LemonCello - 'Morning'
Info: Laura Quirke (guitar, vocals) and Claire Kinsella (cello, vocals) started performing together while studying music and languages in Maynooth University, Ireland. Harmonious vocal melodies simply accompanied by cello and guitar, lend a sincere and honest rootsy sound, borrowing from wide range of influences, traditional and alternative.
In their relatively short life-span, LemonCello have played a sold out show in France at the beautiful Musée de La Piscine in Roubaix, supported Irish folk hero Damien Dempsey, played several music festivals across Ireland, and helped start 'Common Grounds Collective', a group dedicated to building a network of musicians of all genres, and give them a platform to write and perform original works within a nurturing community environment.
LemonCello spent much of 2016 writing material in France and Ireland and are now preparing to record their debut EP. Their new video for their original song 'Morning' was shot by Myles O'Reilly (Arbutus Yarns) towards the end of the summer. The video chronicles a trip down to the small village Killoughternane, Co. Carlow, where LemonCello member Laura Quirke’s family have run a farm for generations, and since its release on the the 7th of October has clocked up in excess of 50,000 views.
From a personal perspective I find LemonCello to be a rare wonder on the Irish music scene right now. We are thankfully awash with massive talent currently, and there have been countless times I've arrived to, and left live shows excited, for that I count myself very lucky. However, on occasion something extra hits you, as someone who holds constant and childishly impossible regrets about not seeing my favourite musicians from before I was born, and wishing I had been a teenager in 1960 to remedy it, every now and again a band comes along and chips away at that unrealistic sense of loss.
And yes, LemonCello are one of those acts, they are musicians who would be just as at home during the golden era of traditional folk as they are in 2017. Those reading these pages over the years will know that I'm a sucker for well delivered strings of any kind, and Kinsella's cello draws out a special kind of hope-tinged sadness on this rendition of 'Morning', subtle movements whose impact is anything but. Meanwhile Quirke's gentle plucking drifts between emotive and soothing vocals, the overall package makes me think Pentangle, Fairport Convention or Joan Baez, but the duo don't really sit easily within any of them. Essentially they are pulled across decades, their sound stretched like elastic, ready to bounce back to either end of the spectrum, not with a snap, but gently.
The track is certainly beautiful, and the video is more than relevant, a reflection of the need to slow our own time down, personal and real interaction with those who we've spent most of our lives with, but have perhaps drifted from as we entered adulthood. It has become normal to be selfish with our time and to be aggravated by anyone who encroaches on that singular space, 'Morning' reminds us that true comfort and living comes from the opposite, and we should all saunter on the wind more often.
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