Amble

What a difference a year can make. In the summer of 2023, the Irish folk trio, Amble – Co Longford’s Ross McNerney, Co Leitrim’s Robbie Cunningham and Co Sligo’s Oisin McCaffrey – had known each other for what the Irish call a ‘wet day’ when a phone call from Los Angeles changed their lives. They weren’t to know it then, but their day jobs (respectively, a secondary school teacher, a primary school teacher, and a data scientist) were soon to end.
Amble’s jump from relative obscurity to signing to a major label isn’t the usual story, however. There were no canny strategies for world domination, no ruthless plans to undercut the opposition, no aching ambitions to match a billion streams. Rather, there was (and is) a ‘less is more’ approach within which the most important elements are the music and the wholesome enjoyment of playing it.

The lads needn’t have been overly concerned about doing things the right or wrong way. If anything, their music ensured that the only proper method was the Amble method. Organic is a much-used word, but it applies here.
It’s a crowded, frazzled world out there, and everyone needs time away from it. Robbie, Ross and Oisin write songs that provide a quick getaway: one minute you’re at the centre of life’s relentless storms, the next you’re sitting in the shelter and warmth of your local bar on a chilly winter‘s evening with friends, a drink, and the reliability of a great song.
What it boils down to is how authenticity generates connection. There is both in the music and songs of Amble, a truth that influences the listener and makes them reflect.

“Our goal,” says Ross, “is to retain that.”