“(Old Ghosts in the Water is) an impressive song cycle … the songs are intriguing and evocative; they are rooted in folk but coloured by expansive and imaginative arrangements.” – The Irish Times
“PORT is a welcome case of a songwriter thinking outside the box … evocative lyrics, terrific songs, brilliantly delivered”. – Jackie Hayden
“What a great, great collection of songs this is from SJ McArdle. I urge you to go out and get it.” – Fiachna Ó Braonáin (The Hothouse Flowers, RTÉ)
“All the ingredients of great folk songs” – Lynette Fay (BBC)
“SJ McArdle … can’t fail to capture your attention, with a sonorous voice – not unlike Garnet Rogers’s – that can be gritty and gruff yet also unexpectedly tender, even vulnerable. His writing exhibits a similar versatility.” – Sean Smith, Boston Irish
“Quite lovely … McArdle’s voice has a breathy gruffness to it that is commanding without being loud, and it sets a strong tone. ‘The Hard Wind’, a McArdle original, is a lively, cutting song about Irish soldiers who returned to Ireland after World War I to acrimony and indifference.” – Daniel Neely, The Irish Echo
“(In ‘The Hard Wind’) SJ McArdle has written a really fine and brave song … interesting, powerful and complex”– Mike Harding
“Bravo for an artist who has taken contemporary Irish music to parts it far too seldom reaches” – Hot Press
“SJ’s deep, sonorous voice brings authority to the songs. If Whipping Boy were raised in Nashville they might sound like this” – Mail On Sunday
Irish Times review of Old Ghosts In The Water
The Left & The Leaving reviews:
False Deceiver reviews:
Kern – Live & Miscellaneous:
Archive – Blood and Bones reviews:
SJ McArdle 
