Revisiting Fleet Foxes' sparkling landmark folk debut album with Aoife Barry

This month's guest returns after her January visit — it's music writer Vanessa Roulston Mooney, fresh from Jack White, Primavera and Féile na Gréine. We start with the big one: Phoebe Bridgers' Lost Weekend, her first solo album in six years, and whether an hour of cosmic, string-drenched, banjo-flecked ambition is too much of a good thing. Then James Ellis Ford's Lost In Another World, written and recorded alone from a hospital bed in two weeks during leukaemia treatment, and somehow the most accessible thing he's made referencing OMD and Blue Nile. That leads us to J Dilla, who made much of Donuts the same way, and to Dilligence 2, where Busta Rhymes finally uses some of the 300 beats Dilla handed him before he died in 2006, with D'Angelo, Lil Wayne, T3, Talib Kweli, Ludacris and Jon Batiste along for it. Also: GB's Heirsprung, its lyrics cut up from free copies of the London Metro and funded by a Jaguar ad; Never-Never's Colour Form, and the Copenhagen music school quietly producing half the artists Vanessa loves - Erika de Casier, ML Buch, Fine, Snuggle and GB all came through the same place; Cornelius' eighth album; Pulp's first ever live album, somehow; the short, sharp MF DOOM vibes of Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume's 2; the debut from scuzzy, fizzy Dublin rockers Really Good Time; and the electro-clashing, indie-sleazing EP from Mischa And The Bear. Plus Erykah Badu and the Alchemist, Dolly, Jack White's phone pouches, what we're reading, and the gigs ahead. Plus Dolly, Jack White's phone pouches, what we're reading, and the gigs ahead. Follow Vanessa on Substack.   Listen on Apple | Android | Patreon | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS Feed | Podlink | Substack * Support Nialler9 on Patreon, get event discounts, playlists, ad-free episodes and access our Discord community.  

It’s a deep dive episode into an absolute legend of music this week - the one, the only Dolly Parton.

Mags Mullaney is the Instagram and Tik Tok music influencer known as Totally Frogaret or now called The Frog Report. Mags joins us this week to talk about her All Together Now experience and Niall talks about the problematic side of Glen Hansard before we dive into music we are loving at the moment. Music discussed and chosen on the episode from Kelela, Nirosta Steel, Chanel Beads, Goldbug, Jack White, Mary In The Junkyard, Shy One, Swapmeet and new tracks from Mike D and Trá Pháidín. Plus, we talk about what we're reading, watching and more. Listen on Apple | Android | Patreon | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS Feed | Podlink * Support Nialler9 on Patreon, get event discounts, playlists, ad-free episodes and access our Discord community.

Fees, touts and a monopoly: the state of Irish gig ticketing in 2026.

Today’s podcast guest For Those I Love has just been announced for The Circle by Jameson Music stage at this weekend’s All Together Now Festival. While I’ve written extensively about Dave Balfe’s For Those I Love project, right up to last year’s second album Carving The Stone,  it’s been seven years since we chatted on the podcast. Listen on Apple | Android | Patreon | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS Feed | Podlink   You may remember the original 2019 podcast -  which was the first time that Dave talked deeply and intensely about the loss of his friend Paul Curran, a catalyst for making a devastatingly emotional album about love, loss, grief and friendship. On his return to the podcast this time around, the topics are a less weighty but no less interesting - a year after album two - Balfe can't stop building props, remixing his own work and creating films for the upcoming live shows at All Together Now, and he reveals he has been working on two distinct ATN live sets, and they couldn't be more different from each other. The Friday show at Some Kind Of Wonderful leans on the props Balfe has spent the last few weeks building himself, including a giant grass mound housing a surprise constructed by hand in his back garden. The Saturday show at The Circle by Jameson Music stage is something else entirely: a full club reworking of Carving the Stone, 60 minutes of fresh material remixing the album into a dancefloor club set, that allowed Balfe to acknowledge another strand of his musical talent.  In between we talk about the evolution of his live visuals, and the importance of nostalgia and album listening in a digital age. The Circle by Jameson Music has consistently offered one of the most varied lineups at the festival in a secluded setting in the trees on the grounds of Curraghmore and its fifth year is no different. Along with FTIL, you can catch sets from last week’s podcast guest SOAK, the rapper Mike, Miss Dynamite, One Leg One Eye, Delivery Service, Pebbledash, Rory Sweeney (live), Jamz Supernova, Or:la, Mango, Ahmed With Love and the Mabfield Live Podcast among others. * Support Nialler9 on Patreon, get event discounts, playlists, ad-free episodes and join our Discord community