Has included - Jeff Allen (bass); Catherine Bent (cello); Jeff Berman (drums); Joe Bonadio (drums); Aidan Brennan (guitar); Chris Cunningham (guitars); Johnny Cunningham (fiddle); Lindsey Horner (bass, bass clarinet, tin whistle); Michelle Kinney (cello, accordian); Gerry Leonard (guitars); Dana Lyn (fiddle); Alison Miller (drums); Eamon O'Leary (guitar, banjo); Jon Spurney (guitars, piano); Joe Trump (drums).
Influences
My parents, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Michelle Shocked, Natalie Merchant, Christy Moore, Tom
Munnelly, Sandy Denny, June Tabor, Janis, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Jimmy McCarthy, Martin Carthy, Planxty, Paul Brady, Joni Mitchell, Portishead, Richard & Linda Thompson, Nick Cave's Murder Ballads, The Beta Band.
Once heard, you would never take Grammy-award-winning vocalist Susan McKeown for anyone else. Hailed by Q Magazine as the surprise hit of Glastonbury 2000, the strong, richly-colored contralto and the enlivening intelligence of her songs mark her as a distinctive talent. Susan grew up in Dublin, Ireland, which she left in 1990 for Manhattan.
Settling in the East Village she began carving out a career as a singer-songwriter and released her debut album "Bones" in 1995. Drawing influences from sources as far flung as the ancient Irish legend of The Táin, the words of Chief Seattle, poets such as Emily Dickinson, Yeats & Coleridge, and the complexities of relationships, her lyrics are emotion-centered and as inventive as her arrangements, from the hurdy-gurdy solo on the rock song "I Know, I Know" (Bones, 1996 Prime/SNG) to the pairing of banjo and erhu on "The Lowlands of Holland" (Lowlands, 2000 Green Linnet). Her self-produced album 'Sweet Liberty' (2004 World Village) drew accolades and a BBC Folk Music Award nomination for her setting of an English gypsy song with the group Mariachi Real de Mexico.
Susan has built an impressive career through her many releases, extensive touring, and performances on programs such as 'A Prairie Home Companion', 'All Things Considered', 'Mountain Stage' and for PBS, 'Sessions at West 54th' and 'American Masters'.
She has performed with Natalie Merchant, Pete Seeger, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Linda Thompson, Billy Bragg, Johnny Cunningham and The Klezmatics, on whose Grammy-winning album 'Wonder Wheel' she is prominently featured.
www.susanmckeown.com
McKeown grabbed both song and audience by the throat, dragged them through heaven and hell and back again, and left the stage to the loudest applause heard all evening. - ROLLING STONE
Music that lives and breathes in the wider world.
- Q MAGAZINE
Reflective and pensive as Sweet Liberty is, it demands a listening on an amp whose dial runs to 11, all the better to savour McKeowns' elasticised vocals stretching from the gloriously wizened to the startlingly youthful.
Think Frida Kahlo crossed with Oumou Sangare.
- THE IRISH TIMES
If there's some dividing line between Celtic traditionalism and eclectic contemporary songwriting, McKeown refuses to acknowledge it. And with a voice as warm, resonant and versatile as hers, why should she?"
- THE OREGONIAN
"She walks on the wild side of Gaelic melody." - BOSTON GLOBE
"A singer of passion, grace and striking presence with the ability to capture both the essence of a traditional folk song or the more hard-edged domain of contemporary adult rock; she seems to personify both past and present."
- IRISH EXAMINER
Dear Susan, I've been a fan for a long time! Love your singing, your diverse musical tastes and how you manage to put them all together and create gorgeous music....
Thanks for the add. Demand “Battle In Seattle” to be shown in your town! “Battle in Seattle” is an independent feature film about the 1999 WTO convention starring: Andre 3000, Charlize Theron, Ray Liota, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Rodriguez, Channing Tatum and many more. If you want to see the trailer go to www. battleinseattlemovie. com Click for more info:
there was something that spoke to me deep within more than speeches hearing you sing the other night.
thank you. ------------------
Garden Opera
Candide last night urge Lincoln Center Opera Leonard Bernstein choice seats for only $16 due to the beneficent slight of hand of the ticket agent who took pity on me irony for I remember telling one I cared for last year how I would love to go to the Opera with him and he exclaimed how out of his price range a request that was as if I asked for a private jet to Paris so as I thankfully took my ticket for one I was able to escape and reflect in the Voltaire farce still applicable to my life for how fine the balance between optimism and pessimism and struggles today still thrive as in his time as I intermittently closed my eyes and opened my ears to the music thinking how this experience alone is worth the high rent in Manhattan and how a certain someone who was peripherally intersecting in my life through this man who was too cheap to take me to the Opera is scheduled to meet her maker and wants to keep that appointment how I pity her and her selfish struggle over this mutual man who may or may not be worth a fight and I say to myself I must "grow my garden" like Candide -c
Great show last week at Ulysses. My husband will be playing there tonight for my birthday show. Stop by if you can. I still love and remember your performances at An Beal Bocht many years ago. That is a great space. Hope to see you there again in the near future!!!!
I enjoyed your performance at Ulysses Saturday. I was shocked by the lack of consideration and respect some of the audience members had to talk so loudly during your performance. Maybe I just have sensative hearing. I look forward to seeing you perform again sometime. Ciao for now
I'd say it was Joan and Ang you met.Joan has really bad sight and we call Ang 'dead eye' as she has poor sight in one eye. We also call her 'half bar' as she comes in half a bar after everyone else!!.We were sad that we missed you on Sat in Ulysses but we had a gig .Hopefully we'll get to see you soon. Grainne
