Where Tradition Bends: Irish Six-Piece Madra Salach Release New Single “I Was Just A Boy”

Words by Ewan Bourne

In recent years, there’s been something of an alternative-folk revival, songs that begin with an honest, traditional approach to songwriting, later clothed in an intriguing array of electronic paraphernalia. Take Lankum, Tapir!, or Lisa O’Neill, for example: artists who seem intent on subverting the simplicity that anchors so many folk songs in place, now dancing instead around a new set of melodies with a confidence only strengthened by traditions that came before .

Photo credit: Robbie Stickland

In their latest single, Dublin-based band Madra Salach embody this change with vigor, highlighting their ability to transform their love of the Irish traditional canon into something new. Having spent the last few years building a reputation for their stirring live events, the six-piece alternative folk band released their latest single, “I Was Just a Boy,” on the back of blistering sets at tastemaker festival ‘Left Of The Dial.’ With one single already in hand, Madra Salach are demanding considerable attention, and armed with a catalogue of unreleased songs and covers of traditional Irish songs to boot, it seems like this is only the start of the bands onward journey.

Their newest single, “I Was Just a Boy,” sways with an anguish that lives in the vocals alone. Frontman Paul Banks sings with an unfathomable intent that grips us from the very first note. Paired with the gentle strains of acoustic guitar and mandolin, the kind you might hear tucked in the corner of an Irish pub or crackling beside a campfire, the track unfurls like embers from a roaring flame as it curls and snaps as other instruments join the ensemble.

Like their previous single, “Blue and Gold,” this track excels in its simplicity. At its very core, this track shines with the brilliance of the band’s songwriting. Like the traditional Irish songs that influence their work, there’s no desire to overcomplicate — the melody carries itself, and the various embellishments act merely as ornaments to a song that would sound just as good in a bedroom as it would in a concert hall.

Yet where this band truly finds their niche is in the way they bend the traditional elements that form their bedrock. The song’s ending erupts into a collaboration of all its parts, and after almost six minutes, synths begin to manipulate the track’s memorable tune, whirling and yelping toward an almost euphoric end. This song not only finds a home within the world of marvellous songwriting, but also cries out with a grit born from an experimental scene still emerging across London and Dublin alike, one that’s inherently DIY, but unmistakably drawn from traditional roots.

“I Was Just a Boy” feels like a statement of intent from Madra Salach — a band unafraid to pull at the seams of tradition while holding it close. It captures everything that makes this new wave of alternative folk so compelling: songs that begin in the quiet of the old world but end somewhere untamed, charged, and modern. With this release, the Dublin six-piece seem to stretch further into their own sound, one that honors the past but moves with the pulse of the present. If “I Was Just a Boy” is anything to go by, Madra Salach aren’t just capturing our love of traditional Irish folk music  they’re reimagining it, alongside a community of musicians who desire to do the same. The sound of tradition bending, Madra Salach are your new favorite band. 

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Listen to 'I Was Just A Boy':

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Madra Salach

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