Rosie H Sullivan with Niall McCabe

Growing up on the remote Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, music and nature were the two binding forces in Sullivan’s childhood. With a musical diet ranging from Joni Mitchell to Genesis and stunning landscapes from which to draw inspiration, the now 21 year old was already writing music before her teens.

Sullivan’s break came in 2021 with the release of debut single ‘So It Is’, a gorgeously simplistic song released in demo form that has since gone on to pass 600,000 streams on Spotify. “I wrote it and then a couple of days after I recorded a demo in my garden, and that’s what you hear on the record,” she says, with the instinctive and powerful first take harnessing more beauty and connection than a polished studio version. As will soon become known about Sullivan, the intimacy and stark vulnerability of her songs in their embryonic forms can often prove the most powerful.

While a lot of her first songs were inspired by her childhood home of Lewis – the coordinates of the local beach, where a lot of her adolescent soul-searching was done, are tattooed on her arm – debut EP ‘123 Degrees East’ tracks the year after she and her family moved off the island in the summer of 2020, and the time of intense change that followed. Leaving the island and going through heartbreak simultaneously, a period of introspection followed, one that allowed her to come to terms with these new feelings and experiences.

With self-effacing humour and stories told of growing up on a remote Irish Island Niall McCabe possess an effortless charm which both captivates and liberates his audience. Like the wild Atlantic landscape of his home McCabe’s songs feel timeless and natural yet bely the dense shaping of a dynamic creative force. Deft, intricate guitar work brings a lightness to the weight of Island isolation yet the sound, soul and stories of McCabe’s life and experiences breathe a deep cultured sense of discernment through his vocals. His natural distinct voice is earning him a growing loyal fanbase, discovering his music as he travels extensively, with his recent album tour schedule bringing him to venture off the Island, across Ireland, UK, Europe and North America.

As well as becoming an accomplished finger-style guitar player, Niall has been lending his unique voice to Irish trad-fusion band ‘Beoga’, touring Ireland, Europe and the USA while also playing support for Ed Sheeran, Foy Vance and Johnny Swim and more recently opening for Chris Issak on his UK Tour, to two sold out audiences at Eventim Apollo London and Wolverhampton Civic Halls.

McCabe’s eagerly anticipated ‘Rituals’ album was released in February 2023 to critical acclaim and featured as RTE Album of the Week, while the song Rituals topped the RTE Radio airplay charts for five consecutive weeks.