3 Favourite Secret Song Gigs by Levis’ Joe O’Leary

February 5, 2021September 16, 2022 The G-Man

Levis Corner House’s Joe O’Leary looks back on three of his favourite Secret Song festival gigs.

Levis‘ of Ballydehob lights up online for Valentine’s weekend. Run by Joe O’Leary and Caroline O’Donnell, the West Cork bar’s hush-hush festival takes place across two days starting Saturday 13th February. As the name of the gathering suggests, the line-up is tip-top secret until the performers appear online from 8pm on Saturday night. Past performers include Rozi Plain, Joan Shelley, John Blek, Hilary Woods and Ye Vagabonds. Tickets are €15 per night or €25 for a weekend bundle.

Ahead of the two-day shenanigans, Joe reflects on three stand-out memories from previous years.

Joe O’Leary: Secret Song began in 2015. The concept was simple: program live original music – but don’t announce the lineup; So the tickets were sold based on people’s faith in Levis’ and the music we schedule throughout the year. People are not buying tickets for a name or fame. One day, music throughout the house. And every year it sells out. Incredible.

Sometimes [not knowing the Secret Song line-up] can be confusing for guests as Lisa Hannigan came one year as a punter and people followed her around expecting her to perform!

Musicians arrive in the morning and are given a time and a place to be at that time – back garden, the shop counter, the parlour upstairs, the kitchen. They don’t know who else is playing so there’s a real buzz as people recognise performers. Sometimes that can be confusing for guests as Lisa Hannigan came one year as a punter and people followed her around expecting her to perform! The atmosphere is so hard to capture, everyone in it together, wandering and discovering new music or artists they love in every room. Of course there is a schedule – there are set times for gigs – but there’s also ‘tweeners’. These are mini pop-up performances, a song here and there. We’ve had ‘tweeners’ on top of the bar or up on the roof. We’re creative about finding spaces.

Gig in Cupboard (2015)

Joe O’Leary: In 2015, [three-time Juno nominated Canadian singer] Jenn Grant and UK songwriter Liam Frost performing [Jeff Buckley & Elizabeth Frazer’s) All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun in the cubby upstairs. The same cubby that’s usually home to our hoover with just enough standing room for two performers. The audience piled into the hallway and even the bathroom next door. Magic.

OutBack Gig (2019)

Cormac Lally, Susan O’Neill, Clare Sands and Bean Dolan‘s impromptu collaboration in the OutBack of Levis’. Cormac, a West Cork Spoken Word artist, recited a moving poem about a traditional Irish healer saving his own daughter. The musicians – who had only met Cormac earlier that day – added an improvised soundscape. It was stunning; you could not hear a pin drop in the whole garden. We were lucky enough to capture the performance as part of the Secret Song 2019 mini-film – which will be exclusively released to Weekend Ticket purchasers for this Valentine’s weekend.

Opening Day Gig (2019)

Mick Flannery opening the day in 2019 for the first performance at early o’clock. Again this aligned to the program ethos: no ‘supports’ or hierarchy of less ‘famous’ building up to the the bigger names. Mick played behind the shop counter and then hopped over to the piano. He was on fire. I remember people were crowded into the room, musicians and punters hanging on every word. The rumour was strong that he was going to perform so we did of course have people rock up later and couldn’t believe he had been on so early and they had missed him, but only a few rookies. Most people have copped on that anything could happen and are waiting outside for when we open the door and start the day.