Dotts O’Connor releases new EP ‘Jodie’

Over the last decade, Dotts O’Connor has been earning his place among Ireland’s most distinctive songwriters while delivering a timeless alternative folk sound. Best known as the guitarist for Choice Music Prize-nominated band Come On Live Long, he’s spent recent years walking a solo path paved by reflection, atmosphere and poignant songwriting. Coming from Ireland’s folk traditions, he’s creatively curious and intrigued by experimentation, resulting in music that moves with an unhurried patience through intricate and melodic spheres.

Originally from County Roscommon and now based in County Cavan, his artistic world feels shaped by the landscapes that surround him. There’s something rural about his sound, not in the sense of nostalgia or sentimentality, but in the way it captures stillness, isolation and the slow pulse of life lived close to the earth. His solo work feels as suited to a quiet fireside as it is to the buzz of an evening venue and with his deft guitar work and finely tuned storytelling, he finds poetry in everyday silence.

His solo journey began in 2021 with his debut single “Something Grew,” a song that introduced listeners to a gentler, more pensive side of an artist long associated with bigger collaborative sounds. That same emotional context carried through his 2022 EP Coney, marking a moment of arrival, proof that Dotts O’Connor could hold an audience’s attention with little more than his voice, his guitar and his stories.

By 2024, he’d expanded his vision with Sorrow Won’t Find Us, a full-length debut that blended intricate arrangements with emotional impact. The record showcased a maturity and confidence that placed Dotts firmly among the most compelling figures in Ireland’s modern folk landscape.

Now, his new project, Jodie, finds him vnturing further into concept-driven areas, distilling his songwriting into something even more cinematic. Jodie is a four-track concept EP that follows the inner life of a middle-aged man living in rural isolation, a figure defined not by what happens to him, but by what doesn’t. “It’s about the conversations that never happen,” he explains and that idea becomes the emotional centre of the record.

Across its four songs, Jodie explores loneliness not as tragedy, but as texture, the repetition of daily routine, the quiet of thought, the yearning for connection that remains just out of reach. Recorded live at The Meadow Studios in Wicklow, the EP captures a tangible sense of space, featuring contributions from Brian Dillon on keys, Paul Kenny on drums and percussion and mixing engineer Ken McCabe adding bass and electronics.

Following the brief instrumental intro with its lilting musical swells, the title track arrives with warm textures before expanding with the plucks of acoustic guitar and Dotts’ expressive voice. Casting a charming indie folk outing that flows with the gentle taps of percussion and intricate instrumentation capped by superb vocal performance, it’s an engrossing folk music moment that’s transportive and impossible not to love. The bounce of shuffling drums and fluttering instrumentation on “I Saw It Too” are met by buoyant vocal leads carrying memorable melodic leads above a stunning arrangement peppered by playful lead keys.

“The One And Only” crafts an intimate folk scene with tender acoustic guitar backing and alluring vocals as the laid back clop of percussion adds a steady rhythmic sway to form a delightful folk pop jam. Closing the EP with “Fail We May,” Dotts’ elegant vocals hover above a stripped back arrangement of guitar and soft piano chords before the song gradually blooms with dreamy tones and the mellow splash of drums to forge a magical finale to Dotts O’Connor’s sensational new release.

Listen to Jodie below