In A Week: May 1 to 7, 2016

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In A Week is our look back at Hozier highlights and happenings from the previous week.

News

Rock Band has announced that Hozier will be one of their DLC (downloadable) tracks for May, song(s) TBA.

Awards

The Independent Blues Awards have nominated Hozier’s Work Song in the category of Best Modern Roots Song. “The purpose of these awards are to celebrate and showcase the artists who are out there touring and creating new Original Music rooted in the blues.” Voting is open.

Independent Blues Awards

Causes

The video for Cherry Wine has passed 5 million views. This is great news for Hozier’s #FaceUpToDomesticViolence campaign that is raising funds for organisations around the world who support and aid victims of domestic violence.cherry wine

For more information, please visit hozier.com/cherrywine. Or, see our coverage of the #FaceUpToDomesticViolence campaign.

Llamau

You can bid on this original Hozier sketch until May 12. Instructions are here. Funds will go to support Llamau who help young people and vulnerable women facing homelessness across Wales. Their Celebrity Illustrating Homelessness event takes place on May 16.

Chart News

After 85 weeks on the Irish music charts, you’d think that Hozier’s self-titled album would have dropped into the lower end of the spectrum. But no. You’d be incorrect. Not only is the album still in the Top 20, it actually gained 3 spots moving from 17 to 14 on the Irish Albums chart.

Irish charts may 6

Meanwhile, Take Me To Church has been on the Irish Singles Chart for a staggering 136 weeks! It too saw a gain from 97 to 73 on the charts this week.

Irish singles May 6

In the U.S. the Hozier album was #14 on the Billboard Folk Chart (81 wks) and #102 on Billboard Top 200 Albums (81 wks). Take Me To Church was STILL in the Top 20 on the Billboard Rock Streaming at #12 (84 wks). It has been certified 5x Platinum in the U.S. (a calculation that includes streaming and sales, as we reported in February.)

billboard rock streaming may 7

It keeps coming back for more.

Here’s a partial snapshot of Hozier on the global iTunes and Spotify charts.

itunes spotify

These charts go to show you that, even though Take Me To Church was released almost 3 years ago, people around the world are still discovering and enjoying Hozier’s music.

 Appearances

It was a very quiet week for appearances, which bodes well for Hozier to have time to work on new music.

It is Mother’s Day in the United States and Canada on May 8, so ABC news asked Hozier what was his mother’s best piece of advice:

“I think it would be tricky to think of just one,” says the Grammy-nominated singer. “I suppose, ‘Just keep going.’ You know, as bad as things get…if you decide that there’s no limit to what s*** you can go through, you can keep going.”

A contestant on La Voix (The Voice) in France sang Take Me To Church, while Caroline Postec provided a needed public service announcement via Twitter.

Life

Hozier is slowly but surely returning to the mundanity of everyday life. The tale of the mistaken deadly Thai chicken wrap lunch is surely evidence of that.

He also gave some encouragement to a young musician for her cover of Work Song.

Hozier posted a gorgeous view of Kerry, from his visit with Alex Ryan.

The trouble is that Alex Ryan has different user names on Twitter and Instagram, so Hozier ended up confusing his friend on Twitter with a Justin Bieber fan account.

Alana Henderson had some surprises in her notebook, puzzled over a contraption and continued her artistic retreat to work on new material. We wonder what the future holds.

Lorraine Barnes is working on new projects that we look forward to hearing about.

Mia Fitzgerald posted a great shot of herself in studio, which we hope is a sign of great things to come.

Studio shot! #studio #music

A photo posted by Mia Fitz Music (@miafitzmusic) on

Rachael Lampa announced another Master Vocal Class for May 10. And a fan reminded us all of her gorgeous voice and why she’s more than qualified to teach that class.

Friends

You can nominate Irish artists for a Pure M Award. It’s not a voting competition, but they’ll look at who is nominated.  It’s a great way to show some of Hozier’s Friends some support.

Little Green Cars

Little Green Cars closed out their North American tour with John Mark Nelson, playing their final gigs in Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis.  This week was also heavy with promo: in Chicago, the band played a live session for 93XRT; Adam did a phone interview with Cork’s 96fm; and Little Green Cars had an in-store gig at Electric Fetus MPLS in Minneapolis.  Despite the busy schedule, the band still made time for fun taking in a Cubs game in Chicago.

We wish Little Green Cars safe travel home to Ireland where they’ll be playing a series of gigs in Galway, Limerick, and Cork on May 12-14.

Wyvern Lingo

Interlude Festival announced Wyvern Lingo will be playing Friday June 24.  Wyvern Lingo were excited to be opening for one of their favourite bands, Hiatus Kaiyote. They played the Sugarclub on May 5th.

Saint Sister

Saint Sister were announced for the Other Voices stage at Electric Picnic this summer. Their upcoming shows include May 27 at The Unitarian Church in Dublin and a free show at The Islington in London next week.

Zaska

Zaska announced two new festival appearances: Groove Festival on July 3 and Canalaphonic September 23-24. Max Zaska also had two gigs with Feather: May 2 at Harbour Bar for Bray Jazz Festival and May 5 opening for Hiatus Kiayote, the same gig that Wyvern Lingo also played support.

BARQ

BARQ closed out the Bray Jazz Fest at The Harbour Bar on May 2nd.  They also launched Canalaphonic Festival (where they’ll be playing September 23-24) with a gig at Copan Rathmines May 5. BARQ will launch their second single, That Thing You Love, with a gig at Whelan’s on May 29.

Jarlath Henderson

Alana’s big brother Jarlath’s debut album, Hearts Broken, Heads Turned received two great reviews this week from influential sources.

The Guardian: “One of the most powerful and inventive folk albums of the year.”

The Herald Scotland: “If ever an album sounds designed to crossover from the hip new trad market to mainstream success, this is it, and that is meant as the sincerest of compliments.”

Thanks to all of our contributors with special thanks to @literarypengke and @Megn0481.

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Featured image: Jessie Dormer

In A Fortnight: April 17 to 30, 2016
In A Week: May 8 to 14, 2016
5 Comments

  1. So happy for Andrew, still up in the charts at 136 weeks – wow, impressive. Not surprised, I absolutely love the music! I listen every single day!
    Thanks for the info HG, appreciated!

    Reply

  3. Why are there no updates for Loah, the co-writer and only co-writer on the Hozier album, of Someone New? She’s good friends with almost everyone, LGC, Wyvern Lingo, Zaska, Saint Sister, and in someway, the inspiration for several songs on the Hozier album….

    Reply

    • Hi Christine – Thanks for the question! When deciding who to include in the Friends section, we’ll see if they fit into one or more of 3 categories:

      • Hozier has performed with them publicly;
      • Hozier has publicly promoted their projects;
      • A band member has publicly promoted their projects.

      There are so many incredibly talented people in Hozier’s wide circle of interconnected friends. We take our cues from Hozier’s own actions. When he promotes a project, we’re happy to lend our support.

      Reply

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