Singer Ian Shaw returns to Ireland for a new substantial tour to illuminate these dark gloomy January nights topped and tailed by Belfast and Dublin dates, a year on from the release of The Theory of Joy, one of last year’s enduring pleasures.

The widely acclaimed award winning jazz singer’s first new album since the Fran Landesman-themed A Ghost in Every Bar in 2012,‘My Brother,’ of the new original material, above, his beautiful song of family pride, loss, the personal and the universal wrapped in one, is easily the Welshman’s finest song since ‘Rockabye’ on A World Still Turning. For some considerable time Shaw has been concentrating on helping highlight and do something about the grievous humanitarian crisis that has affected refugees in Calais by campaigning for the cause. The release of ‘My Brother’ was part of this effort. Appearing with the Phil Ware trio, Ian Shaw dates spanning 17-21 Jan are in Belfast, Limerick, Cork, Kilkenny and Dublin.