JUNE 2007

Inishowen Songwriter gets lucky

An Inishowen songwriter, Sean McLaughlin, has been handpicked to perform alongside one of Ireland's top musicians. Sean from Moville recently attended a song-writing workshop, taken by Glen Hansard, the lead singer of the Irish band The Frames, at the Listowel Writers Festival Co Kerry.

Sean has also been asked to perform one of his songs, 'You told me so' for RTE radio after an RTE reporter did a story on the festival. Sean said, he was amazed at how things turned out. "My cheeks are still sore from grinning about it" he said. "It's the old story if someone had told me on Wednesday that by the end of Friday night I'd have sung on the radio and been asked to play on stage by Glen Hansard I'd have thought they were wired to the moon. It just wouldn't have been anywhere near what I expected to happen but it turned out that RTE had sent a journalist to sit in on the course as part of an overall report on the festival and luckily for me he really liked one of my songs and asked me to play it again so he could record it. When I heard it the next morning we were all at breakfast in the B & B and there I was at the cornflakes and singing away on the radio at the same time. It was really in a great way the strangest start to a day I've ever had."

Sean said the highlight of his trip had been performing with Glen Hansard. "I remember walking up to the stage and the crowd was clapping away and all I could think was that I hope they clap when I'm finished. Once I got on stage it was a relief to find that because of the lights you can't actually see anybody so I relaxed a bit and played 'You told me so' and the applause at the end was brilliant. It just shows you what's possible when you put yourself out there and try things. It was a great confidence booster and I hope to record a few tunes and see what happens."

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