Product Description
With a fiddle in one hand and a guitar in the other, Cork based Clare Sands is a singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and music teacher. She performs in a variety of genres, her own material being a mixture of Blues & Folk. With deep roots in Northern Ireland and County Wexford, Clare started playing the fiddle at the age of four, learning tunes off her father Seamus on a weekly basis. As well as playing Traditional Irish Music from an early age with different family members, Clare also trained classically on the violin. Her mother Susan bought her a guitar in her early teens, and gave her a strong love of the Blues, playing legends like Muddy Waters and Eva Cassidy on the way to school. She soon found a love for song writing, and used whatever instruments that lay around the house like the guitar, the piano, the bodhrán or the mandolin to accompany herself. Having spent the summer of 2013 gigging around New York City, Clare returned to Cork to finish her degree in Music and Italian in UCC. During her time there she has met fabulous musicians such as Aisling Urwin, a singer-songwriter and harpist hailing from Kenmare, Co. Kerry.Their Irish tour in April/May 2014 to promote Clare’s debut single, ‘Change Is A Comin’ was hugely successful, having played prestigious venues around the country, as well as venues across Holland and Germany. They subsequently released a ‘Live in Charlies Bar’ album, which Clare promoted on her tour of New York City during the summer of 2015. Clare continues to play in various musical outfits, including a Blues/Soul group ‘What’s That Sound?’ in Cork City every week, and other Traditional Irish music and Gypsy Jazz groups. Clare works as a full time music teacher, music therapist, and session musician playing and supporting various renowned artists; Luka Bloom, Jack L, Kris Drever, Mary Coughlan, Mick Flannery, John Spillane, Mundy, Anna Mitchell, Hank Wedel,to name a few. Clare also released her debut album ‘Join Me at The Table’ in October 2016 (Available worldwide on Itunes/CD Baby) to critical acclaim. The album is an eclectic mix of Blues/Folk/Jazz/Trad, recorded by musician and producer Christian Best of Monique Studios, Cork. Clare continues to tour Ireland/ Europe,