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All alone on the stage with his back hunched over his guitar, cradling it as he gently plucked the strings with his fingers. His eyes closed in careful concentration, completely invested in every sound that emerged. His foot methodically tapping the tambourine on the floor beneath him. Junior Brother, or Ronan Kealy as he is otherwise known, captivated the crowd with his experimental folk tunes in an intimate gig in the upstairs venue at Whelan’s on Thursday night.
He lacks the twang of the American South that so many Irish acts feel compelled to put on in his genre, perhaps this is due to his upbringing. A child of the county of Kerry, Kealy was placed in the stronghold of Irish folklore and traditional music – not the tourist lite traditional music that blasts from Temple Bar seven days a week, but the music of one of the most beautiful, unspoilt landscapes of this island.
He evoked the image of the travelling storyteller as he sat on an old chair like the one featured on his album cover, with powerful one-liners worthy of joining the lost list of seanfhocail, like “Sure, nbody can take a fella’s company from himself,”.
Ronan also acted as an impromptu MC at the start of the gig to introduce his friend and first opening act, Tralee based comedian Shane Clifford. Performing a wide range of jokes from his traumatic childhood experiences of having eyebrows bushy beyond their years and his current sexual impotency, which he intrinsically links back to a single moment in his life – when his dad beat him at Streetfighter 2.
Dublin based musician and Trinity graduate Rachael Lavelle followed suit, who might be recognised by purveyors of TCD Jazz Soc and attendees of Trinity Ball ‘15. Lavelle has since carved out a niche in the increasingly competitive Dublin music scene, a classically trained singer and pianist with hints of London Grammar and whimsical elements. She took to the stage solo with her keyboard, and showed no hesitation as she carried her voice with such power and soul in perfect harmony with her keys at all times.
It might seem like he made an odd choice picking such different acts to open for him, but Clifford’s and Lavelle’s performances perfectly synthesize the complexity of his music. Winding lyrics juxtaposed with humour, broken pews from a church combined with a man staring at his reflection and lamenting “How can she love a human potato?”.
Kealy showed his raw talent with ‘You Make a Fine Picture’, where he displayed his expressive tonal range with lyrics of palpable pain and longing. “Tipsy night in April, I asked you then would you be my wife / The echo of your no will chase me to the clouds,” The fluidity and grace of his fingers on the strings made for an intense combination with his foot hitting the tambourine with force unseen until this moment.
Every song was broken up with moments of what he called ‘stage banter’, his behaviour and conversational tone with the audience reflecting Irish folk roots in small, pub scenes where everyone knows one another.
Towards the end of the night he played his latest single, ‘Hungover at Mass’, much to the crowd’s enjoyment. The most humorous of his songs, Kealy tells a tale of Saturday night regrets while in the queue for communion – an experience that many a young country dweller can relate to. Despite the subject matter of trying not to vomit on the eucharistic minister his lyrics are never crass nor too blunt, he treads the fine line with the honesty of Luke Kelly before him.
Junior Brother has a freshness of sound that will bring even the most reluctant types into the fond embrace of Irish folk music. The two mentioned songs feature on his third EP ‘Fuck Off I Love You’, which he recorded in his family’s dining room, and it is available to purchase from his official bandcamp page.