Morgan O'Kane Trio: fifteen-date tour in Ireland, 15-29 Aug. 2015

(L-r) Ferd Moyse IV, Morgan O'Kane, Zeke Healy

Thanks to Shawna Cooper of Dollartone Records and Pinball Sessions for this press release:

Morgan O’Kane is New York’s banjo-playing, tambourine-toting, hillbilly-punk journeyman. Along with his band, Morgan returns to Ireland for a fifteen-date tour in August. Brooklyn-based O’Kane’s music comes from the mountains. A mix of Appalachian folk, bluegrass, and zydeco, all played with an intensity and passion that is hard to resist.

The banjo is O’Kane’s weapon of choice and he uses it alongside his gruff vocals to take you on a journey into his world of characters and stories from the flip side of America. While Morgan O’Kane clearly knows his way around the old tunes, this ain’t no revival – he is more interested in creating his own, helped by the virtuoso band of New York City’s Dobro genius, Zeke Healy, and the one-and-only Ferd Moyse IV on fiddle (Hackensaw Boys). He has released three albums on Dollartone Records entitled Nine lives (2010), Pendulum (2011), and The one they call the wind (2014).

Morgan is also featured in the film The Porchlight Sessions, which documents bluegrass in America and recently performed in season 5, episode 1 of the FX network hit TV show 'Louie'. Additionally, he created the sound track for the documentary film Low coal, which addresses the coal mining industry in Appalachia. Morgan is an activist in the mountain-top removal movement.

• Ian Spafford of Stirring.org.uk said of Morgan’s music: '... it struck me that this music was to bluegrass and old-timey what punk was to rock in the late seventies.'
• '... he’s like an oldtimer folk legend back from the dead.' (FolkRadioUK)
• '... it will soon become one of the essential albums in the collection of any one who cares about music with a bit of heart, a bit of soul, and a bit of feeling. This album should come with a warning: once you let it get under your skin you'll not get it out again.' (Fatea Review / John Hates)

Shawna also sends this YouTube link to a recent performance of 'Monarchs' by Morgan and Zeke. More videos, and more of Morgan's music, can be found on his website, where all the tracks from his three albums can be sampled and bought online. He is also on Spotify and SoundCloud (and Facebook).

Morgan O'Kane is now a Deering Banjo Co. endorsed artist. The trio will be playing the following shows in Ireland this month:

Sat. 15th: De Barra's, Clonakilty, Co. Cork
Sun. 16th: Pine Lodge, Myrtleville, Co. Cork
Mon. 17th: Crane Lane Theatre, Cork city
Tues. 18th: St John’s Theatre, Listowel, Co. Kerry
Wed. 19th: The Greyhound Bar, Kilkee, Co. Clare
Thurs. 20th: Cleere’s Bar, Kilkenny city
Fri. 21st: Spirit Store, Dundalk, Co. Louth
Sat. 22nd: Open House Festival, Bangor, Co. Down
Sun. 23rd: The Sky and The Ground, Wexford town
Mon. 24th: Rodden's Bar, Buncrana, Co. Donegal
Tues. 25th: Patsy Dan’s, Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal
Wed. 26th: The Shamrock, Falcarragh, Co. Donegal
Thurs. 27th: Keady Clachan, Limavady, Co. Londonderry
Fri. 28th: Craft Village, Shipquay St., Derry city
Sat. 29th: The Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin