O’Rourke on his way to Glór

POPULAR Irish singer Declan O’Rourke is on his way to Ennis, playing at Glór on Saturday, December 15.

He is touring on the back of his third studio album, the curiously titled Mag PaiZai, which was launched in April of last year.

The album topped the successes of his two previous albums, Since Kyabram (2004) and Big Bad Beautiful World (2007), by holding its own in the top 10 for four consecutive weeks. The debut single from the album, A Little Something, reached the number two spot in the Today FM Top 40 and its follow up Time Machine, became single of the week. Mag PaiZai was cited as one of 101 Irish albums to hear before you die, by Tony Clayton Lea, music editor of The Irish Times.

O’Rourke’s songs have been covered by artists such as Josh Groban and Paul Weller of The Jam. He joined a stellar line-up of artists in 2011 that included Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas and Amos Lee for the BBC’s Transatlantic Sessions series 5.
O’Rourke has toured extensively in Europe, opening for the likes of Paul Weller, Snow Patrol, Teddy Thompson, The Cardigans, Paulo Nutini, Badly Drawn Boy, The Divine Comedy and Paul Brady.

In April of this year, MoJo Magazine featured a compilation album Modfather of Paul Weller’s favourite songs and it included O’Rourke’s Sarah (Last night in a dream) from his debut album.

In June of this year, he performed at Electric Burma, a gala celebrating Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi, at which he performed alongside Bono, Bob Geldof, Damian Rice and Vanessa Redgrave.

He has also been included in English folk sensation Kate Rusby’s forthcoming duets album Twenty, having paired up with her for the haunting track Bring Me a Boat.