IN THE late eighties and early nineties, it was impossible to escape Scotland's Deacon Blue and songs like 'Real Gone Kid', 'Dignity', and 'Fergus Sings the Blues', and later this year, the man who wrote those songs - Ricky Ross - will be in Galway.
Ricky Ross, songwriter, solo artist, and leader of Deacon Blue recently announcedhis most intimate tour to date - The Lyric Book Live tour - which will take in three Irish dates, including a show at the Róisín Dubh on Friday November 6 at 8pm.
At the show, Ricky will be seated at a piano, performing songs - both solo and with Deacon Blue - from across his 30 year career. The Lyric Book Live is also about Ricky engaging the audience with stories of the people, places, and ideas which influenced his songwriting. “I want to be in a room of people and tell some stories and sing some songs," he says. "The stories won't always be true...but the songs will be. There will be a piano, perhaps a guitar now and again, a pile of songs written over four decades and myself."
Ricky, described as "a master songwriter" by the Glasgow Evening Times, has also written songs for or with James Blunt, Ronan Keating, Jamie Culllum, and Nanci Griffith. He also presents his own radio show, Another Country with Ricky Ross on BBC Radio Scotland, and recently presented a TV show tracing the history of his hometown Dundee. He is one half of the duo McIntosh Ross, with his wife Lorraine McIntosh (the co-vocalist in Deacon Blue ) who toured and released their much-admired album The Great Lakes in 2009.
Deacon Blue have also found renewed success with their most recent albums The Hipster (2012 ) and A New House (2014 ), the latter featuring 'Our New Land', a stirring anthem inspired by the possibilities offered by the Scottish Independence Referendum last September.
Tickets are available at www.roisindubh.net, the Ticket Desk at OMG Zhivago, Shop Street, and The Róisín Dubh.
