Today, Lisa O’Neill shares news of her new album ‘All Of This Is Chance’ (10th February – Rough Trade). Watch her new video for the lead single ‘Old Note’.
Lisa O’Neill self-released her debut album ‘Has an Album’ in 2009, followed by Same Cloth or Not in 2013, which was produced by David Kitt. The latter featured the ever-popular No Train To Cavan, and Lisa was already building a solid following. That album was launched at Whelans (Dublin), followed by a tour of Ireland with Glen Hansard and a UK tour with James Yorkston. We reviewed one of Lisa’s 2014 gigs in London, with our reviewer, Paul Woodgate noting, “Her songs are full of delightful imagery, and she backs them up with unusual stories…There’s plenty of invention in the songwriting and a voice distinctive enough to stand out from the crowd”.
In 2016 she released the equally well-received Pothole in the Sky, which picked up Album of the Week by the Irish Times, whose opening paragraph said “Is she a strange wee thing or what? Ten years or so into her almost accidental career, this Cavan woman has contrived to create a sound and a vision that is hers and hers alone.”
In 2018, that unique sound and vision would become better known to many following her singing to the then-new Rough Trade River Lea imprint for the release of Heard a Long Gone Song, which led to five BBC Folk Awards nominations and a Folk Album of the Year accolade in The Guardian in 2019. ‘The Wren, The Wren’ EP followed in 2019, and her adaptation of Bob Dylan’s ‘All the Tired Horses’ featured in the final episode of the final series of Peaky Blinders. In her own words: “It is not an overstatement to say that it was beyond my wildest dreams to be ‘Ordered by the Peaky Fucking Blinders’ to cover this beautiful song from Bob Dylan… .”
Today, Lisa returns with news of her new album and her first for the Rough Trade label. ‘All Of This Is Chance’ will be released on 10th February and available on exclusive silver vinyl at indie retail and the webstore. Pre-order HERE.
The album features orchestral masterpieces such as the ambitious and cinematic ‘Old Note’, the video for which you can watch below—directed by the superb Myles O’Reilly with Art direction from Donal Dineen.
On Old Note, Mac Con Iomaire delivers a divine orchestral accompaniment to a sad lullaby which explores another interwoven theme of this collection, that being the wall between us and an intuition with nature we once had. The song was inspired by an interview with the great traditional musician Tony McMahon, and in its flow, you can feel Lisa inhaling all the gifts of nature she holds so dear. More stars! More birds! More devastating lines! Feathered friend, dig up and resurrect me, I long to live among the song of birdies, A lawless league of lonesome, lonesome beauty, Skies and skies and skies above duty.
Lisa’s young niece, Sadie-Mae O’Neill, also supplies a precious additional voice on Old Note.
The title track, ‘All Of This Is Chance’, is inspired by the great Monaghan writer Patrick Kavanagh’s prescient meditation on The Great Hunger.
In 2021 The Abbey Theatre invited Lisa to perform in their historic outdoor adaptation of Kavanagh’s tragic 1942 masterpiece The Great Hunger on the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham. Particularly significant because it was one of Ireland’s first forays back into the live cultural arena as the arts continued to try and navigate the pandemic era. For Lisa O’Neill, though it held an even greater significance. The experience of immersing herself in and researching Kavanagh’s remarkable 6,000-word poem was part catalyst for making this new album, unlocking a mutual fascination with themes around nature and creativity.
When reading Kavanagh, she was reminded of the speech of her Mother’s townland, Crossdoney. In fact, it’s the words of Kavanagh himself and lines from The Great Hunger that open this album on the title track:
“Clay is the word and clay is the flesh
Where the potato-gatherers like mechanized scarecrows move
Along the side-fall of the hill.”
A revolving door of esteemed musicians come and go throughout the album, including long-time collaborator on bass Joseph Doyle, Kerry concertina guru Cormac Begley, the cinematic genius of Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Kate Ellis of the Crash Ensemble, pianist Ruth O’Mahony Brady, drummer Lorcan Byrne, producer Dave Odlum on guitar, as well as Colm O’Hara on trombone, Brian Leach on hammer dulcimer, Mic Geraghty on harmonium and David Coulter on saw.
UK Tour Dates
Lisa O’Neill has also announced a UK tour for Spring 2023, including a show at The Barbican in London on March 23rd.
Full dates are below. Tickets are on sale now – https://lisaoneill.ie/home/tour/
Thu, 16th March – Leeds, Howard Assembly Room
Fri, 17th March – York, The Black Swan
Sat, 18th March – Kendal, Brewery Arts Centre
Sun, 19th March – Liverpool, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (Music Room)
Tues, 21st March – Bristol, St George’s
Wed, 22nd March – Oxford, SJE Arts Centre
Thu, 23rd March – London, Barbican Centre
Sat, 25th March – Gateshead, Sage (Hall 2)
Mon, 27th March – Edinburgh, Voodoo Rooms
Tues, 28th March – Manchester, Band On The Wall
Pre-order All Of This Is Chance HERE