Hey everyone

Just a little note to tell you about some upcoming gigs i’ll be playing!

Tonight Friday 8th March i’ll be playing the Belfast Nashville songwriters festival with some amazing females (and token male) for International Womens Day! Myself, Brigid O’Neill, Una Clarkin and Matt McGinn will be serenading you from 9-10pm in the Maldron hotel. Tickets are at this link

On 30th March i’ll be supporting the wonderful LORE in the Black Box, Belfast tickets available here

There will also be details soon about a very special gig in April, in the meantime happy International Women’s Day. Hug and appreciate those special ladies in your lives! I’m away to try and write album no. 3 xx

The great news just keeps coming!!

Very honoured to have been invited by Radio Ulster’s Ralph McLean to perform at his Sunday Brunch show at the Flowerfield Arts Centre on Nov 18th as part of the annual Atlantic Sessions festival..9 weeks today!

Every year the beautiful north coast becomes a hub of music and the Sunday Brunch show is one of the highlights every year.

I’ll be sharing the stage with some other wonderful artists including Matt McGinn, Kitt Phillipa and Arborist!

This is what Ralph had to say about the lineup ‘We’ve got rising star Kitt Philippa, whose beautiful blend of electronica and song writing has been winning them friends all over in 2018, the hugely talented Ciara O’Neill, whose gorgeous album Arrow is one of my essential releases of the year so far, Armagh songsmith Matt McGinn, who’s long been a favourite on my BBC radio shows, and a performance from the sublimely talented Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist to look forward to. ‘

Tickets will go quickly for this so get in there early and purchase right here for 15 of your hard earned pounds

Ciara x

Hey there

Since releasing the album in July I have been so overwhelmed with the support i’ve received, the radio play, the lovely messages, the opportunities etc and then last week I got an email from Spotify…

 

Nearly 25,000 listeners in August on spotify!!!

Very happy with this! If you are on Spotify please do give me a follow and add your favourite song from the album to your playlists!

Much love as always

Ciara x

 

Hello

I’m delighted to announce the Arts Council of Northern Ireland have chosen me to travel to Brussels for culture night 2018. I’ll be performing at the NI Executive office on Chaussée d’Etterbeek. Can’t wait to spend a few days in this beautiful city!

Another fantastic Northern Irish singer songwriter Matt McGinn will also be showcasing his music so it’ll be so much fun to share the experience with another local artist and friend! Here is a little promo video filmed by the ACNI about the event!

More news soon

Ciara x

Hey there

I’ve just released another single/ video from my second album ‘Arrow’

This is Equal & Opposite.

 

Another DIY affair, I continued the theme from the ‘Hurtin‘ video and incorporated clips from an old family video. Some of this footage is from the 50s, 60s and 70s. With a little creative thinking I worked a little iMovie magic on it and i’m happy with the result, I think it works well with the theme of the song!

Let me know what you think

Ciara x

 

 

 

Hi everyone

Lots of new things are happening with my music at the minute!

This Sat 5th May, i’ll be releasing my second album ‘Arrow’ with a full band performance on the Belfast Barge as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. 

There are still some tickets available here if you’d like to come! I’m making sure this is gonna be a beautiful night for everyone and I have support from the gorgeous Amanda St John! 

I’ve decided to make it a solely physical release first of all so at the moment the album is only available to purchase exclusively on my website shop or at gigs.

If you prefer digital, it will be released on iTunes on the 9th July 2018 and you can preorder on iTunes now.

On Mon 30th April my first single from the album is being released! This is a double A side single with both Hurtin’ and Dreamer.

It’s already got some great radio play from BBC Radio Ulster and last Saturday I was on the Gerry Kelly show performing some of the songs live with Double Bassist John Conway. You can listen back to that performance here from 1:13mins

Also I just released my first video from the album which is ‘Hurtin’ The great people at Folk Radio UK premiered the video and made it their song of the day on 16th April

Check out the video here

This video is pretty special to me as it has lots of old family archive footage my Dad came across a few years ago, I decided to edit little bits and pieces together and I love the outcome. It looks quite haunting and I feel fits the song really well.

