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This month we in association with mutantspace arts resource and the Glor Sessions we have: Performance poets Raven from Dublin and Wasps vs Humans from Cork Musicians Mark Flynn from Dublin and Christine Deady and Colin McLean from Cork with the night hosted by the wonderful poet Stephen James Smith Raven I found my orphaned voice one day, living in the ruins of a house collapsed years ago beneath the weight of what was unspoken. ...I sculpted diction like pulpfiction and gifted it the colloquial violence of a gun. I lifted glib scriptures from a street preacher's passions to fashion mispelled gospels from its own fears, while the illegible heart left the tracts of its tears untranslated -- but the word got out. No manifesto but the breath til even that goes. See, I misread the writing on the walls that said: A death without joy is a night without stars; and when at last I comprehended I penned this on remnants of night, between pinpoints of light. I misunderstood: people are not killed for what they say, but for its echoes. The roar of distant suns is unheard, yet years after their deaths are we aware of their presence, when it is darkest. No manifesto but the breath til even that goes. We have all misspoken -- testimonies consigned to air are yet tethered to earthly prejudice; word balloons are too leaden too fly and make cartoons of speechless reverence. We have all misspoken, and for it our ends will be identical when the bottom drops out: all swinging our days away on the rope of this life, our inexhaustible diatribes, our inexpressible disbelief choked between lip and lungs and lost forever. No manifesto but the breath til even that goes. But tongues will cleave to language as fire to that which fuels it, until meaning is burned out and nothing more can be said, and history cannot be recited nor repeated; until we are left standing in the ash of voices fallen from a feverish nation with its tongue enflamed. The ash of voices, spiralling down in ever slower revolutions to a day when we have waited in their remains long enough to recognise the virtuosity of their silence; to a day when every song martyred by mouth goes unsung at once, the harmonics of sympathetic strings and crossed wires fading at last to leave empty the contemplative air and room enough to simply breathe. The Blood Red Mountain Band Playing an infectious home-brew of pop americana. Think Bob Dylan on holiday in Ireland with Arcade Fire... Band in the misty backwoods of Appalachia. But in rainy old Dublin in the depths of winter? To their credit the all-Irish outfit side-step the dreary clichés that are too often prevalent whenever a bunch of outsiders set out to investigate American roots music. Yes, their sound is a yammering gumbo of fiddles, mouth organs, mandolins and accordions. Yet there's more to this crew than dueling banjos and hillbilly yodels. In fact, the Blood Red Mountain Band nurse notably experimental ambitions. Frontman Mark Flynn writes his own material and plays a mean blues guitar; dreamy keyboardist Daniel Shanahan, meanwhile, would seem to harbour notions of one day joining Sufjan Stevens's backing band. Combine all these disparate elements and what you get is an enticing home-brew of traditional music and left-field rock. Dismiss them as an Oh Brother Where Art Thou? Tribute act at your peril. Wasps vs Humans Debuted as a performance poet at the Mid Summer Festival Cork in 2009, WvHs went on to support Jinx Lennon on a number of dates around Ireland, including a performance in Dublin's Sugar Club with Captain Moonlight and Christy Moore Earlier in 2010 he toured with Chunky Planet in a Music Poetry Mash Up, performing at various venues across Ireland including Kilkenny, Dublin, Cork, Clonakilty and the Spirit Centre in Dundalk. He recently performed at The Glór sessions in Dublin, sharing the stage with poets Dermot Bulger and Stephen James Smith. He has also been performing at various venues across Cork including The Savoy Theatre As a writer, he has previously written four plays for the theatre including 'Like', which took in a national tour across the UK including The Brighton International Arts Festival. Musically, he released an L.P and Single to critical acclaim with UK based 80s avant garde/experimental band, 4,000,000 TELEPHONES, with a tour in Germany, previously gaining interest from national UK press and radio 1, including John Peel. At present is one half of Chunky Planet who have released a single and an EP both receiving HotPress Pick of the Fortnight Stephen James Smith Stephen James Smith was Cúirt Literary Grand Slam Champion 2009 and won the ‘peoples choice’ in the ‘I am a Lagan’ tour, where he performed alongside Buddy Wakefield, Katie Wirsing and Andrea Gibson. He was Runner up in the All Ireland Final 2008 at The White House Limerick, finalist in the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, 2008 and BBC 4 Radio Slam All Ireland Finalist 2007 where represented Leinster. Stephen Janes Smith has been part of the Electric Picnic since 2007 where he did a set in The Word tent in 2007 + 2008. In 2009 he was asked by Dermot Bolger to recite in the Literary Stage alongside Irvine Welsh. In the same year he ran the Spoken Word Stage at The Festival of World Cultures and took The Glór Sessions to The Redline Roots Festival. This year he’ll be hosting his own stage there. His work has been translated into Slovenian and he was invited to the invitational only Vilenica Literary Festival in Slovenia in 2009. As well as Slovenia he has recited in, London, Amsterdam, New York and will be doing some talks in universities in NYC, Boston, and Washington D.C. He has worked with Youth Speaks Ireland last year, where he conducted poetry workshops with TY students around the country, as well as workshops in prisons. His first book will be out in the not too distant future titled ‘Pretending to be Happy?’ which is being published with The Galway based publisher, Maverick Press. They have published 5 poets so far those being: Dave Lordan, Stephen Murray, Mags Treanor, Elane Feeney and Neil McCarthy. Stephen hosts the Glor Sessions in The International Bar, Wicklow Street, Dublin every Monday night Christine Deady Christine Deady is quickly creating ripples in the Irish music scene, Already this year she’s been shortlisted by Vodafone as one of Irelands up and coming "Bright New Sounds" received a nomination for Best Female by Balcony TV. Most recently Christine's Red Cross Charity Single was shortlisted in the 'Most promising Act 2010' for the Meteor Awards. Her live performances are also tweaking the senses of fellow musicians such as John Spillane (above) and Paul Brady who invited her to support his 2009 Theatre tour having heard her play a live set in Dublin. As her prolific quality song writing repetoire continues to develop, the only way is up for this talented songstress" (Owl Promotions 2008)" Christine has played support to many well known respected Irish Acts such as Paul Brady (2009 Tour),Liam O' Maonlai, John Spillane, Mick Flannery, Cathy Davey etc Colin McLean Colin McLean is one of Irelands leading Classical Guitarists. He has studied with some of the most prestigious teachers including Jerry Creedon, Fabio Zanon and Tilman Hoppstock. He has received master classes from Paul Gregory, David Leisner Magnus Anderson and Craig Ogden. Some of his achievements include winning Feis Matthew two years running for solo Classical Guitar and being the first ever Guitarist to win the Senior Recital in the Cork School of Music. He has an Honors Degree and an Honors Masters from the Cork School of Music which he completed with the great virtuoso Fabio Zanon. Colin currently travels back and forth to Germany to receive lessons from Tilman Hoppstock. Over the last year Colin has formed his own latin trio.“The Colin McLean Latin Trio” play a mix of South American/Spanish guitar music which is influenced by some of the great names in the business including Rodrigo y Gabriella, Oscar Lopez and Luis Villegas.