DUKE SPECIAL

Duke Special has announced a show at Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on 23 February. It’s a welcome return to the Botanic Avenue venue which has been synonymous with his career.

Duke Special’s new album Hallow, which is based around the poems of Michael Longley, will be released in October

The eminent Belfast poet Michael Longley was once described by his friend Seamus Heaney as ‘a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders’. His work is full of gentleness, honesty, mischief and love, and peppered with a cast of artists, animals, flowers, friends and long forgotten soldiers. As ever, Duke Special is mining a new seam of inspiration, always trying to get to the bottom of what it means to be human.

By nature Duke Special is a curious person. He is curious about theatre, books, music, poetry, art, love, life, redemption, death, 78RPM records and most recently, gardening! All of this is evidenced by his releases which are a map of his passions.

Duke says, ‘I genuinely hope that these songs will speak to you, inspire, comfort, challenge, provoke, make you cry, make you smile, make you wonder and all the things that good art should do.’