Tours THE Northern Rivers

SINGER, songwriter, essayist and educator Vincent Cross has many strings to his bow and is bringing them and his new album A Place Where Songs Come to Live to the region later this month.

Known for his Irish song poetry that draws from various traditional folk idioms and ancient myths, Irish-born Cross grew up in Australia and has been based in New York City since 2006.

He has released four acclaimed full-length albums, with his 2008 debut, Home Away from Home, introducing listeners to his reinterpretations of traditional bluegrass melodies and commentary.

His 2020 album, The Life & Times of James ‘The Rooster’ Corcoran, is a musical biopic exploring the legend of a distant Irish relative and notorious 1840s gangland figure who led a colony of Irish families in Manhattan.

Cross’s newest outing and soon-to-be-released single, In the Eyes of My Father, is an intimate reflection on his father’s immigration to Australia in the 1970s and his own experience as an immigrant in NYC.

Moving to London from Ireland in the early 1990s, Cross busked on Carnaby Street and performed around the city.

By the early 2000s, he was touring regularly across Ireland, England and Scandinavia, his reputation building in the traditional Irish music scene.

He has performed with artists such as Glen Hansard, Odetta, Damien Rice, The Pogues, Ron Kavana and Roy Book Binder.

“I heard a crystal-clear voice that took me back to when I was being introduced to mountain music groups and families in Appalachia. It was a pleasure to hear such beauty,” Odetta said.

Vincent Cross and guest Jimmy Dowling play The Citadel in Murwillumbah on Thursday, July 24 and Tintenbar on Saturday, July 26.

For tickets, visit vincentcross.org .