Mundy

Strawberry Blood, 17th April 2009
Strawberry Blood, Mundy’s fourth studio album was possibly his most accomplished to date. Recorded in Grouse Lodge, Co Westmeath and the Cauldron, Dublin by Joe Chester, Strawberry Blood features an intriguing cast of contributors including Shane McGowan (Love is Casino), Gemma Hayes (Fever) and Interference man Fergus O’Farrell (Pepper in My Dreams). The result was a beautiful and uplfiting album that’s a true tonic for the times. “With what’s going on with the country and the world, it’s very easy to be negative and it’s very easy to write negative songs,” Mundy muses. “It’s more challenging to be positive. This album is thought provoking and reflective but fun and upbeat. It’s about taking on a challenge…and God loves a trier.” Strawberry Blood is Mundy’s first album since Jellylegs to get a worldwide release due to the genius of itunes where a deluxe edition of the album comes with a 24 minute film Splurges which documents the journey he has made recording the album and trying out the material leading up to it’s release.

Live & Confusion, May 2006
Live & Confusion captured the magic and energy of Mundy in concert, recorded at a rammed Vicar Street in October 2005, a greatest hits at this point in his career, Live & Confusion managed to distill the excitement of a Mundy show into a visual and aural treat that is that rarest of things for a live album, inclusive – giving listeners/viewers a feel for what it was like to be there and providing the perfect snapshot of one of Ireland’s finest performers at the peak of his powers. The first single to be taken from Live & Confusion, July (Live), entered the Irish Charts on digital downloads alone at No. 16, the first ever song to do so. Steve Earle’s ‘Galway Girl’ which was included as an encore on the album became the biggest download in Ireland of 2007 before being released as a studio version, going to No.1 in and becoming the biggest single in Ireland of 2008. Live & Confusion continued to sell during Mundy’s run of festival performances and reached sales of 30,000 bringing him to massive audiences at Irish festivals like Electric Picnic and Oxegen as well as Glastonbury and The Cambridge Folk festival in the UK where Steve Earle guested with Mundy and Sharon for Galway Girl. At the end of the Live & Confusion campaign Mundy started appearing with Sharon Shannon’s big band which also featured guests Shane McGowan and Damien Dempsey. Galway Girl became the most downloaded song in Ireland for two years in a row and eventually reached number 1 on the charts. The Live And Confusion tour cumlinated in a show at Oxegen 2008 (to 10,000 people) which is now available on itunes.

Raining Down Arrows, May 2004
In his own words….“I made this album in August 2003 with an amazing couple that I met at a venue called the Hideout in Chicago in 2001. Mark the producer has a small label called India records in Austin, TX. This particular night was a showcase for the label that I stumbled upon with a friend of mine called Zoran and 3 Birriers (i.e. people from Birr, Co. Offaly!!). 3 acts played, Will Sexton, brother of Charlie Sexton who played guitar with Bob Dylan. Kitty Gordon, Jeff Klein and Sheridan played too. I loved the music and the fact that they all backed up each other’s performances. I bought all their albums that night and having been to Austin, Texas a couple of times and fallen in love with the place I thought that it would be the next place to record. The reasons being.. I bought the hat from 24*hotel there,…Townes van Zandt, I saw Lucinda Williams there and the fact that I could sleep on the couch of Mark Addison and his wife Nina and make a back to basics record.” Raining Down Arrows went to number 1 in Ireland and again over a period of a couple of years became a favourite with Mundy fans, it also allowed him to return to the UK to tour where he supported Jimmy Webb and Josh Ritter as well as playing as series of headline shows in London at the likes of the 100 Club, Bush Hall and The Academy and solo shows in France and Holland. More solo shows around the UK and his continuing popularity in Ireland helped ensure Mundy’s career was going to survive the vagaries of the business. Some called this his country record but in truth ‘By Her Side’, ‘Love & Confusion’ and 10,000 Miles Away From Harm indulged Mundy’s passion for Crazy Horse and The Replacements as much as Townes Van Zandt. Mundy got to do a solo tour of the UK with Jimmy Webb during this time, Webb was the author of classics like Witchita Lineman, Galveston, By The Time I Get To Phoenix etc.

24 Star Hotel, April 2002
Following the promotion and touring of Jellylegs, Mundy started recording his second album but it was then that problems started to arise between Mundy and his then record company Sony as to how commercial the songs should be. These ongoing differences failed to be resolved and in January 2000 Mundy and Sony parted company. It was then that Mundy took some time out to travel, all the time wondering if he could survive without a record company. Deciding that he could, he started his own record label Camcor Recording and released an EP The Moon Is A Bullethole and a single ‘Mexico / July’. Critics and public alike enthusiastically received both releases and it was only a matter of time before his album, ’24 Star Hotel’ would follow. ’24 Star Hotel’ was a collection of 12 songs, written between 1996 and 2000 dealing with love, life, addiction and travel, recorded in London with legendary producer Tommy D. 24 Star was a slow burn but as Mexico and July picked up play at Irish radio and Healthy became a live favourite Mundy began playling Irish festivals, suddenly everything gelled and 24 Star went on to become one of the biggest Independent releases of it’s time. It has sold over 45,000 copies in Ireland alone.

Jelly Legs, 1996
Mundy was born Edmund Enright in the rural town of Birr, County Offaly, in 1976. At age 18, Mundy moved to Dublin and began performing on infamous busker haven Grafton Street, and at open-mike nights at the nearby International Bar. Less than two years later Mundy signed with Sony subsidiary Epic Records, and released his debut single, “To You I Bestow,” on New Year’s Day 1996. The presence of Youth, founding bassist with post-punk pioneers Killing Joke, is notable in the Smiths-like bounce of the single, and he was an equally important influence upon the album that followed, the appropriately titled Jelly Legs. Shortly before the album was released in October 1996, “To You I Bestow” was licensed for inclusion on the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s Shakespeare adaptation Romeo + Juliet, alongside tracks by Radiohead and Garbage. The soundtrack went on to sell 11 million copies; Jelly Legs sold a respectable 50,000 worldwide.