DylanFest Music Acts
Aug 25th to 28th 2022
Chris Chalmers of The 2:19 from Belfast
Growing up in Belfast in the 80s and 90s Chris’s parents were big music fans and he was brought up on a diet of Blues, Soul and Country music. And Bob Dylan.
Aged 17 he walked into a record shop and bought a triplicate set of Bringing it all Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde and never looked back.
Chris has played solo, as well as part of various bands over the years, most notably The 2:19, who recently released their debut album of original material Revelator.
The album was a huge hit and landed at number 5 on the UK IBBA album chart in January of this year and has received significant airplay on the BBC, as well as in GB, Europe and America, North and South.
The band has played a series of dates over the summer, including a sold out show at Belfast’s American Bar earlier this month. A second album is nearing completion and Chris looks forward to playing more gigs in the autumn.
Michael Thomas from New York
Michael is a virtuoso guitarist. Originally from New York, he played regularly with the late Henry McCullough ex of Paul McCartney’s Wings who was the only Irishman to play at Woodstock.
Benny Doherty
Benny will open DylanFest 2022 on the Thursday night in the Corner Bar. He is one of the best musicians and performers in Donegal and further afield.
Contraband
ContraBand is a three piece group:
Willy Gibson multi instrumentalist main
instrument 12 string guitar. Willy has been playing in bands in the Derry
area for many years
Jo Deery plays mandarin and harmonica. Joe, a
classically trained singer and pianist has been playing on the folk scene
for some years now.
Colin Thompson 6 string guitar.
Colin played in a folk rock band in
Colorado USA and on returning to Ireland played with Skibbereen folk band.
They got together about 4 years ago and played some private gigs, weddings,
parties,etc.
Here’s a Dylan medley by them on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyPgP2l1bgA
Paddy the Shoe
Paddy will be playing Open Mics and making guest appearances on gigs like Dutchman Egon’s on Saturday night.
Egon Callery from The Netherlands
Very popular Dutchman who plays around the Inishowen and Derry area. Has played Rosatos and other locations before at the DylanFest. Will welcome anyone who wants to play a few Dylan songs on Saturday night at the Corner Bar. Indeed he will play his set first and then welcome Open Mic acts after that with the latter kicking off around 10pm.
Shaun Hiboy (Mr Jones) from Moville
Shaun, from Moville, has played many DylanFests. Once went on a songwriting course run by Glen Hansard, and the song he wrote was picked out by Glen Hansard as the best.
George McCormick band
Three piece band who are very keen to play the DylanFest. They have been playing Moville and Greencastle for years as well as further afield and are extremely popular locally.
Ian and Val
Emanating from Glasgow, Ian plays guitar and Val sings and plays saxophone. They play lots of Open Mics. The first thing Ian did when he got here was to go round the pubs asking if they had any music on, which days they had and hadn’t and asking if he and Val could play on a night when they had no acts. So he is playing at McGettigan’s Barbecue Night on opening day (Thursday) and I bet he will have a few more gigs lined up before he goes.
Bears more than a passing resemblance to Billy Connolly (Ian that is).