SJ McArdle releases his new album Blood and Bones on June 24th. Songs from the album had already garnered considerable Irish airplay last year (as well as TV promos for Survivor and Grey's Anatomy) before an enforced hiatus held up its release…until now. The album's beginnings were most promising: the songs were recorded in Nashville and feature contributions from some of SJ's heroes like Rodney Crowell, guitarist Richard Bennett (Steve Earle's Guitar Town) and the Love Sponge Strings (Bruce Springsteen's The Rising). The result is a stew of roots, pop and rock, with some truly unexpected twists. Eventually SJ decided that if you want a job done right, it's worth doing yourself, so the album will be self-released in Ireland. Solo and with a band SJ has toured Ireland and played shows in Germany, including the legendary Bardentreffen festival in Nuremburg. In 2009 he completed a European stadium tour opening for Reamonn, playing to over 70,000 people over 19 shows.