Weird Ear

Weird Ear is a two-piece collaboration between Jo Holmwood and Brian Sweeney, based in North Leitrim/ South Donegal, working with a number of guest musicians on their tracks. Currently in the process of recording new material, their first release, Chimera, has been shortlisted for Irish Music Month 2023 with Ocean FM. More tracks will be released in 2023.

Weird Ear is experimenting with a fusion of musical styles with influences across indie-rock and folk genres—with some hip-hop and dub rhythms blended through.

Brian Sweeney is a multi-instrumentalist musician, who has been teaching and performing for decades in the northwest region, and touring extensively across Ireland and internationally with many groups and solo artists, both in trad and pop/rock. He is also a member of Freespeakingmonkey with Ciaran Rock (The Pale) and Dee Armstrong (Kila). He released an album under the guise of Dune Collective, his own music initiative, which involved multiple collaborations and toured to the Electric Picnic, Sea Sessions, Temple House Festival, Knockanstocken and supported Youssou n'Dour, Damien Dempsey, Kila, Hothouse Flowers, Shane McGowan and Waterboys.

Jo Holmwood is an award-winning writer, theatre-maker, songwriter and vocalist. She has been developing a career in writing and literature, having published short stories in The Stinging Fly, The Cormorant and the Scrimshaw Journal and been shortlisted for numerous short fiction awards. In 2022, she received an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and was the Platform 31 artist for County Leitrim. Weird Ear is her first music collaboration.

Current collaborators include: Cian Sweeney, fiddle/keys (Donegal), Henry Pierce, bass guitar (Donegal/Leitrim), Monine Fitzpatrick, fiddle (Sligo), Catherine Barrett, fiddle (Donegal).