“Livelong Day” (Claddagh Records) is the latest track to be released from DUG’s highly anticipated upcoming album, produced by Mike Halls (Clean Cut Kid) and set to hit record racks and streaming platforms later this year.
This single comes on foot of a sold-out Irish Tour and multiple UK & US Tour supports with Divorce, Willie Carlisle and Iron & Wine. DUG recently played The Great Escape in Brighton will make their Australian debut this October, performing at Melbourne’s Out On The Weekend one-day Americana festival.
“Recorded onto tape and tracked live, Livelong Day showcases a different side of DUG. Unlike other offerings Livelong Day is heavy, moody and even earthy. Lyrically the song depicts a drunken dance in a faerie ring, the protagonist comes to his senses mid-way through being swung around the mulberry bush and tries convincing himself he’s gonna get out ok. This is a sort of play on the Irish folktale “The Legend of Knockgrafton”. – DUG.
DUG have a shared musical heritage, with both members having been born in America and Scotland before arriving in Ireland. O’Reilly himself spent almost a decade making and releasing music in upstate New York before moving to Ireland in 2022 to start a new musical chapter.
And you can hear that lived musical experience in their collaboration. Resonator guitar and banjo, the building blocks of DUG’s arrangements, lick and spin, with intricate finger-picking patterns whirling to a compelling whole. Their music breathes, vamping in sync.
DUG’s love for the musicians that inspired them never steps too far into reverence. They’re an unapologetically modern band. You’ll hear plenty of Irish influence in their music, but you won’t find any tweed coats or paddy caps here. Instead, the band opts to be themselves-completely natural and organic. It’s part of what gives the group’s work such a strong charisma and helps establish DUG as having one of the most unique takes on contemporary folk music.
Earlier this year the duo signed to Claddagh Records, a label in which they find themselves in fine musical company. A subsidiary of Universal Records, Claddagh Records has spent the last few years becoming a hotbed for some of the most forward-thinking musicians in contemporary Irish folk, home to artists like Niamh Bury, Lemoncello, and ØXN, to name a few.
“Livelong Day” is out now through Claddagh Records on your favourite streaming platform.
LOVE POLICE PRESENT
DUG
DEBUT AUSTRALIAN TOUR
OCTOBER
4-5 Wanderer Festival, Pambula, NSW
8 – Factory Floor, Sydney, NSW
11 – Out On The Weekend, Melbourne, VIC
12 – The Northern, Byron Bay, NSW
14 – Lefty’s Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD
