Friday, February 1, 2013

Orla Gartland: A Rising Star


Well, since I brought her up in my first post yesterday, you may have guessed that I like her a lot. I discovered Orla Gartland a couple years ago when I was looking around Youtube for good 'Little Lion Man' (Mumford & Sons) covers. Well, needless to say I was blown away by what I heard (and saw). There is something about Orla that just draws you in when you watch her. So that led me to go through all her other covers, some done on acoustic guitar and quite a few done on her ukulele. 


After that night I forgot about Orla for about a year and went back to doing my thing and looking up new artists. But in mid-December 2011 I remembered her name so I looked her up to see if she had anything new going on. She a good deal more subscriptions by that time and she had just uploaded a video that just said "Sixteen :: Orla Gartland". The only "Sixteen" songs I knew were by B.B. King and Chuck Berry and I couldn't quite imagine her doing those so out of curiosity I clicked the video and listened. What I heard was completely different than what I heard about a year earlier. She had pinned down a unique voice and given in to her expressions. I have to say that the video was also fantastic to watch. But more than anything, the song blew me away. I still can't believe she wrote it. It's out of this world.


Orla Gartland's "Sixteen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7hNepu541w

After I heard "Sixteen" I subscribed to her Youtube channel that's still going and liked her Facebook page that is growing steadily. I recommend you do the same. She released a single on iTunes on June 17th, 2012 called "Devil On My Shoulder". Like "Sixteen", the lyrics are phenomenal in the sense that they tell a story and more. I really think a lot of people can relate to the song so have a listen to it on Youtube and buy it on iTunes if I've managed to convince you of how great she is. Just as a note, there is an extra song on the single called "The Ground" that stands beside "Devil On My Shoulder" and is equally as strong. I mean, any song that says "I've got tricks up my sleeve as I wave goodbye!" is going to be strong as hell.


Orla continues to post videos on Youtube, some covers and some originals and quite honestly I'm more interested in her originals now. They're better than most music coming out major record labels these days. She's definitely a girl you should look up and catch live (if you're in the area). She's obviously Irish, she's obviously a "ginger nutcase" as she says on Facebook and too young for the lyrics she's been writing. She's great. Look her up now!


https://www.facebook.com/OrlaGartland



Alex Hamel

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