Sometimes you randomly come across a band and a song that is so perfectly constructed that it helps to draw you in and make you want to find out more about the band and their music. This is exactly what happened the first time I heard the song Humdinger by Ye Vagabonds at The Ruby Sessions back in 2015.

The group, made up of brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn, started in Carlow before moving up to Dublin to forward their career in 2012. They quickly started to develop a reputation for haunting harmonies and sophisticated instrumentation that was shown off to it’s maximum on their debut album from 2017, Ye Vagabonds.

The album was extremely well received, and secured the duo as one of the leading voices in Irish folk music. Primarily lead by acts like The Gloaming in recent years, there has been a reinvigoration of Irish folk and traditional music on the scene recently and the Carlow duo are slotting nicely into that fold. There is a sophistication to the music across the album with stunning instrumentation and beautifully layered vocals drawing in the listener across the tracklist.

As a result, there was a lot of excitement and interest around what the band would do for their second album. Fans would not be disappointed. The Hare’s Lament is another stunning release by the band, and marks at another step forward in maturity of sound and songwriting.

It is clear that this is a group who are only going to go from strength to strength, it’ll be fun to watch it happen.

MK