The BeerMats Irish Folk & Ballads

Folk • Dublin 10, D10 XV91, IE

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About the Artist

Its impossible to say how many bars, concerts or festivals we have performed in over the last 30 years, or how many miles we have travelled, or how many people we have met, but one thing’s for sure, we had a great time along the way. It all started in a small bar in Dublin in 1993, The Bottom Bar in our home town Ballyfermot, we never intended to start a band, it just happened. The next thing we needed was a name, with a list as long as a beer mat, and names like, Irish this and Celtic that, and us tapping beer mats (coasters) on the bar it clicked, Brian said lets call the band The BeerMats, that's a true story. By 1994 we got a break, we were offered two nights in a bar called The Keg, in Dublin city centre, a big move when you only have 10 songs. We played in the Keg for over two years and learnt our trade, and decided to give the music game a go, as the years went by we played bigger and better venues, always adding to our song list. One night at a charity event in Mother Redcaps we met an Irish song writer, who we knew had a great name in the Irish music scene, Brendan Phelan, turned on the light for us to start recording our own albums.The first song we recorded in 1995 was Brendan Phelan’s, Seven Sober Nights, and by the end of 1995 we had our very own album. Things started to move very quickly over the next few years, we recorded more of Brendan’s songs, and the band got a great name all over Ireland. So we started to look abroad to England for gigs, we were a bit nervous, an Irish band playing Irish songs in the UK, but we never looked back, Spain was next than Switzerland & Germany, then we looked at the USA. I sent an email and some CD’s to The Louisville Irish Fest, Kentucky, thinking I’ll never hear back, two months later an email, (WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU AT OUR FESTIVAL), boys we are going to the USA, and we were back the following year at The Celts on the River Fest, Indiana. In 2010 we were performing at a Benefit night with The Dubliners, we never expected what happened next, the man who wrote The Fields of Athenry, Pete St John asked us would we record his new song The Workers Song, we did and 3 more. We continue to travel and tour, and this year 2013 will see The BeerMats travel to Canada to release two new songs from an Irish man, who moved to Canada 38 year ago, Michael Dignam, and would you believe that Michael is from our home town Ballyfermot. If you like more info visit www.thebeermats.com

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