County: Clare

Decades Active: 1990s, 2000s

About Bushplant

Bushplant are a long-running Clare-based trad-rock band. With a core of singer/songwriter and guitarist Gerry Molloy and drummer Andy Palfreyman, they are joined by fiddler Yvonne Casey and bass player Joe Keane, with occasional inputs from the very cream of Clare musicians - notably box player Conor Keane, guitarist Trevor Hansbury, flautist Kevin Ryan and saxophonist John Lambe. Long time stalwart Mary Custy has stepped down from the lineup, but still makes appearances.

Bushplant have appeared in festivals in the UK and Europe and have hosted their own annual Bushfest for several years now, featuring as much local talent as they can cram into one day. They have released three albums to date and their next will feature many from the rich seam of Clare traditional musicians, including Blackie O’Connell.

On the go since 1990, Bushplant have long been County Clare's best-kept secret. Hitting the road now to show the rest of the world what it's been missing, Bushplant released a free CD-EP in march 2006, and a third album is in the can and ready to go. Entitled "Make Somebody Happy Here", the single is a pounding beast of a thing, sounding like the bastard spawn of an illicit liaison between Alabama3 and S-Express at a Clare fleadh, all the while delicately embroidered with the silvery fiddling of Mary Custy, a star in her own right with 3 solo albums of her own. The single is available as a free download, with the request that a donation is made to a children's charity, however small - 'for the children of the world', whenever. Due to much magnificent munificence on the part of Chris Hehir of Chilli Studios in Dublin, the band are now putting the finishing touches to their third album, which promises a rattling great rollercoaster ride from pure folk fiddling to techno, drum'n'bass and swooshing great chunks of pyschedelia.

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