Always Broke Never Broken

Description

Ronan Gallagher's debut album with songs about lost love, drink and Armageddon. After a film script on which he had worked on for six impoverished years was rejected by the film board, broke, dejected, and finished with the film business, Leitrim native Ronan Gallagher bought his first guitar for €45 and decided he’d be a songwriter. He was barely able to play, had never stood on a stage, never sang publicly or had any history of music. Oh! And did we mention that he was also in his mid-fifties, an age when some are thinking ahead to retirement. Six months after buying his guitar Gallagher had written over ten songs, one of which, ‘Long Gone’ was written in his local train station after a chance meeting with a young emigrant leaving Ireland for Australia. A few months later he formed his first band and took to the stage for the first time, and as Gallagher puts it himself, “Though there wasn’t many people at the gig, I felt absolutely at home on the stage from the minute I got on it, and when we finished the gig I knew that this is what I’d be doing for the rest of my life, crowd or no crowd.” After many gigs locally he honed his songs and learned his trade and things were looking up, but, as anyone who knows the music business, break ups are inevitable, and soon he found himself band-less after three years of graft. A chance phone call to Brian Sweeney of Free Speaking Monkey whom he had met at Stoneywoods Festival in Kiltyclogher changed everything again when Brian mentioned the vibrant music scene that was happening in north Leitrim and Donegal. As Ronan describes it; “A fair wind took me to Kinlough, Kiltyclogher and Bundoran where I met an amazing group of musicians who not only believed in my songs but brought their own unique talent to them, not least my producer, double bassist and dobro player Marc Geagan (ex Mirenda Rosenberg Band, Erdini) who opened up a whole new landscape for my music and songs”. Other members in this stellar line-up include Sean Reynolds (Slow Place Like Home) on drums, Donal McGuinness and Matt Jennings (Bazork, Henry Girls) on trombone and tenor sax, Sean McCarron (Henry McCullough) on alto sax and Zac Drummond ) Riverdance and Mirenda Rosenberg Band) on guitar. The result of that meeting and the years that led up to it are encapsulated in his debut album ‘Always Broke Never Broken’ which will be released soon on Modal Citizen Records and contains ten of those first songs including the aforementioned ‘Long Gone’. After some high energy performances at the Stoneywoods and Allingham Festivals, the Ronan Gallagher Band are getting ready for a busy 2019 that will see them launch their debut album and begin touring around Ireland. Note: For orders outside of the Republic of Ireland please email modalcitizenrecords@gmail.com