MacD on Music: Randall Stephen Hall

I’m closing in on four years in this job (it’ll be four years on November 29 for those looking to mark the occasion), and in that time I’ve found new artists in a lot of different ways.

Even still, though, I keep finding people in new and unexpected ways. A few months ago, I got an email from the editor of this paper telling me that a parcel had arrived in the post for me. I had no idea who it could be from, but it’s always fun to get something in the post, so I went round to the office to see what it was.

When I opened it, I found a pair of CDs and a copy of ‘The Duck’ (a retelling of The Ugly Ducking) all from Randall Stephen Hall, aka the subject of this week’s column.

Randall is a Co. Antrim-based artist who, in the late ‘70s played in groups such as Sixtelé and Mudsi Muntu before taking a break from 1985-2010 to focus on illustrating and storytelling. Since his return to music, he has appeared on the Gerry Anderson show and, to date, released eight albums. I caught up with him recently to talk about how he got here:

“I think a lot of people do a lot of listening first, so as a child, you're just like a sponge and everything's coming in from when you’re a baby. When I was consciously listening, we couldn't afford a record player but my aunt Ruby got us a thing called a Dancette Mono, long before stereo.

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"She'd been away on holiday in America and she brought back The Temptations Greatest Hits. My sister bought a lot of soul records and my brother bought all sorts of different records. He bought ‘Astral Weeks’ when it came out and it was the first thing I consciously went ‘I like the double bass on that’ because a lot of the musicians were American jazz musicians. That album had a big impact on me, then when I was fourteen I got an acoustic guitar, then a wee electric guitar made by Burns and Mullins and after that I started to play in a garage band.”

“I recorded and wrote songs with some friends in a group that never played anywhere, just made home recordings, called Mudsi Muntu. This was in the early eighties and by 1983 we’d recorded three or four albums that were distributed on cassette. After that, I had a very long lay-off until around 2009 when I sent a couple of tracks to the Gerry Anderson show, who liked what I was doing.

"Over the following year, I went in with a few friends and we were on his show four times. I think he liked the slightly offbeat approach to what I was doing, and I’ve been doing it ever since. From 2010 to now, I’ve produced eight albums, and I think they’re all different in their own way.”

MacD on Music: Heat Of The Moment

Return of former Parker frontman Dylan Bradley with his new project Dylan Bradley & the Heat

Reading the credits of his albums, one thing that stood out to me were the names Nicky Scott (bass) and Liam Bradley (drums), both long-time collaborators with people like Van Morrison and Paul Casey.

I asked Randall how he came to work with them: “I knew Nick because he was in the year above me in art college, then so many years went by and we didn’t see each other but I would meet with him every now and again and in 2020 he told me he was offering a new service of remote recording and other instruments. I tried it out and then he introduced me to Liam who then introduced me to a number of other players that played on my album Red Man Rua.”

Unfortunately, that’s all the space we have for Randall Stephen Hall but his albums can be found in Cool Discs and on all good streaming services.

Now, onto other business. Last Wednesday saw the release of Darren Doherty’s new single ‘Mercy’, the first release from the brand new Beltany Studio in Raphoe. The song, is “pulled from the nostalgia of early teenage life and those first discoveries of the music and people that would mean so much to you as life and it’s trials play out”. It’s available now on all good streaming services.

Next, this Wednesday (October 29) will see the much-anticipated return of CHERYM to Sandino’s. The current tour marks the first time they play as a four piece, with Pilosa’s Rosa Walsh on bass and Becca McCaffrey on second guitar. Tickets are available on Eventbrite at £16.96.

MacD on Music: Summer of '69

Donegal singer-songwriter Seán Feeny's debut single ‘1969’ was released this summer

This Thursday (October 30) will see Seán Feeny (featured in this fine column a few weeks ago) release his second single ‘Western Roads’, a track inspired by his great-grandfather’s journey into the Rocky Mountains. It will be available on all good streaming services.

Keeping the new releases going, Friday (Halloween) will see Sunset Theory release their debut single ‘In Dreams’, which will also be on all good streaming services.

Finally, time for the socials. Sunset Theory can be found on Instagram @sunset_theory_doire, Seán Feeny @seanfeenymusic, CHERYM @cherymofficial, Darren Doherty @darren_j_doherty and Randall Stephen Hall at his website randallstephenhall songs.com.