MARK GEARY (IRL/USA)

Mark Geary, like many of his peers, soon after coming of age in 1992, set off for the Mecca of all Irish immigrants - the culturally and inspirationally bottomless New York. Originally influenced by Dylan, Cohen, but also Bob Marley and the Beatles, he quickly developed his own expression and established himself in the folk community there. Soon he was being written about as one of the most distinctive songwriters to emerge from New York's small folk scene at the time. The now-legendary Sin É music café became his home scene there, as it did for Jeff Buckley, who made his first live recordings there. The Sin É club was also the scene of Jon Spencer, David Gray, U2, Elvis Costello and Mariane Faithfull. After gaining his musical spurs overseas, Mark Geary began returning to the Green Isle more and more frequently and became an integral part of the rich Irish musical ferment of the 1990s, which produced The Frames, Damien Rice and Bell X1, among others. Geary's acclaimed albums have been compared by many to the best ever recorded by two now-defunct legends: English singer-songwriter Nick Drake and American Elliot Smith.

Mark Geary has six studio and three live albums to his credit. His new recording 'In The Time Of Locusts' was released in February 2024, recorded at his cottage in the woods with the help of Ruth O' Mahony Brady, Glen Hansard, Dave Hingerty and Dave and Karl Odlum.In recent years he has been involved in two independent films presented at Sundance (Loggerheads and Steel City) and has played the Sundance, Berlin and New York festivals. He returns to the Jazz Tibet Club after twelve long years.