HIGHLY regarded singer songwriter Shaun O'Reilly plays Ruskins Bar on Wednesday, April 10, as part of a tour which opens at Oporto in Leeds on April 8. Shaun also plays Atticus Books in Lancaster the night before his Kendal gig.

His debut album, It's a Vulgar Road We Take was released in February on the label Us Is The New Them.

London-based Shaun blurs the lines between the melancholic mellowness of Elliott Smith, and the blues bark of Captain Beefheart.

His fondness of folk led him away from a metal band and into a solo career, with recent shows seeing him pull crowds across Holland and France. His single, Witches, was featured in legendary Americana publication No Depression, while Words For Music branded him "a people’s poet with the language of song running through his veins."

Shaun was born in Peterborough and raised around the Midlands. He started playing in bands (mainly metal) from the age of 15. By the age of 25, he'd done some exploration and found his home on the folky side of the acoustic.

He was rewarded with his hard work on the BBC airwaves, with an in-depth interview and track premiere of Took To Drinking. The legendary DJ Dean Jackson went on record as saying the LP "made him want to play it on repeat."

For further information go online at www.shaunoreillymusic.com.

Support for Shaun's Ruskins gig is local musician Wayne Scurrah.