Breakfast rolls and banjos

Double bill sees DUG and Zoé Basha play Townhall Arts Centre tonight

There are bands who talk gear, and bands who talk gigs. And then there’s DUG - a musical duo who appear as seemingly obsessed with the sacred poetry of whatever lies beneath the heat lamps at the nearest deli hot counter as in discussing their latest set-list.

Their first interview with the Celt unfolds less like a press junket and more like a fever dream: sandwich fillings from a shop in Virginia - a gloriously derailed tangent. But that conversation was never destined to survive. Too alive for the taxidermy of modern life perhaps, it fell victim to one catastrophically unpressed record button. With that, the conversation vanished, cruelly dragged beneath Fortune’s febrile undertow.

It’s an oddly fitting place to begin when writing about Americana-folk troubadours Conor ‘Lorkin’ O’Reilly and Jonny Pickett, whose remarkable ascent has been anything but neatly documented.

In the heady days of this current modern folk revival, DUG exist in a grey space between campfire mythology and roadside confession; the kind of band that feels discovered rather than overtly marketed. Your best mate’s best mate loves them. The lad with the unironically large moustache. You know him! Always wears a rolled up beanie hat, even in summer. Sunglasses in winter. Tatty Converse to boot.

Even without entering mainstream consciousness proper, DUG are a band who’ve managed to amass an incredible 26 million plus Spotify streams - in no small part thanks to foot-tapping singles like ‘Jubilee’ (double Grammy nomination) and recent album title-track ‘Have At It!’.

Chit chat

Somewhere between all the talk of tour life, music chat, and a near-spiritual appreciation of yeasty golden-coloured baguettes lies the small matter that DUG will perform at the Cavan Arts Festival.

They play the Townhall on Saturday, May 16 - part of a double bill alongside Zoé Basha - the once Leitrim-based Americana artist, composer, and carpenter of French-American origin.

Both arrive with serious clout. Basha’s self-released debut, ‘Gamble’, was named Folk Album of the Month by The Guardian and earned four-star praise on RTÉ Radio 1 Arena. The album, along with its title track, was also short-listed for the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in the categories of Best Folk Album and Best American Roots Performance.

DUG, to give them their flowers, are signed to Claddagh Records, long regarded as one of the most revered homes for contemporary Irish folk.

Following the release of their debut record ‘Have At It!’ last year, O’Reilly and Pickett took their intricate banjo work, finger-style guitar, and tight vocal harmonies on the road - a whirlwind stretch of international tours that rapidly elevated their already brimming reputation. Later in 2026 they’ll also support indie-folk royalty Iron & Wine in the US.

Thankfully, and possibly aware something strangely magical may have slipped, the DUG lads kindly agree to a second sitting with the Celt the following day. It was never going to be the same. You only ever get one first love, one Catcher in the Rye. But it was still entertaining.

Origins

By way of origin story, O’Reilly spent the better part of a decade living in upstate New York before returning to Dublin in 2022, where he crossed paths with Californian banjo player Pickett. Within months the pair were busking Dublin’s Grafton Street - a gruelling apprenticeship that blended the infectious sounds of American old-time tradition with distinctly Irish folk sensibilities. It’s what first got them discovered.

“Busking’s really good for getting exposed to different people,” says Pickett.

“It’s such a hard game though,” O’Reilly quickly counters.

“Yeah,” Pickett laughs. “Waking up early in the morning, dragging a car battery on a trolley, a PA, all the cables and gear…”

“That’s where the chat comes in,” O’Reilly adds. “Between the tunes, you’ve got to hold them there long enough to extract some cash.”

That offhand humour runs like a thick vein through DUG’s music- lyrics loaded with sentiment yet lightened with levity. It figures into their unique stage presence too.

Asked what audiences can expect from their Arts Festival appearance, Pickett answers without hesitation: “Us chatting shite, probably.”

“There’ll be some music as well,” O’Reilly deadpans.

Authenticity

A heavy metal fan at heart, O’Reilly sees less distance between his hobby genre and folk than first appears. DUG’s repertoire and heavy metal may seem culturally incompatible - one rooted in Appalachian folk traditions, the other in distortion and volume. But clever chord progression aside, each genre is individually obsessed with authenticity, not to mention fiercely protective of their respective communities. They’re particularly wary as well of anything resembling the perfumed ‘kerchiefs of commercial polish.

Asked about how their music carries that transatlantic wandering spirit, O’Reilly explains, “We’re trying to exist somewhere in the middle of that,” without quite defining what “that” is or where it begins or even ends.

What’s certain, however, is DUG’s upward trajectory has been steady and still climbing. From selling out Whelan’s to TV and major festival slots, they’ve rapidly become one of the most talked-about acts on the scene.

“We’ve barely stopped,” Pickett says during this latest sprawling three-way WhatsApp conversation, describing in brief their nearly two years of relentless touring. The only real pause allowed came last January, when they finally carved out a niche of time to step into a studio and put reel to the works of their next album.

Breffni bound

Even if roads and recollections no longer align, both musicians seem genuinely enthused about their impending Cavan gig. There is a sense of bona fide warmth there, even if their connection to Breffni County is more incidental than ancestral.

Despite the surname, O’Reilly quickly dismisses any assumptions of local lineage.

“No. None at all,” he says. “Just O’Reilly from Dublin- East Wall.”

His mother is Scottish, he explains, and as far as the family can trace, the roots remain firmly urban.

“I get asked that a lot,” he says. “Maybe way back, but nothing recent.”

Pickett, meanwhile, does have a looser set of connections through the Perry family- percussionist Robbie Perry, formerly of Dead Can Dance, whose record collection left a lasting impression, and his daughter Rita, a gifted musician in her own right.

Pickett performed in the line-up for a 2021 Clones Film Festival screening of Man of Aran at St Joseph’s Temperance Hall, with a live score led by Robbie and other talented collaborators.

“That was such a cool experience,” he recalls.

And somewhere along the road to Cavan, there will likely be another stop- a pilgrimage back to the same deli counter in Virginia, whose carb dense rolls have since achieved a near-mythic status within the band’s private and expanding folklore.

“We think it was a Spar… but we can’t be sure,” Pickett says.

“Either way,” O’Reilly adds, “they knew what they were doing behind that counter.”

DUG share the billing with Zoé Basha at Townhall Arts Centre, as part of Cavan Arts Festival, on Saturday, May 16, tickets €30, available from the festival and theatre website, or at the door.