If you’ve never heard of Hermitage Green, picture beardy, muscly guys wearing denim jackets and cardigans, and playing the banjo and bodhrán in an abandoned warehouse in Limerick.
Their sound is acoustic folk-rock with a touch of blues and more than a flavour of trad. Their songs vary from slow, beautiful ballads led by the gorgeous Murphy brothers, who will make you question your marriage, to much more rousing rock/electric numbers.
Hermitage Green embody what it is to be the perfect Irish man – in our humble opinion. They are the perfect mixture of rugged, sensitive and great craic.
Some of Hermitage Green were latecomers to music, probably because of their love of sport. Barry Murphy, for example, played rugby with Munster for eight years and was capped for Ireland on several occasions. Darragh Graham (who, in another connection to Munster rugby, is married to Simon Zebo’s sister) represented Ireland as a 100m and 200m international sprinter. He also has a PhD in strength and conditioning and has coached the Leinster senior rugby team, the Tipperary senior hurling team and the Irish paralympic team.
Barry’s brother, Dan, studied Media and Music in UL but he also holds an All-Ireland medal in kickboxing and in 2012 won the heavyweight Munster boxing title. Dermot Sheedy has played music for years but he also holds a first-degree black belt in taekwondo.
Barry draws a comparison between music and sport, saying: “They both take a lot of practice and determination if you want to be the best.”
The fifth band member, Darragh Griffin, adds: “And you have to take loads of drugs if you want to be good at either of them!”
Cue roars of laughter.
Darragh (referred to as “Griff” by the lads) played GAA growing up but began playing piano at the age of six. He studied classical music in Mary Immaculate College and trad music in UL (as a master’s) and was a primary teacher before Hermitage Green. Although they all write songs, Darragh seems to be the song-writing genius of the group. Darragh wrote our favourite track here at Irish Country Living, Let the Ink Flow, and Barry says he’ll never forget when Darragh first played its chords for him: “We used to live together up the road and I was just like: ‘Yes, yesssssssssssssss.’ It was like somebody scored a goal or something.”
But it seems asking them which is their favourite track is like asking a parent who is their favourite child.
“I couldn’t answer that,” says Barry, “but I listened to Live at Whelan’s (their first album), and Gibson is a – I said it to Orla (his fiancée) last night – I was like that is a f*****g tune.”
Darragh seems to be quite a harsh self-critic and uses something of a whiskey NCT test to decide if his songs are good. “Basically, I write a song and then I don’t know whether I like it or not until I come home after an excessive night out and sit out the back drinking my whiskey and listening to the song ... and that’s like my gauge, and some songs I go: ‘I HATE THAT, that’s terrible.’”
Hermitage Green started life playing cover in a corner of the Curragrower bar in Limerick in the summer of 2010.
“Ah God it was the most unorganised thing,” says Barry. “We’d just show up and drink a cup of tea and whoever showed up on the night with whatever instrument...” It wasn’t long before they were asked to play in the Curragrower’s main bar, and in other bars. A trip to Australia in 2013 was a watershed moment for them.
“We went: ‘Hang on, this is pretty mad, we’ve been able to go to Australia off the back of releasing, I think, four songs on an EP,’” says Dan.
The guys were signed with Sony Music in 2015, who they say have been “thoroughly enjoyable” to work with. But despite all of their progress, building the name of a band depends on support from radio stations – do Hermitage Green feel they’re received that kind of support?
“It could be better,” says Barry, “like I wish they’d play us all the time but that’s ridiculous because if you said to me last year they’ve played you x amount of times, I’d have bitten your hand off.”
“I was listening to an interview with James Vincent McMorrow recently,” says Dan, “and he was talking about how ... one of the major stations ... couldn’t get on board with his songs – this guy actually personally said to him: ‘I love your music but I can’t play it because not enough people know it.’ It’s like a weird sort of paradox ... it’s like when a bouncer stops you and says regulars only – how do I become a regular if you don’t let me in?”
At this, all the lads in the room burst out laughing, with Barry explaining that Dan (who is described as “a philosopher and a bouncer”) relates everything back to his bouncer days.
“It’s what sows the universe together,” laughs Dan.
Hermitage Green are in their early 30s and I query whether life on the road is compatible with settling down and family life. How do their wives, fiancées and girlfriends cope with touring?
“They’re all the original groupies, like, so they’ve gotten used to it,” Barry reasons.
Clifden Arts Festival
The guys can be seen performing at Clifden Arts Festival on Saturday 17 September. The festival runs from 15-25 September and brings a host of other big names to the town, including The Kilfenora Ceili Band and Phil Coulter, as well as award-winning poets and writers such as Michael Harding and Donal Ryan
The guys are looking forward to it, with Darragh explaining: “Whenever you go to the west coast, it’s always unbelievable craic ... there’s a different sort of a buzz, it’s brilliant.”
Hermitage Green also play the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on 4 November. See www.hermitagegreen.com CL
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