Catherine McGrath. A slither of hope for Northern Ireland’s music scene. Interview and review.

Northern Ireland is notoriously known for many things however, music…is not exactly one of them.

Now I am not saying there isn’t a vast history of culture, music and talent where Northern Ireland is concerned but in the last decade, there wasn’t exactly much to turn heads or break the mainstream barriers. Until now.

21-year-old Catherine McGrath, from Rosstrevor, is a predominant country singer who also blends tones of pop and modern-day sounds into her music.

After getting noticed by her manager through an array of YouTube covers, she quickly began her grind to become noticed on a much larger scale and has recently released her debut album ‘Talk Of This Town’ with Warner Brothers.

The album itself has thirteen tracks and gives a Golden age Taylor Swift vibe mixed with the creativity of a modern-day Carrie Underwood so, pretty great. My favourite song personally is Cinderella, but I also have to admit to listening to the title track ‘Talk Of This Town’ more than ten times.

Her popular song ‘Wild’ from the album has amassed over 600k views on YouTube and tends to be one of her more known hits, I can say this from experience as the venue ‘Gorilla’ in Manchester had its walls shaking from the crowd singing along.

She has attracted the attention of big names (and rightly so) such as Sir Elton John as well as collaborating with country star Hunter Hayes on their song ‘Don’t let me forget’ and recently opened for Michael Bublé at 02 live in London.

The concert itself was amazing with an incredible atmosphere. Without big flashy lights and effects, the singer still had every eye fixed on her through her talent alone.

At one point during her set, Catherine brought out her younger sister Mary McGrath, 17, who people mistake as Catherine due to their similar appearance (guilty) for a rendition of ‘You’re still the one I want’ by Shania Twain.

Their duet was fantastic and well harmonised and the younger singer also opened up for Catherine.

Side note: Mary McGrath is also one to watch, I believe she has an amazing career ahead of her and a lot of potential she is yet to realise.

Thankfully, Catherine was nice enough to spare some time for an interview below and we had a fun chat so feel free to check it out.

By Benjamin Stacey