CUA and Mikey Kenney, two of the most talked about roots bands and musicians from either side of the Irish Sea, will play a sensational double-header at the Eastgate Theatre on 11 December.
The gig sees a 35 minute-set from Mikey Kenney, playing as a duo with Adam Beattie, followed, after a short interval, by an hour-long set from Cua.
The multi-talented Mikey Kenney will play tracks from his new album The Reverie Road, written, he explained, “after a long, hot summer working in Italy”. Such a locale, far removed from an upbringing immersed in Irish and English traditional music, adds another layer to an artist already heavily influenced by bluegrass, jazz, rock and roll, tarantella and mariachi.
No wonder that fRoots magazine said of his new record that “it represents the work of a singular and inspiring talent … unfettered by expectations of geography or genre, and a wanderer of worlds both seen and invisible, Kenney is an authentic free spirit”.
There is no such Italian connection for cua, although the Irish band shares with Mikey Kenney the distinction of having enjoyed a thoroughly successful year, culminating in the release of a new album, In Flight Off the Islands – a follow up to the hugely successful Songs of the Hollow.
Between them, John Davidson, Shane Booth and Ros O’Meara combine dynamic and contrasting instrumentation and vocal arrangements. The group have an expansive acoustic soundtrack blending guitar, fiddle, bouzouki, percussion and three-part harmony arrangements to create a world music folk styling that the band call ‘Atlantean’.
The cua live experience has been compared to the melodic intricacies of Planxty combined with the harmony skills of Crosby, Stills and Nash.
“The more you listen the more you hear, the more you hear the more you want to listen,” commented Marc Higgins from Northern Sky Magazine. “The roots of this music spread wide, anchoring cua like a colossal tree giving them a strength, a rigour and a real presence.”
Mikey Kenney and cua play the Eastgate Theatre, 7.30pm, Wednesday 11 December. Tickets £18, £16, £6 under 15s, available from Box Office on 01721 725777, or online.
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