Joe Chester is a multi award-nominated songwriter, composer and musician whose albums have featured in the books 101 Irish Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, by Tony Clayton-Lea, Buried Treasure by Dan Hegarty and in The Sunday Times list of the best Irish albums of all time - "Chester's debut solo album is a perfect pop record. The songs are at once effortless, memorable, hook-laden and a masterclass in subtle dynamics." 

His fifth album, The Easter Vigil, meanwhile, was named 2017 Irish Album of the Year by The Sun who described it as, "A tonic for these times, a triumph of substance over style."
Jupiter's Wife, his sixth studio album ( a double album, partly recorded at the legendary Sun Studio, Memphis, Tennessee) was named “One of the greatest Irish albums of the decade,” and voted Best Irish Album of 2020 by the Irish Daily Mirror. 

In 2021 he scored a worldwide Number 1 on the Bandcamp Contemporary Classical chart with “Carolan/Cage,” an EP of guitar transcriptions of works by the Irish composer Turlough O’Carolan and the American composer John Cage.

On January 27th, 2023, Bohemia Records released LUCIA, Joseph Chester’s first major composition for classical guitar & strings, commissioned by Axis Ballymun, Dublin, as part of the celebrations marking the centenary of James Joyce's Ulysses taking place in Dublin and globally on the 16th of June 2022. The suite, which was “inspired by fragments of the life of Lucia Joyce,” had its world première performance in Dublin on Bloomsday, 2022. The album received rave reviews and the suite has gone on to be performed many times  (both with strings and as a solo guitar recital) including at the James Joyce Centre, Dublin, a special performance for Bloomsday 2023 at the James Joyce Tower & Museum in Sandycove, Smock Alley Theatre as well as several performances in Paris.

Deft and well-considered, the work spins and soars. An elegant discordant gem. The guitar cascades, dances and flies.

The Irish Times

The music— ornate and elegant — flits from spry to haunting. A quietly beautiful triumph.

The Irish Independent

A stunning tribute. A work of art, to use Joyce's own words, so beautiful and sad that it speaks to every soul's incurable loneliness.

Sunday Times Culture

2023 also saw the release of Carolan/Bach, a follow-up to Carolan/Cage, featuring Chester’s own new transcription of Turlough O’Carolan’s majestic, “O’Carolan’s Concerto,” juxtaposed with J.S. Bach’s Sarabande from the first Suite for Solo Cello, BWV 1007.

A completely self-taught guitarist having picked up the classical guitar for the first time in 2021, in 2024 he was privileged to be invited to perform at a public masterclass with Xuefei Yang, one of the world’s greatest living classical guitar virtuosos. Also in 2024 he was awarded a Master Musicien, Ingénieur du Son by the prestigious Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

In 2024 he announced a new piece, Au Revoir Tristesse, 5 Bagatelles for guitar inspired by the novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan. Subtitled, “a homage to sadness in 5 movements,” each piece will have a companion painting by Steve Wickham. Au Revoir Tristesse will be mounted as an exhibition in Dublin in January 2025 as part of the First Fortnight Festival with live performances and an album to follow.

Also in 2024 he was reunited with Gemma Hayes for a special performance of a fully orchestral version of his song, “A Safe Place to Hide,” with the RTE Concert Orchestra. The performance was filmed at the Mansion House, Dublin and broadcast on RTE 1 Television as part of their Culture Night celebrations.

He has been nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Album of the Year, the Meteor Irish Music Awards for Best Male Artist and for Best Album in the RTE Folk Awards (with The Hedge Schools.) 

A producer of over 90 albums for other artists, including multi-platinum and Number 1 albums and singles both in Ireland and overseas (including steering Finbar Furey to his first Number 1 in 26 years), he was until recently one half of the critically acclaimed Hedge Schools, has been lead guitarist of The Waterboys, toured extensively with Gemma Hayes, accompanied Sinead O'Connor and performed for Irish president Michael D. Higgins. 

He is guitarist and producer of Dublin group a lazarus soul whose 2024 album, “No Flowers Grow in Cement Gardens,” went straight to Number 1 in the Irish album chart and was nominated for the 2025 Choice Music Prize for album of the year.

Hotpress Magazine have described Joe Chester as "A legitimate giant of Irish music."

Writer of songs. Published by Meat Pie Music (Australia) & Lynne Publishing (Rest of World)

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