Black Gate Presents:

Gaby Moreno & Ultan Conlon

An Taibhdhearc
Galway
8pm, Saturday, November 5th
€27.50

Doors at 7:30pm

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GABY MORENO

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and producer Gaby Moreno has released her seventh full-length studio album, Alegoría. Out now via Metamorfosis, the 11-song Alegoría builds and expands on Moreno’s career, consistently exploring her ever-evolving artistic expression. Self-produced, with songs in both English and Spanish exploring themes of hope, love, nostalgia and desolation, the album notably features, among others, her guitar heroes Marc Ribot and Davíd Garza. Armed with a warm, soulful sound, the album finds Gaby Moreno continuing to create music that offers an intoxicating invitation into her musical world for English and Spanish speakers alike. “It was always natural to me to create music using both languages because I speak both in my everyday life,” notes Moreno. “I just couldn’t turn my back on one or the other. I’m proud of my Latin roots, of being a Guatemalan immigrant. I love how languages have the capacity of connecting with so many different cultures and people. But in the end, it’s the power of music that speaks to all of us and brings us together.”

Since moving to Los Angeles from her native Guatemala, singer-songwriter-producer Gaby Moreno has released six albums, earned a GRAMMY nomination for her album Illusion (Best Latin Pop Album, 2017), received multiple Latin GRAMMY nominations and won a Latin GRAMMY for “Best New Artist” in 2013. Her moving version of the classic song “Cucurrucucú Paloma” was chosen to play at the end of the emotional episode "God Bless America" for the last season of Netflix' original show, "Orange Is The New Black.” Over her career, Moreno has shared the international stage with pop music luminaries such as Bono, Andrea Boccelli, Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Punch Brothers, Hugh Laurie, Buena Vista Social Club, Calexico, David Gray and many more.

Her 2019 album, ¡Spangled! — a collaboration with musician, songwriter and arranger, Van Dyke Parks — is a set of ten songs celebrating the migration of music across the Americas and spans more than a century, including a bolero from Panama, a bossa nova from Brazil, and an elegiac ballad from Southwestern United States. The album features a duet with Jackson Browne and an art cover designed by Klaus Voormann (who designed The Beatles’ Revolver cover). Gaby was also chosen to sing the theme song and voice a character (Marlena) on the multiple Emmy Award-winning Disney children’s television series, “Elena of Avalor,” which features Disney's first Latina princess. More recently, she composed all the music for the movie “Language Lessons,” directed by Natalie Morales and co-written/starring Morales and Mark Duplass.

www.gaby-moreno.com/

ULTAN CONLON

Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist, Ultan Conlon has shared the stage with the likes of John Fogerty, Mavis Staples, Bryan Ferry, John Grant, Eddi Reader, Patty Griffin and Richard Hawley, among others. Ultan has also performed duets with Glen Hansard and John Martyn, and Martyn recorded Ultan’s song “Really Gone” in 2004. Many of Ultan’s critically acclaimed songs have received extensive airplay in Ireland (RTE Radio 1, Lyric FM) and the UK (BBC). ‘There’s A Waltz’ produced by Grammy Award-winner Sean Watkins, is Ultan’s fourth record.

Ultan found a haven for his unique sound and sensibility in Los Angeles, CA with Nickel Creek’s Grammy Award winning Sean Watkins producing Ultan’s fourth record, There’s A Waltz. Ultan first met Sean in LA in 2016 while playing some shows with him at Largo, the nightclub where Sean
and Sara Watkins hosted The Watkins Family Hour. Ultan says: “When I met the musicians that Sean brought on board to record my songs and we played the first few bars, I knew this record was gonna make itself, under the influence of Sean navigating us all ever so gently.” 

That formidable group of musicians includes producer Sean Watkins on numerous instruments; Don Heffington — Drums (Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Ron Sexsmith); Sebastian Steinberg — Bass, Double Bass (Iron and Wine, Neil Diamond, KD Lang); Gabe Witcher — Fiddle (Paul Simon, Beck); Rich Hinman — Pedal Steel (KD Lang, St.Vincent); Sara Watkins — Backing Vocals (Nickle Creek, I'm With Her); and Tyler Chester — B3, Piano (Jackson Browne, Andrew Bird). Conlon’s poetically-enigmatic songs and “lyrical gems” (No Depression) often stem from his own personal experiences, whether he is reflecting on the dark days of his battle with alcohol addiction (“A Long Way Back”), the isolation incurred by the digital universe (“World from A Window”), anxiety concerning the fate of the world (“A Landslide”) or journeying towards self-acceptance and love
(“There’s A Waltz”).

www.ultanconlon.com