Galway singer launches acclaimed album with hometown gig

It’s a long way from learning hymns from nuns in Loughrea to singing on stage in Los Angeles with Jackson Browne and Grammy Award winner Shelby Lynne – but Ultan Conlon is around long enough to know that the path to musical success has many twists and turns.

Right now, the Loughrea native is on a super-fast highway on the back of his critically acclaimed new album and a host of sell-out gigs – but if the past decade has taught him anything about the music business, it’s the importance of patience.

“There’s no map; it’s all about the little victories along the way. I feel like I’m always breaking new ground and that’s the secret, if there is one,” says the singer/songwriter.

That latest album, Last Days of The Night Owl, has met with widespread acclaim; it was RTÉ Radio 1’s Album of the Week, Marty Whelan has been its greatest advocate on Lyric FM and its Dublin unveiling at Whelan’s was at a sell-out gig with Ultan’s tight-knit band the Night Owls.

Next up is the homecoming;’ the official Galway launch of the album at the Róisín Dubh in the city’s West End next Friday, July 6 – before another highlight at the end of the month when he is Bryan Ferry’s special guest at a concert in Trinity College on Friday, July 27.

“I love the Róisín – all the lads in the band do – and this is the Galway launch, so it’s very special,” he says.

Ultan’s previous album was five years ago and Last Days of The Night Owl was a long time in the ether – before it was finally recorded, as they used to with albums, virtually in one fell swoop.

“We actually made the album over three or four months in the winter of 2017, but I’d moved into a studio in Clarinbridge for two years before that so the writing took a lot longer.

“The band were crucial to the whole thing in that we set out to record the songs in the way we’d perform them – running through them one after the other. It was about getting that live, authentic feel, and I think we achieved that,” he says.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.