Charlie McGettigan, Kelley McRae to play in Westport

Charlie McGettigan, Kelley McRae and Matt Castelein

Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan will perform on Tuesday, October 18, at Westport Town Hall Theatre with special guest Mississippi-born Americana songstress Kelley McRae. The gig is being held as special fundraiser for next year’s The Acoustic Yard Singer/Songwriters Festival Westport.
Charlie McGettigan won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, when joining forces with Paul Harrington and Brendan Graham for the song ‘Rock and Roll Kids’, catapulted him into Irish Music folklore. In 2015, McGettigan wrote ‘Anybody Got a Shoulder’ for Kat Mahon, which became one of the five songs in the final of Ireland’s Song for Europe.
Back in 1973, McGettigan formed the successful group Jargon, which won the prestigious Letterkenny Folk Festival and secured a recording contract with Polygram records. The band went on to record three singles before McGettigan pursued a solo career.
He has since worked with artists like Maura O’Connell and Eleanor Shanley, who both recorded many of Charlie’s songs including ‘I don’t know how you do it’, ‘Feet of a Dancer’, ‘A Bed for the Night’ and ‘If Anything Happened to You’. Today Charlie still enjoys huge success as a singer/songwriter and as a presenter on The Saturday Connection on Shannonside/Northern Sound Radio.
Kelley McRae teamed up with guitarist Matt Castelein, and after cutting their teeth in New York’s music scene, they traded in their Brooklyn apartment for a VW camper van and hit the road full time. Kelley and Matt traveled extensively across America those first few years, performing hundreds of shows and finding inspiration for new songs along the way.
The duo has since gone on to tour in eleven countries, including shows in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.
Kelley McRae’s latest release, ‘The Wayside’ released in April, 2016, debuted at number seven on the Euro-Americana charts and hit number four on the Roots Music Reports Top 50 Contemporary Folk chart. Her voice is hauntingly beautiful, and often compared to Emmylou Harris, add this to Matt Castelein’s wonderful accompaniment and the scene is firmly set.

For tickets, a15/12 each, contact the Westport Town Hall Theatre box office on 098 28459 or visit www.westporttheatre.com.