Buy Bushplant and Mary Custy CDs, and more, direct from our very own Ginger Jam Music label

Now you can buy Bushplant tracks from any of these great online stores:












 

Visit our MySpace page at

www.myspace.com/bushplant

Now you can buy any or all Bushplant tracks from any of these great online stores:












 

SUMMER 2009 FESTIVAL NEWS

Solfest, Cumbria - 28 August

Kildysart, Clare - 2 August
Carrigaholt, 20 June
Independents MCC, Nenagh, 15 August
 

You could meet anyone at a Bushplant gig...

John Martyn came along and jammed with the band for the whole night one time in Scariff.

Lynton Kwesi Johnson came to hear Bushplant in Galway.

Another time in Galway, Paddy Casey came to hear and meet the band.

Sharon Shannon has honoured The Plant on numerous occasions by her graceful presence.

Luka Bloom, Donal Lunny, The Cranberries, Eoinn O'Neill, Davey Spillane, Glen Hansard, Mundy, Altan have all heard the Bushplant, as well as many many more.

Mary Custy came and stayed.

Now it's your turn, breathe in the band, Enjoy!

Contact Bushplant:

talk2thebush@bushplant.com 

"Stormin' outta County Clare, Bushplant assault the senses with a singular blend of World and Roots music .

Original songs tempered with a hint of techno and a whole lotta soul.

Bushplant take their special brand of rhythmic, rootsy resonance to the outer limits of musical tastes."

Gerry Quinn, Irish Examiner

Forget trad rock, forget folk rock, forget rock n roll, this is techno-folk, this is the new beat of the Burren, this is NEW CLARE POWER!

NEW ALBUM
"JANUS"
BUY IT HERE
Also available from
Custy's Music Shop , The Music Shop, Tesco's Mall, The Record Rack, Ennis.

Mark Keane, The Clare People, interviews Bushplant, March 2006.

OBJECTIVITY comes at a price. I could quite easily sit here and write a puff piece on Ennis Celtic rockers Bushplant. Wax lyrical about how their unique fusion of rootsy rhythms, dirtpool blues, and burned-out hippie mysticism has been rocking the county and beyond for over 15 years. Blather on innocently about the newfound lease of life that has sparked a forthcoming EP and album release. I could do all that, and will in due course, but first I've got an interest to declare. You see, my brother is the bass player and I've seen these guys play so many times, it's not funny. I was never going to be impartial when I sat down for a chat with drummer Andy Palfreyman and manager and engineer Chris. So with my accountability out in the open, we can get on with it.

Bushplant have taken many weird and wonderful forms since their inception in the late 80s and have been mainstays in the county's music scene. Numerous band members have came and went - my older brother was the victim of a particularly bloody coup, but it's best not to go there - and they are now a solid four piece. Frontman Gerry Molloy, an enigma wrapped in a Rizla and as taciturn off stage as lively as he is on it, remains the fulcrum. Fiddler Mary Custy has an imperious trad pedigree and provides the band's eye candy.  Drummer Andy Palfreyman and bassist Joe Keane take care of the rhythm section with a furious efficiency. The synergy created in the band's live show has earned them not only a loyal following, but a blistering reputation for good time tunes.

"Basically it's celtic rock but with a reggae, dancey vibe", says Andy in his soft Geordie accent. "It's got a fiddle and electric guitar combination. It's a mix of all the band members' influences. Gerry brings the bluesy rhythm, Mary the trad, and I bring in a bit of psychedelia". (Joe, I can exclusively reveal, brings the winning Keane charm and good looks.)

The band like to have a good time, and so inevitably do their crowd, but this nearsighted tendency to put revelry ahead of musical development has hindered the band's progress. That, along with various other ineptitudes have contributed to the band's criminal lack of recordings -just two albums, Unleashed, almost ten years old, and Osmosis, which I think was only available on 78s it's so prehistoric. You could never accuse them of being the hardest working band in the business, but they are finally going some way to correct this imbalance with the launch of the new EP, 'Make Somebody Happy Here' , and a forthcoming album of all new material in the summer. Andy admits it's time to kick on.

"We've made mistakes in the past and we've learned from them. There are more possibilities now. It feels different to times when we did stuff wrong over the years. We're in a much better position now than ever before. We're getting more professional about it. We've got Chris in to take care of the management side, and that makes a big difference." Chris steps in, to add his two cents. "Maybe before the guys didn't have the right level of diplomacy. Now I can deal with all that stuff for them, as well as setting up their equipment, and getting them on a par with other bands".

This whole revival for the band was sparked by an offer Gerry Molloy received that he simply could not refuse. Bushplant were contentedly gigging about their usual circuit, when they were contacted by Lahinch native Chris Hehir who, along with Westlife escapee Brian McFadden, owns Chilli Studios in Dublin. Andy takes up the tale.

"Chris wanted to record something different in his studios, so he contacted Gerry, who's an old friend, and he asked us to come up and do a demo. When he heard our Celtic rock sound he really liked it and asked us to come back and record the album. So we have five tracks in the bag and we're popping up again in a while to record the rest".

The subsequent injection of vitality in the band spurred them to belatedly, but commendably join the Internet age with a website with the the thrilling moniker of www.bushplant.com. This, according to Andy, has been as equally an important a facet in the band's rejuvenation as the studio time.

"It's something we've always thought about and we finally met someone who was willing to do it. We're getting hits from all over the world: Japan, Europe, all over America. It's great to be able to track who's checking the site and who's listening. We have a song called 'On A Ramble' which a walking/rambling site put up as it's theme tune, and we had seventy hits in the next 48 hours just from that site alone. It's the way to go, to get your name out there".

The band have also graciously put the single, 'Make Somebody Happy Here', up to download for free from the website, with the caveat that the user make a small donation to a children's charity of their choice. The gesture is also a nod to Bushplant's fans who have an kind of communal vibe, and have followed the band from the early days.

"We've had people who have met their future wives at Bushplant gigs. Everyone has a story about a gig, about going off to Galway, or to Miltown or to Lahinch and going wild. We've had people from all walks of life, from all places, who have taken a shine to us, and we've won over crowds that didn't initially warm to us."

 The difficulty of getting the balance right between the band's pell-mell live vibe and transferring that into the sterile studio environment is something the band will have to overcome when recording, but Andy is conscious of the problems and thinks that they can get around them.

"There's always a danger that what we do will sound overproduced, but we're aware of that. It's all about getting the balance right, and taking the live sound in but polishing it up and not taking the life out of it".

Whereas before the band may have taken a vary laissez-faire attitude towards such affairs, there seems now to be, if not quite a steely reserve, then a quiet determination that they can go places.

"It's a new lease of life for the band. We want to keep enjoying to play the music, and if something good comes of that, then so be it. We're always grateful for what we have".