Kerry, IE · Irish folk

Junior Brother

1 upcoming festival

Kerry's warped folk bard — hurdy-gurdy strangeness and dark comic grace, trad music bent into confessional theater.

Junior Brother is the performing name of Ronan Kealy, a songwriter from County Kerry in Ireland. He plays acoustic guitar, often accompanying himself with a foot-operated tambourine, and sings in a strained, unvarnished voice that draws on Irish traditional singing as much as on contemporary songwriting.

His debut album Pull the Right Rope appeared in 2019 and was followed by The Great Irish Famine. The songs tend to be long and narrative, mixing rural Irish detail, black humour and unease, and his performances place a good deal of weight on delivery and timing rather than arrangement.

Irish folk