Acclaimed blues and jazz guitarist Ronnie Greer is to begin a monthly residency in the spring at Lisburn’s Island arts centre opening in trio mode with pianist Scott Flanigan and trumpeter Linley Hamilton on 28 March, followed on 25 April with a line-up featuring the 2013 Northern Ireland Music Prize-nominated guitarist/vocalist Anthony Toner, and keyboardist John McCullough, who regularly features at Belfast’s Empire Music Hall’s Sunday night supper club shows with singer Ken Haddock and who, like Toner, features on Greer’s 2013 album A Lifetime with the Blues.

Greer is also later joined in the residency on 23 May by County Monaghan blues guitarist/singer Gráinne Duffy; while the fourth date at the Island on 13 June features once more rising jazz star Scott Flanigan this time on Hammond organ, a player who appeared in Van Morrison's band at the Harp Bar show in Belfast on New Year's Eve, plus US saxophonist Meilana Gillard and drummer Steve Davis from the cutting edge free improvising trio Bourne/Davis/Kane. Greer says: “I want to create a jazz club feel,” and fittingly the studio theatre at the Island will be arranged in cabaret style to enable an intimate setting. The guitarist will also co-host short 10-15 minute interview “Jools Holland-like” segments with the musicians on the night as part of the presentation to give, Greer says, the audience “additional insights into the players’ musical approaches and aspirations.”