TRÚ - ETERNITY NEAR

Trú are a Northern Irish band with tight harmonies and heavily influenced by traditional music. They take their name from  a mythological trio of poet-musicians in ancient Ulster. In the Celtic world they were seen as prophets singing songs of the future and also as keepers of the beyond.

Their very being is quite prophetic with each member of the group bringing different threads of identity to the weave - British-Ukrainian, Ulster-Scots and Irish Nationalist. Oh for a future Ireland that harmonised like that.

And harmonising is what these guys are all about. The blend of their voices is absolutely sublime. So to the blend of songs that they wrap their voices around. 

There’s utterly beautiful versions of Long Black Veil, originally an American country ballad though made Irish by The Chieftains with Mick Jagger on vocal; Robbie Burns’ A Red Red Rose; and Wild Mountain Time that we in Ulster claim songwriting credits for west Belfast’s Francis McPeake.

Of the songs written by the band Aphrodite is a fragile little bird; Lovely Molly reminds me of something from the Beatles’ White Album; and the lead single Selkie Song (Young O’Kane) has a little pop pep that made it so radio accessible. 

There are four songs in Irish of which Seán Bháin could be acoustic Horslips. 

I got to see these guys at the NI Music Prize a couple of years ago and if anything they are even better live but as a new trad band these guys can sit alongside Lankum; a different approach to the tradition but no less quality.