Paul J Bolger
What they are saying about PJB -
"...songs that swim inside your head like digitally animated fish."
RnR Magazine
"...made to be played endlessly on college rock radio stations... "
WhisperinAndHollerin.com
"...beautiful country rock harmonies..."
Penny Black Music
"...sophisticated sparsity which matches (a) sophisticated lyric..."
Folking.com
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Paul J Bolger is what some might call a ‘Renaissance Man’, even if mentioning that makes him feel a tad self-conscious.
PJB released his first album, The Moss House, in the mid 1990's to critical acclaim with Hot Press rating it 8/10 at the time. Paul followed this, and the wall-to-wall airplay the album received, by playing all over Ireland for the rest of the decade before returning to filmmaking. Continuing to write songs and play in between movie projects Paul succumbed to the music bug again in 2015 after a two decade break when he was invited to support the Indiana songwriter and Wolfe Island Records star David Corley when he came to play Paul’s hometown of Waterford.
Paul and WIR producer Hugh Christopher Brown hit it off like brothers from different mothers and the seeds of new a musical adventure were sown.
Paul had already begun to put down new songs with old friend and master guitarist/producer Dave Molloy in Northern Ireland which saw the release of an EP, The Start Of It, in 2018, with Paul directing a promo video for each song.
These sessions had spawned enough material for an album when Wolfe Island came calling. On a trip to Canada to consult on an animated movie adaptation of the stage show Riverdance, Paul visited the home of Wolfe Island Records in Ontario where more songs than Paul knew what to do with were in the offing, so 2018 became a year of writing and recording.
What began as a slow return to documenting some old songs saw Paul and his producers complete two records at the same time on both sides of the Atlantic; a bit like a Dublin bus – you wait for ages for one and then two show up at the same time, full to the brim.
With a style Celtic Rock legends Horslips termed ‘Bog Gothic’, a genre the artist is happy to embrace and propagate, Paul will release the first of these albums, produced by Hugh Christopher Brown, through Wolfe Island Records, on June 19th 2020, making Paul the label’s very first East-of-the-Atlantic signing.
The follow up album "Hard Truth" was recorded in Ireland with producer Dave Molloy and released on April 29th, 2022. Featuring music legends Barry Devlin (Horslips) and Rónán Snodaigh (Kíla) on backing vocals and bodhrán respectively the album garnered further great acclaim in the UK and US.
A previously unreleased EP Peacemaker was released on June 8th, 2023. Containing four never before heard songs the collection served as a soft bridge to Paul's third album "Beware Of Trains" which was released in September 2023.
Recorded in Nashville with renowned guitarist/producer Steve Dawson at Henhouse Studios the record features David Jacques (John Prine, Emmylou Harris) and drummer/percussionist Jamie Dick (Rhiannon Giddens, Pam Tillis, Alison Russell) and vocalist Siobhán Maher-Kennedy (River City People, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams)
Other music projects in the works are FORGE HOUNDS - a hard rock project which sees Paul shares lead vocal duties with Mick Wall (www.forgehounds.com) and BLIND CORNER - a semi acoustic adventure with guitarist Alex Soikans and other Waterford based musicians. Both bands will release albums in 2024
As Paul says, “after a lifetime spent shifting between music, writing, visual art and film I am doing what I want to do at an age some might say I should know better. Nothing can deliver instant satisfaction like writing, recording and performing a song you wrote for a live audience. My return to making music has been a never too late dream come true for an aging rocker who finally found his voice.
