and it sets a strong tone. ‘The Hard Wind’, a McArdle original, is a lively, cutting song about Irish soldiers who returned to Ireland after World War I to acrimony and indifference.” – Daniel Neely, The Irish Echo.

“(In ‘The Hard Wind’) SJ McArdle has written a really fine and brave song … interesting, powerful and complex”– Mike Harding.

“Bravo for an artist who has taken contemporary Irish music to parts it far too seldom reaches” – Hot Press.

“SJ’s deep, sonorous voice brings authority to the songs. If Whipping Boy were raised in Nashville they might sound like this” – Mail on Sunday.