Gemma Hayes has just been announced as the support act for Ray Lamontagne who plays the Royal Theatre Castlebar on Sunday September 6. Gemma is enjoying the success of an artist that comes from years of hard work and love of music, and this showed this January when Hayes was nominated for Best Irish Female at the 2009 Meteor Irelands Music Awards. Hayes' third album The Hollow of Morning was released in May of last year in Ireland, and debuted at number 12 in the Irish Albums Chart, and earlier this year she performed at the Oscar Wilde party in Los Angeles, California. The annual event takes place days before the Oscars, and celebrates the best of Irish popular culture.
Together with Ray Lamontagne this is set to be one of the gigs of the year.
With one of the most distinctive voices in music, lauded singer/songwriter and BRIT Award nominee Ray LaMontagne released his much-anticipated third album, Gossip In The Grain, last October to great appraisal, and with hit songs like ‘You are the Best Thing’ it is easy to see why.
Recorded with returning producer Ethan Johns in Box, England, and touching upon a range of styles and musical settings spanning pastoral folk, railroad blues, front porch country, and plangent balladry, Gossip In The Grain proves to be his most creative and emotionally expansive collection to date. Whereas LaMontagne’s two previous albums were largely solo affairs, with Johns serving as multi-tasking instrumentalist, Gossip In The Grain sees him joined by members of his touring band, bassist Jennifer Condos and guitarist Eric Heywood, with Johns handling drum duties.
Gossip In The Grain reconfirms Ray LaMontagne as an artist and a craftsman without limits, a songwriter who is able to work his melodic gifts and distinctive lyricism through any of the myriad musical traditions that catch his fancy.
Tickets are on sale now and available from €35 on www.ticketmaster.ie as well as from The Royal box office on 0818 300 000. For further information check The Royal Theatre and Event Centre website on www.theroyal.ie or www.ticketmaster.ie