Last week the folks at Americana UK also premiered the second track from the single release ‘Dreamer’ and you can listen to that here.

Finally I’ll be going on a little tour of the UK/Ire after my album launch which will be taking in Bangor, Westport, Dundalk and London. The poster is below and ticket info can be found on my gigs page.

Many thanks for all the support, likes, shares, retweets etc It means alot and i’m looking forward to ‘Arrow’ making its way out into the world!

Much love and see you on the road

Ciara xx

Last month I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to travel to Kansas City to showcase at Folk Alliance International! Thanks Arts Council NI 🙂

What fun was had..11 showcases in 4 days, lots of throat coat tea, very little sleep, many laughs, hilarious stories, 7 eleven mishaps (what happens in KC stays in KC 😉 the best cinnamon swirl i’ve ever had, bowls of coffee, amazing music and even better friends.

I met so many wonderful people including the great bunch of artists over with Culture Ireland and had the most interesting conversations in the wee hours of the morning.

Check out the spotify playlist I put together with all the artists I discovered over the week!

Here are some pics:

 

Hey there,

I’ve just returned from my sixth trip to Nashville! How did that happen?! The last two years have flown by and I never would’ve believed i’d be having such a love affair with a city full of Cowboy Boots and Stetsons…

Music City is of course much more than that and I have to say I’ve met some of the nicest most welcoming friends in that city!

Thank you Nashville!!

So what took me over there this April? First of all I was lucky enough to attend The Nashville Film Festival. I know what you’re thinking…why a film festival and not music?!

Well all those amazing soundtracks from your favourite films are made up of lots of cool Indie songs as well as big budget scoring and there is definitely a real need for independent music for synchronisation (the fancy name for matching a song to moving picture).

It is however a very competitive field so my goal for this trip was to meet some Music Supervisors (the important people that get your music to the ears of the film directors and producers) and learn some tips and tricks that I could put to good use and hopefully bring some opportunities my way.  It was great, I learnt a lot and met some really nice people who like my music so we’ll see what happens..Just gotta keep riding this wave!

Another goal was to get writing more. Co-writing is a big thing in Nashville and i’m really enjoying it. Its so different from writing alone but I would recommend any songwriter to try it. Magic can happen in that little writing room when two creative minds with different perspectives on life come together..

I got to experience some incredible things as a result of these writing sessions and one was to record a demo of a new song in the famous Cowboy Arms Recording Studio. Once the home of Producer/Songwriter Jack Clement, this studio has seen people such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, John Prine and U2 through its doors to record. It was very cool watching the documentary about the studio realising I was sitting exactly where Johnny Cash was some 20 years before.

I had some wonderful co-writes during this trip and the title of this post is inspired by a song I wrote on my 2nd last day with two fantastic writers James Elliott and Carter Harrell. I had stored the title ‘The Invisible Thread’ in my song ideas, not really knowing what it meant at the time. We decided to work on this idea and the ‘Invisible Thread’ became that which connects us all in this world! No matter our gender, race, nationality, political opinion, age etc we are all the same; just blood and bones and we all feel similar emotions..Joy, fear, anger, trust, envy etc

I’ve been very lucky to have travelled quite a bit in my life from Iceland to Japan, Thailand to Norway and beyond. Its always struck me even when lost in translation, a smile is the same in every language. That small thing connects us all and will take you far. Trust in the knowledge that the world as big and as scary as it may seem, will take care of you. So get out there and explore, meet new people, live outside your comfort zone and go and follow whatever crazy dream you might have no matter what others think. Those are the things you’ll remember at the end!

I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit more about my journey 🙂

Be sure to add your email address to my mailing list (Click on the B&W image) i’ve been recording lots of new music recently and over the next while i’ll be sharing some brand new music to my subscribers.

Also if you’re on Facebook you can like my page here and follow my tweets here.

I also want to thank the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for supporting this trip as well. Their continued support over the last few years means everything! What a great bunch!!!

Next up is…London!!!

