The Limerick Lady 56: Tracy Bruen, DIY Musician: The Cost Is You

This month we talk to Galway artist Tracy Bruen. Tracy was on the lineup of the first ever Limerick Lady event at the Limerick Milk Market in the summer of 2016. She joins us 7 years on to catch us up on her life and career. Over the last ten years, Tracy has toured extensively throughout Ireland and Europe. Her debut album "Mirror" was released in 2017. Singles from her sophomore album, "Waiting", released in January 2023, have received extensive national and regional radio play, with "Dream Away" and "Silence Crawls" both reaching the top ten in the RTÉ Radio charts.   Over the years, Tracy has shared stages with some of Ireland's best loved acts such as Mick Flannery and Mary Coughlan, as well as playing many of Ireland's major festivals including Electric Picnic, Body & Soul, Sunflower Fest and the Galway Arts Festival. She is continually and consistently developing her audience both at home and abroad, and was dubbed Original Solo Artist of the Year in 2015 by the Galway Advertiser.  On this episode, Tracy talks about the cost – personal, emotional, and financial – of being an independent artist, and the investment of energy that every show and new release takes. She talks about hitting her limits; about coming through breast cancer, and the age-old issue among the self-employed of not listening to her body when it told her it needed rest.  We explore how hard it is to survive in the music industry; how an artist chooses the order of songs on a record; the current landscape of the industry in terms of gender balance; and why Tracy no longer plays old songs that she doesn't connect with.  Find Tracy at www.facebook.com/TracyBruenMusic or on Instagram at @tracybruen "..a gentle beauty, Bruen's folk and classical stylings crystallising in the pure notes of her voice" — Evoke.ie You can download her music at www.tracybruen.bandcamp.com