Singer songwriter Emma to play two gigs in ‘second home’ Cork

Folk singer and songwriter Emma Langford has spoken of her love for Cork ahead of two upcoming gigs in the county.

Her national tour is celebrating her decade as a professional musician, and as part of it she is due to play DeBarra’s Folk Club in Clonakilty and Coughlan’s on Douglas St in Cork city in the coming weeks.

“The place has music and art pouring out through the stones, so, of course, I’m always drawn back to it,” Ms Langford told The Echo.

“Cork was something of a second home for me as a teen. Feeling a bit of a misfit, I’d frequently abscond on the bus from Limerick to go and hang out on Paul St with my fellow ‘emo’ kids, decked out in my fishnet gloves and Penney’s finest corsets, a sarong ever-so-stylishly draped around my hips over a pair of unhygienically long skater jeans.

“That all feels very long ago now, but that emo kid is still in there, so every time I get to go to Cork to play a gig, she gets a bit of a rush.”

Her father is from Cork, having grown up in Mallow, and she has friends and family scattered “all over the place” these days.

“I also had the chance to spend a lot of time in gorgeous Ballyvourney a couple of years ago, while creating a body of work about the area — its history, mythology, geography, and landscape — and I love bringing that body of work back to its home county,” she said.

“My keys player and collaborator, Hannah Fitzgerald, who’ll be joining me on nearly all the shows on this tour, hails from Cork, and, as far as she’s concerned, the more we can play in Cork, the better.”

Emma Langford plays DeBarra’s Folk Club, Clonakilty, on Thursday, August 27, and Coughlan’s Live Music Festival, in Cork city, on Friday, September 25.