I’ll be playing:

21st May – The Green Note, Camden

23rd May – The Bedford Live, Balham

More soon

Ciara xx

 

Hey all

Next month I have some fabulous gigs i’m very excited to play! The Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival is happening again 1st-5th March and i’ll be playing a show called ‘Songs from the Heart’ with the North’s finest female singer songwriters.

Thur 2nd March

Titanic Room, Clayton Hotel, Belfast

6.30pm 

The next week is at the Oh Yeah Centre, a brilliant music hub in Belfast. I’ll be the featured artist for their first ‘Getting to know..’ series of 2017. So i’ll be interviewed on stage and then will sing some songs and talk about them with audience participation! I think this will be really fun, I love hearing about other songwriters songwriting process so anyone interested in this, in my experiences in Nashville, what i’ve learnt over the years come along! It’s free 🙂

Thur 9th March

Oh Yeah Centre 

7-9pm

After this I’ll be joining the awesome Ben Glover for two shows on his UK/Ire tour. Ben is a class act, he relocated to Nashville a few years back and is blazing trails with his superb albums ‘Atlantic’ and the most recent ‘The Emigrant’ I’m so excited to play these shows with him!

Fri 24th March

Black Box, Belfast

7.30pm 

Thur 30th March

Flowerfield arts centre, Portstewart

8pm

I’ve also been back in the studio recording with the musical ninja Michael Mormecha at Millbank Studios. It’s going really well and loving what we’ve done so far! I’ll be sharing bits and pieces over the next while so be share to join the mailing list for updates!

Chat again soon

Ciara xx

 

Happy new year everyone!

So its that time of year again, where we make all these grand gestures for the coming year.. to exercise more, drink more water, stop smoking..whatever your vice may be..mine is chocolate…(I’ll never quit)

I do like to spend an evening at this time though to look back at the previous year, all the things that went well and the things that didn’t and write out some goals that I can work toward in the new year.

I think goals are important and knowing what you don’t want is as valid as knowing what you do want! Definitely one thing I learnt in 2016!

On a personal and music level 2016 was really good to me. I did a lot and am proud of what I achieved..I released my first album, got lots of radio play including BBC6 music, spent more time in Nashville, played some amazing gigs at home and stateside and I wrote some great songs that i’m really proud of but..as with life..nothing is perfect.

After my last trip to Nashville in November I came home exhausted, deflated, and hurtin’ inside and out.

The music industry is overwhelming and at times feels like you’re climbing Everest..Sometimes you feel you’re almost at base camp and then you feel like you haven’t even left the car park..

To give myself and my mind a much needed break I decided to take the month of December off from music..no writing, recording, performing..I didn’t even really listen to music either..except for hearing Mariah Carey warbling about 10 times every day..(love ya Mariah <3)

But being the eternal optimist that I am, the little break did me the world of good and i’m pleased to report i’m ready and raring to get back to it and get started with the new year.

2017 is gonna be a good one..lots of gigs at home over the next few months and then back to Nashville in April, London in May and maybe a wee holiday somewhere special in the summer..

I’ve also been in the studio recently with producer Michael Mormecha and the new songs sound class!!! So so happy with them..different from the first album but still has that moody dark feel which I love!

I’ll be continuing to work on the new recordings over the next few months so I may release an EP this year if I can’t wait for an album but will keep you all up to date with that, i’ll also let you hear a sneak peek of something i’m working on very soon! 

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say THANKYOU to everyone who supported me last year either through buying my music, sharing a video, sending a sweet message or giving me advice! It is SO appreciated and keeps me carrying on with this crazy adventure.

Also a really special thanks goes to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland who helped me achieve so much last year and the Nashville angel herself Jewel Coburn for guiding me through this industry storm intact..we’ve got a long road to go 🙂

I’ll leave this here but I hope you all achieve your goals this year and get further along whatever path you wish to take!

If you’d like to keep up to date please subscribe to the mailing list above and if you’ve got Facebook give my page a wee like here

Lots of love and see ya on the mountain

Ciara x