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To hear some of Brian's music please visit his Myspace site or else visit the Scotloads website.

Brian's Biography is available on the Music page

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Live Dates 2007

Please see my Myspace site for live dates.

Press release - 07 June 2006

Inverness based singer songwriter Brian Ó hEadhra has been selected to compete in the European Minority Language Song Contest Liet-Lavlut 2006. Brian will sing a Scottish Gaelic song he wrote called ‘An-raoir Bha mi Coiseachd' (Last Night I was Walking). This song was released on an album by himself and Christine Primrose called ‘An Turas' (Anam Music CACD003) in 2004.

Due to Family illness Brian will now not be performing, but his song is still in the competition as is being sung by the great Gaelic singer/piper Anna Murray & guitarist Iain Findlay Macleod.

The Liet-Lavlut 2006 Song Contest attracts a growing interest among language minorities all over Europe . In this, the 4 th year of the competition, 61 entries were submitted representing 26 minority language regions. Eleven of the most interesting songs are invited to the song contest. 

This year the competition will take place in Östersund, Jämtland , Sweden on Saturday 14 th October. To date Saami bands have won the Liet Song Contest twice and a band from Catalonia once. Next years song contest will most likely be arranged by Galicia , Spain . The idea of the competition is to create and establish a cultural infrastructure at the European level for minority language groups. The competition organisers support the interest to learn about minority languages as well as cultural development. In the future they expect that Liet will influence on cultural tourism in minority regions and will help to develop a better networks between cultural activists from various regions.

Saami Radio in Norway , Finland and Sweden and radio in Friesland , The Netherlands, will transmit the song contest live by Swedish National Radio. Swedish TV will do a documentary on the subject of the song contest. The European Broadcasting Union, EBU, will have the song contest on tape for all International radio. Their material will also be available for the European Broadcasting Union, EBU, and other interested broadcasters.

17 November 2005

Hear Brian performing at the Celtic Colours International Festival in Cape Breton in October 2005. This show is brought to you from Cape Breton Live Radio

PRESS RELEASE

ANAM MUSIC ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF

'LIFE'
CACD004

A NEW AUDIO CD BY SINGER-SONGWRITER

BRIAN Ó hEADHRA [pron. Bree-an Ohara]

November 2005

Brian Ó hEadhra who is originally from Dublin in Ireland is now a resident of Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland. He has been writing his own material for over twenty years and has over the past 15 years been working as a professional singer/musician – both recording and touring internationally.

The album 'Life' is a collection of songs which Brian has composed over many years. They are an eclectic mix of folk, blues, rock and ballads including subjects dealing with love, mortality, politics and society. Brian says: "This album covers a lot of ground; it represents many of the different styles of music I have listened to over the years and tackles subjects one struggles with when developing an adult perspective on life."

On initial airing most listeners to the album are taken with the ease of Brian's singing and the soulful rhythms and sounds of songs such as Life, and People. The songs Time for Sleep and Not as Young have a backroom jazzy feel while Sleep Until I Die and Nothing Ever Happens make comment on social inertia. "I am very proud of this work," states Brian. "It has been a long time coming and I think people will be surprised by some of my material, considering my past playing predominantly traditional music."

Between the ages 2-7 Brian lived in Newfoundland, Canada, which is where he first experienced traditional Irish music, song and dance. He started writing music in his early teens and formed the traditional & contemporary Celtic music band - Anam while studying for a BA Hons. degree in University College Dublin in Irish Folklore and English Literature. As band manager, singer/songwriter & guitarist, Brian has toured the world over (Europe, Far East, Australasia, North America) with Anam playing festivals, concerts, TV & radio. Anam have recorded 5 albums over the past 10 years. Brian has also recorded an album of Irish and Scottish Gaelic song with the acclaimed Scottish Gaelic singer Christine Primrose. The album is called 'An Turas' and is also available on the Anam Music label.

Apart from song writing, Brian is the Artistic Director of the Blas Music festival which is a new annual festival based in the Highlands of Scotland celebrating Highland Gaelic music – www.blas-festival.com. Brian also works part-time in community development for Scotland's Gaelic language development agency Comunn na Gàidhlig – www.cnag.org.uk

Anam Music is an independent Scottish Highland based record & music publishing company. Our aim is to release recordings of high quality traditional & contemporary music and song of talented and respected Scottish/Irish musicians & singers. The album 'Life' is Anam Music's 4th release to date and is available to buy online from www.anammusic.com and distributed by Highlander Music – www.highlandermusic.com

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