In that same Boxing Day sale that I mentioned yesterday I also bought 3 Hothouse Flowers CDs. This Dublin band with its soulful singer Liam O’Maonlai offer a mix of bombastic rock and soulful folk and even gospel music. White gospel music, without the Church references. And with a lot of acoustic elements in their music too.

Lifted from obscurity by similarly passionate voice Bono from U2, they landed a record deal on Polygram but never managed to reach a very wide audience. But their concerts are a combination of folky gospel rock and progressive rock ballads.

Here is a YouTube video of a very sensitive yet very soulful song “Older We Get” from their 1988 debut album “People”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olX2LwRFW60[/youtube]

More from the Hothouse Flowers

If you like Hothouse Flowers, like I do, then you may also like bands that share similar traits:

• U2
• The Waterboys
• R.E.M.
• Sting
• Pink Floyd

More to research:

• Hothouse Flowers on Wikipedia
• Hothouse Flowers own website
• USA: People on Amazon.com
• Canada: People on Amazon.ca
• UK: People on Amazon.co.uk