There are two great gigs in store – Country meets Trad this Fridaywhen legendary country singer Brendan Quinn is joined by Altan’s Dermot Byrne and Ciaran Tourish while Saturday July 31sees Belfast songwriter Anthony Toner perform his tribute to the late, great John Prine.

Brendan Quinn has spent over 50 years making music, with hit songs such as It’s Four In The morning, Bandy The Rodeo Clown and Daddy’s Little Girl. Like a fine wine he just gets better with age with recent albums ‘Tickin’ Over’ and ‘Lockdown’ garnering extensive airplay and critical acclaim.

Here Brendan hooks up with two of Ireland’s top traditional Irish musicians –accordion maestro and 2013 Gradam Ceoil winner Dermot Byrne and world renowned fiddle player Ciaran Tourish, both from Donegal supergroup Altan. Together this stellar line up mix country, trad and Americana to create a night of great music to enthral fans of all genres.

Belfast songwriter Anthony Toner celebrates the man and his work featuring songs from throughout his career including classicsfrom Prine’s 1971 self-titled debut (Sam Stone, Hello in There) right through his career (Angel from Montgomery, Souvenirs, Grandpa Was a Carpenter) to selections from the stunning final album The Tree of Forgiveness.

Anthony last performed a series of Toner Sings Prine for the artistes 70^thin 2016.

“It’s my most requested show. So many people have me asked when I’m going to do one again. It is a joy to revisit these songs.”

Looking forward to a weekend of fun, Balor manager Conor Malone said, “It was September when we last had a show on. It’s been a long ten months and I suppose there were times when you wondered would we ever get re-opened. I know that live music is one of the things that people have really missed during lockdown so it’s great to get back in the saddle again with two great shows this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Conor is happy that the steps the Balor have taken to adapt the venue with Covid health and safety precautions in mind will enable people to enjoy the shows in a safe environment.

“Seating will be cabaret style and we’ll seat you according to your booking. So if you book two tickets you’ll get a table for two, if you booked six tickets we’ll seat the six of you together and so on. We were open for a few weeks last August and September so we have a tried and tested system in place so people will feel absolutely safe while being thoroughly entertained.”

Country meets Trad with Brendan Quinn, Dermot Byrne and Ciaran Tourish is on this Friday July 30 at 8pm while Anthony Toner Sings John Prine is on the following night Saturday July 31 at 8pm. Tickets are available from The Balor Box Office on 0749131840 or online at www.balorartscentre.com