Dynamic trio set for Minogue’s this Friday

THOM Moore, Aminah Hughes and Seamie O’Dowd will be the guests of the Island Music Club at Minogue’s of Tulla on Friday night at 9.15pm.
The set will largely consist of songs written by all three, who have been playing together for the last year or so.
Aminah Hughes has a voice that has been described as haunting and beautiful. An Australian, she is working towards her first album and has performed with Tommy Emmanuel, the Máirtín O’Connor trio and Aussie rock legend Robert James.
Sligo’s Séamie O’Dowd has performed around the world and worked with the likes of Cathal Hayden and Dervish.
Thom Moore has been a major influence on contemporary acoustic songwriting and performance in Ireland since the 1970s.
A talented songwriter, he was born in the US but says there are very few American influences on his work. “I’ve only written one song that has ever been done in an American context, it was a song called Saw you running which Maura O’Connell and Mary Black both had hits with. Everything else I’ve done is Irish. I wrote Cavan Girl and I wrote Mary Black’s hit Carolina Ruadha, I’m not an American songwriter in any real sense,” he explains.
He is modest about his talents as a performer he but he doesn’t hide his light under a bushel when it comes to songwriting. “I’m not a musician at all, the only reason I get on stage is because as far as I’m concerned, I write wonderful songs and nobody’s going to hear them otherwise. Lately, I did a gig with Séamie and an American called Sarah McQuaid in Dublin. Barry Moore was there and he’s an old friend of mine but he hasn’t been that responsive to stuff I sent him because he’s a songwriter himself. But I did a song called Cloghaun Hill and it blew his mind. He said it was one of the most beautiful songs he’d ever heard. Not only is that song based on Irish traditional melodies but the lyrics mention lots of places in Offaly.”
He is generous in his praise of the two musicians who will perform with him in Tulla. “The styles are pretty consistent, it’s punchy folk rock. Aminah is Australian and she does lots of gentle songs. Séamie’s a wonderful traditional and rock and roll musician. He has a parallel career doing a sort of Rory Gallagher thing against his own guitar and fiddle playing in the traditional style.”
Séamie O’Dowd says the three are enjoying playing together. “We’ve been doing this off and on for the last year. I’ve been playing with Thom on and off for years and with Aminah for the last two years or so. It came together out of those roots really, it’s been fairly enjoyable.”
Regarding what’ll be on offer in Tulla, Séamie says, “It’s contemporary acoustic song. It’s mostly original material written by ourselves but there’s a few folk-based songs and one or two traditional type things.”