The album includes collaborations with his heroes John Sheahan and Barney McKenna of The Dubliners and Sharon Shannon.

The Rocky Road comprises new arrangements of many well-loved and familiar songs including The Rocky Road to Dublin, The Foggy Dew, The Hot Asphalt, and Ewan MacColl's Schooldays Over and Shane MacGowan's Rainy Night in Soho.

Damien's collection of Meteor Awards include both Best Irish Male and also Best Traditional / Folk and his roots in Traditional music can be clearly felt in his own compositions on his previous albums.

Damien says: "Ballads are my roots, it was the first music that turned me on, and the first songs that I heard being sung in my home by friends and family.

"I would have over 200 ballads in my head, and I used to sing them regularly in pubs around Dublin in the 1990s. I reckoned I had a good feel for these songs, and as I studied Irish history, I felt I could really tell their story and do them some justice on an album…

"I've always been an advocate of the sing-song, and I have a lot of very young fans, so naturally if I do this album, these kids are gonna hear all these timeless songs that they may not have heard otherwise.

"I want to give the young kids an alternative to the new MTV generation, gangster rap, Britney Spears and maybe get them interested in their own history through music."

Damien has spent the first months of 2008 touring the US and Australia but returns to Ireland for his first tour dates this year, playing smaller venues around the country to showcase this intimate album.

Catch him at the Empire Music Hall in Belfast on Thursday, August 7.

Tickets, priced £15, are available across the counter from all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.ie and on their 24 hour booking line on 0870 243 4455 (sales may be subject to booking fees, credit card charges and the commissions of Ticketmaster agents).