Compelling artistry befell Peckham Street earlier this week. Celebrating their emphatic debut The Stone Man, released a mere few months ago, County Waterford-born brothers Tommy, Danny, Seán and Stephen Dunford performed at The Bodega. As a four, they are The Wran. A wholly unique voice throughout Ireland's traditional landscape, they push forward with a magisterial flair that really only fellow kin can make. A timeless keep-sake of traditional folk with the psychedelic punk take, the four are forever dedicated in keeping the Irish language alive - all the while making it their own...
A deeply intimate, highly immersive night at the 220-capacity venue, the opening acts were local acoustic heroes of Jiminil and Dring. Pivotal folk-rooted mainstays to the cities' song-writing scene, Jiminil started off proceedings with favourites Family Tree and Spider.
Majestic singer-songwriter Dring followed up with a celebration of her own, as she played the likes of Love You Godly and Boyfriend from her latest EP, To Be Needed At All, which was released just last year. The future is certainly looking bright for the city, because these won't be Nottingham's best kept secrets for long.
Before long, The Wran emerged repping fellow Irish bands Thin Lizzy and The Scratch on their shirts, onto a tightly-packed stage emitting brazen green. Certainly a gig unlike any other, the intimate setting made for a gripping performance of four men totally aware of just how important it is to keeping these traditional songs alive.
The hardship tale of Sullivan's John - made famous by The Dubliners - was a banjo-beauty remaking while the harmonious storytelling of The Waterford Boys is still one to just to stop, listen and stare. Accordion stabs and haunting vocals drape across traditional ballad The Limerick Rake before the final third ramped up a gear into a free-spirited gallop of amplified magic. Waves of banjo, harmonium, bass VI, accordion, jaw harp, acoustic guitar and drum roamed and rattled within one another as we stood, seemingly in a trance. It was quite a miracle that the charming Bodega stage managed to hold all these instruments!
The power of music brought these hometown tales from Comeragh Mountains to a city in the East Midlands 360 miles away. Of course, Nottingham is certainly no stranger to The Wran. It was no more than seven months ago they were playing a supporting slot to The Scratch, a folk-metal band hailing from the same country. So it was great all the more to bear witness at their own headline show, not held back to a constrained half-hour runtime.
Among their works from the debut record, the four also shared some tales with songs like Wild Man From Borneo - a story about a famous half-bred horse who won the Grand National in 1895 - and The Black Rabbit, an enriched original inspired by the wild rabbits left behind by the grandfather up on the Mountains. A once passion project that is turned into something far bigger, the brothers behind The Wran are worthy of all the plaudits. And the people of Nottingham seemed to agree.
As the band left the stage, the Bodega crowd felt it was worth the moment to bang their feet on the floor as they chanted the customary desire for more. For their encore, the band finished where it had all began. The ever-enthralling act of Some Say The Devil is Dead, a street rhyme in folklore turned into an unearthly seven-minute spectacle that resulted in some of the best instrumentation heard all night.
A band truly just getting started, The Wran are on a mission to bring the folklore of yesteryear to today, all the while bringing forward a striking tone that's all of their own making. All it takes is to close your eyes, let the music in and you're up on the Mountains with them, of generations old and new.
The Wran performed at The Bodega on 10 November 2026
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