Press

“(All My Dream Companions Gone is) a suite of compassionate, perceptive songs that are consummately performed by guests who include Lisa Lambe, Trevor Hutchinson, Roisin Ward Morrow and Nuala Kennedy” – Tony Clayton-Lea, The Irish Times

“I love this” – Mark Radcliffe, The Folk Show, BBC Radio 2

“SJ McArdle is a songwriter whose work feels deeply literary and atmospheric, often exploring memory, mining history in a very human way” – Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Folk On One, RTÉ Radio 1

“(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 All My Dream Companions Gone (4 stars)

Irish Times review of Old Ghosts In The Water (4 stars)

The Left & The Leaving reviews: