September 2026
Dear friends,
It was an amazing summer here in West Cork, Ireland, with lots of touring around and playing joyful concerts. Thanks to everyone who came out to see and experience Barefoot Baroque, we had another incredible adventure!
Barefoot Baroque musicking around on Heir Island - July 26
Autumn gigs coming up
I’ve a busy season of different live shows in September and October:
FIR BEAG: TONIGHT 5TH SEPTEMBER 9.30pm!!
Fir Beag play the legendary De Barra’s Folk Club, Clonakilty. A punk-folk band made up of 4 disparate local musicians who gather once in a blue moon for flights of wild and chaotic whimsy….Violin through distortion pedals??? Don’t miss it!!
OUTRI DOUBLE BILL: PLUGD RECORDS, CORK: FRIDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER 7.30PM
This month I am bringing over my old friend and long time musical collaborator ‘Dodge’ Paterson, AKA OUTRI for some shows, and we are doing a double-bill on Culture Night at the wonderful Plugd Records in Cork. I’ll be making a live violin and electronics improvisation, bringing along my trusty 1/4” tape machine for added weirdness.
20TH ANNIVERSARY ‘FRANCESCO’ SHOW: CLONAKILTY INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL
SUNDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 2PM DEBARRAS
This year marks 20 years since my acclaimed record ‘Francesco’ came out in Australia. The culmination of a year of wandering the planet, writing songs with people I met along the way, it was a coming of age record that set me on my musical course. Original drummer Marcus Flack, and bassist ‘Dodge’ Paterson will be coming from overseas to join me on stage.
ABAIR AMHRÁN: FÉILE NA GAEILGE, LEVIS’ BALLYDEHOB: 3RD OCTOBER 1-3PM
Abair Amhrán (“say a song”) is a relaxed, supportive environment to explore the tradition of Irish song. The audience are taught to sing some beautiful Irish songs, then joined by the Vespertine Ensemble, playing my arrangements. This is an opportunity to sing these songs accompanied by a modern classical chamber ensemble. No previous singing experience or knowledge of Irish is necessary — the songs will be taught and lyrics translated where needed.
EAST CORK EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
IMPROV/BAROQUE SHOW: SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER 7PM: ST PETER’S CHURCH, CORK
Bringing together 2 of my musical passions, I will be joining with cellist Eimear Reidy and drummer Dan Walsh in this experimental show combining baroque ideas, electronica and improvisation. A definite one-off!
SEPTEMBER BOOK RECOMMENDATION
I have just finished reading ‘The Score’ by philosopher and game theorist C.Thi Nguyen. It’s an incredible inquiry into games and metrics, and why things like scores work so well to make the experience of struggle so ‘delicious’ (his own term!) in the small ‘island of meaning’ which is a game, but then seem to kill all sense of creativity, nuance and joy when they are applied to larger life things such as education, health and economy. These metrics work to flatten the field and capture our value systems, forcing us to prioritise what can be measured over what is inherently meaningful, and fuzzy. He must be a wonderful teacher, as his writing style makes me feel that I’ve signed up for a super fun and dynamic philosophy class. He’s a rock-climber, yo-yo fanatic and brilliant mind.
Favourite passage (from his chapter ‘Art is a Game’)
“ If you thought that the point of art was the exercise of human creativity, then algorithmic art is a disaster. If the point of art is to be buried in the process, to be doing it yourself, using your own emotions and invention and sensitivity to fine-tune every detail - then algorithmic art is cheating. And not cheating in some boring legalistic sense, but cheating in the cosmic sense. By using algorithmic art-generation tools we are cheating ourselves out of one of the most precious activities we have left.”
Hope to see you at one of the autumn gigs coming up!
Justin
