TWO talented Drogheda artists have just joined forces to create a music video, filmed entirely in the town.

Singer/songwriter SJ McArdle will be releasing his version of ' Why' by Annie Lennox as a single on October 26th and the Forest Hill man teamed up with former neighbour Darren Thornton from Calipo Theatre and Picture Co to make the atmospheric video.

'Most of the actors are local too, ' says SJ, 'and many are well known from theatre and TV.

'It was shot during one very long day in the Westcourt Hotel, and I'm really proud of it, I think it's a beautiful little film.'

Darren and SJ grew up together in Forest Hill, and have been close friends ever since.

'I'm a huge fan of his work,' he says, 'and it was very exciting to be working on this project with him. Everyone worked incredibly hard on the day and I think it shows in the finished product.'

The video to the beautiful version of the song an now be viewed on his YouTube channel at youtube.com/sjmcardle.

This is the second single to be taken from the Drogheda man's very fertile Nashville sessions, and his impassioned rendering has lead to the Irish Times calling it 'thrilling'.

'Chin Up' did well for us, staying at number 2 for a week in the Downloadmusic.ie chart and it's stayed at number 5 for three weeks now,' he adds.

'Hopefully it has helped pave the way a bit for this one, which we hope will be the bigger of the two. The album is still on-schedule for early 2010.'

To celebrate the launch of the single, SJ and his musicians will be doing a special acoustic gig in Boyne Books as part of the Songlines series of concerts. It's at 8pm on Thursday October 29th. 'I'll be accompanied on the night by Josh Johnston on piano and Karen Dervan on viola. Admission is € 8 and the room's pretty small also, so pre-booking might be an idea.'

- Alison COMYN