WATCH: Amble perform Lonely Island in Limerick

AS THEY keep finishing each other’s sentences, it is hard to believe Oisin McCaffrey, Robbie Cunningham and Ross McNerney only met a year ago. As a football practice in a small town was pushed forward to accommodate their first gig, they introduced themselves as Amble. Since then, the musicians turned best friends have been bound together like Judy’s Heels.

Around pre-rehearsal drinks before opening for KingFishr in Dolan’s, they recall how it all started.

The contemporary folk musicians collided not only for their “mutual grá of music”, but with the aim to tell stories. The trio, who mix the old with the new, have been selling out shows months in advance. Their debut album, The Name, The Face and Body, is set to be released in February 2024 and closely followed by an Irish tour.

“We genuinely did just meet through music, we’re all from different counties (Sligo, Leitrim and Longford). About a year ago, me and Robbie started singing our own songs in Dublin. And then we went to record one, and essentially said ‘Let's try and get Ross Mc Nerney in here to play because he's a freak’, Oisin recalls.

“You said. I didn't know Ross and I said no,” Robbie grins. “I was just thinking, me and Oisin had a nice thing going and I didn't know anything about this man.”

But then, Ross played, and it all came together -  the last piece of the puzzle.

“We played all the songs for him. I had never seen that before from a musician, he heard it and was like I can do that,” says Robbie.

In Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, football training was moved earlier so people could attend Amble’s first gig. The morning after, a text from Ross was met with an unanimous response - “The sound we made last night was too good not to pursue.”

Show after show, release after release, Amble started to gain momentum.

Ross points out: “It was a lot of work, but in terms of getting support and getting fans, I think it organically came from the music.”

“It hasn't been an overnight blow up on TikTok or something. It's been very casual and very smooth, but like you said, it's been very gradual,” continues Robbie.

Their first offering, Mariner Boy, perfectly encapsulates their sound - tender vocals, soothing melodies and the distinctive twankle of the Irish bouzouki. Listening to Amble feels like sitting by the fireplace of your local pub on a cold winter night.

Speaking of Mariner Boy, Oisin explains: “I was living in Galway. It was lashing rain outside and I just took into writing about Mariner Boy. I don't really know where it came from. I never did anything with it and then one day we were playing in Ross’ house and he pulled it from obscurity.”

Robbie jumps in: “I do remember when we released it, getting told a lot of the time ‘That's really good, but you didn't write that’. People thought it was an old song. But this guy, he's an old soul, we all know that. So he's writing like an old man.”

So essentially, three old men in the bodies of twentysomethings?

“Three old men in the bodies of 25-year-old fit, strong men,” Robbie laughs.
As they are about to answer the next question, a familiar face walks into Dolan’s.

 “There, Niall McCabe,” Robbie says. “It’s a musician we love, he’s just after walking in. We need a pint with that man.”

Speaking of their sound, Ross notes: “I think the big thing is ‘less is more’ with our sound. We're not trying to add drum kits or extra electronic stuff. We just want our music to be... The three of us, three instruments playing and when you break it down to that, I think it's more real, but that's just our personal taste.”

Oisin agrees: “As much as it’s about the music, the focus is also on the words.
“We're not just making noise, we want people to hear what we're actually saying,” adds Robbie.

From Judy’s Heels to Tonnta to Lonely Island, each song tells a story. In Amble, everyone plays - and everyone writes.

Ross is the one who wrote Lonely Island, which the band recorded in one take.

“I went to Achill Island in January, I was in the pub with my girlfriend and we were playing cards and we just noticed there was an old man having a pint of Guinness. I thought nothing of it really when I was in there but I just noticed him and actually regret not talking to him. I went home and just started writing the tune. It was written from that kind of perspective of losing someone on the island that maybe people are more important than the place,” Ross explains. “The place is only made special because of the people you're with.”

Before heading to rehearsals, the lads indulge in the ultimate pub quiz question. If you could have dinner with three people, dead or alive, who would be sitting at the table? It’s hard to pick between Elvis, James Joyce, Maradona, Michael D Higgins and Dolores O’Riordan.

Although, one of them is already among them. In a golden frame above their heads, it almost seems like Dolores is keeping an eye on them. Perhaps someday, they will join her on Dolan’s wall.

Amble will be playing a sold out show in Dolan’s Upstairs, on March 1.