There’s always a moment of worry when you hear of an artist recording a solo project, away from his day job with a major rock band. Are they fulfilling their childhood dream to explore jazz fusion or trash metal, or maybe a concept album about the lizard kings who secretly rule the world. Not so with David Geraghty of Bell X1, sensible soul that he is. His new side project ‘Join me in the Pines’ who played last night in the Unitarian Church on Stephens Green Dublin, are an altogether quieter affair.

The main difference between this band and Bell X1 is that it is acoustic guitar driven, with some banjos, mandolins, violin and piano. It seems to express the more mellow side of his musical tastes, and in a setting such as the Unitarian church, it worked wonderfully well. There was a variety of friends that joined him on stage over the course of the evening, with seven musicians performing at various times. This lead to great variation of sound and never let it get boring. It was a more stripped down version of what you can expect on the album, without the drums and bass.

David has previously released a number of albums under his own name, so it’s unusual he felt the need to record under another name, or ‘Do the Prince thing’ as he said himself! I guess it would be harsh to describe it as a solo album with this many musicians involved, so it makes sense at some level.

There was no support band last night, and they came on stage a little after nine and played most of his new album, along with some Bell X1 songs including ‘Built to Last’. David showed the full range of his musical talents playing guitar, banjo, mandolin as well as piano, while singing. It’s always nice to get an artist at this level in such a small venue, and it was a lovely night of music.

On his encore he played a version of Prince’s ‘I could never take the place of Your Man’, replacing Prince’s strutting guitar solos with some very impressive work on the mandolin. They left the stage just after half ten and sent the crowd home happy with their night at church!

You can find out more about ‘Join me in the Pines’ on there website here.