Tracy Bruen

Rufus Coates & Jess Smith

Rodney Owl

The Mick Lally Theatre
8pm November 18th
Tickets: €15

Doors at 7:30pm

As part of the Going Coastal festival, The Black Gate presents Tracy Bruen with guests Rufus Coates & Jess Smith and Rodney Owl in The Mick Lally Theatre.

Tracy Bruen
If you like your folk like Joni Mitchell and your pop like Kate Bush, multi instrumentalist and spellbinding vocalist, Tracy Bruen will delight your ears. Her music blends and bends folk, prog and pop with classical and theatrical influences to create epic compositions of power and vulnerability.

In 2017 Tracy released her debut album, Mirror, to critical acclaim (Galway Album of the Year, Galway Advertiser) and many songs received airplay on national and regional radio. One the last number of years Tracy has toured extensively with her band in Ireland and Europe, headlined a show at the Galway International Arts Festival and played many major Irish festivals including Electric Picnic (B&S main stage), Body and Soul, Westport Fest, and Sunflowerfest. She has supported well known artists including The Stunning, Lisa Hannigan, Steve Cooney and Iarla Ó Lionaird, and Mick Flannery. Her two latest releases both made the RTE Recommends playlist with, Dream Away reaching number 2 on the RTE radio charts.

"A spellbinding blend of indie, folk, prog, country, and roots topped off by her powerful, and varied, vocal abilities...her honesty and vulnerability create something quite moving" 
- Kernan Andrews, The Galway Advertiser

Rufus Coates & Jess Smith
Drawing on the storytelling traditions of their Irish heritage, Coates and Smith write haunting murder ballads that rise, fall, simmer and brood.
Coates testifies like an old world baritone preacher as Smith’s harmonies crescendo with spine-curdling passion electrifying vocals that traverse the primal into ravishing, exorcist-style affliction.

“The gravel-voiced Nick Cave-esque Coates, with a counterpoint of the sweet female vocals of Jess Smith, these are dour blues songs that have enough beauty to lighten the hearth of the home.”  
- The Irish Times



Rodney Owl
Rodney Owl (aka Mark McConville) is originally from Lurgan in Co. Armagh and has been living and playing music in Galway since 1996. Having grown up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, Mark found his way to music in his mid-teens after a successful career as an amateur Boxer.

Rodney Owl’s new album Truth Is Broken, released in April 2023, showcases the singularly unique brilliance of McConville’s songwriting and musicianship, as produced by the renowned Alex Borwick and the Black Gate Label.

A collection of 12 remarkable songs, with influences as diverse as Aldous Harding, Lumen Drones, Velvet Underground, The Smiths and Sly & The Family Stone, Truth Is Broken carves out a unique and compelling space for Rodney Owl in the Irish musical landscape.

"Not of this time, Rodney Owl writes beautifully arranged and accomplished songs. Shades of Love, Lambchop, early REM.”
– Cian Ó Cíobháin An Taobh Tuathail, RTÉ RnaG

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Going Coastal is a festival of contemporary original music featuring young, emerging and established acts from the western edge of Ireland. It takes place over five days, from November 15 - 19, across nine venues in Galway City and includes events curated by The Black Gate, A Modern Movement, Free House, Strange Brew, West Coast Punx, Gash Collective, Ar Ais Arís, Rough Cut, Yawlag Collective, That’s Life, Genuine Irish and Livefeed.

The aim of Going Coastal is to contribute to an inclusive and sustainable vision for independent music on the western edge of Ireland... one that supports emerging artists, celebrates local music heritage, and connects artists, promoters and enthusiasts from across the region.

Going Coastal is funded by Galway City Council and the Galway City Creative Ireland Programme, with support from the Galway County Creative Ireland Programme and Flirt Fm.

Going Coastal is presented by Not Bad & The Black Gate.

For more info, and to stay in the loop, visit www.notbad.ie