Towards the end of last year, we shared the news of Irish Songer Songwriter Karan Casey‘s new album ‘Nine Apples of Gold‘, due to be released on 24th February on Crow Valley Music. The announcement came with a video for the title track of her album (watch the video here). Today she follows up with her latest album single, ‘Sister I Am Here For You’, a song which celebrates the “profound beauty found in female friendship and camaraderie“. Casey is also a leading advocate for gender balance in the Irish folk and traditional music scene, and the empowerment of women is front and centre of her concerns as she gives voice to the notion that songs can sing what we cannot say. On her new single, she’s joined by Niamh Dunne.
Speaking of the song, Karan says, “This is a calling to female friendship. In singing the song with the fabulous Niamh Dunne, I’m reminded of the profound beauty found in female friendship and camaraderie, and how much I rely on her; sometimes, listening to her singing away beside me, I try not to cry. And in writing the song with Sean Óg Graham, we talked a lot about the sisterhood, about the need for a feminist song speaking to the bond that can be built through collaborating and working together, all genders, campaigning for women’s rights everywhere in the world. He has been just brilliant in helping me realise this long-time dream of mine, to write a singalong that is uplifting and joyful.
I also, as ever, was instructed by old Irish stories, and I had been reading The Book of the Cailleach by Gearóid Ó Crualaoich (a brilliant book), which is all about an Chailleach, the wise-woman healer or hag or witch or whatever you’d like to call the amazing women of the past and present who have stood their ground. In one Cailleach story, she whips up the wind, brings in the wintertime and was known to have moved rocks to create mountains, moved mountains to create valleys and lakes. She is the creator of Winter, who blitzes the land with ice and snow. She basically did everything. Sound familiar!”
On her March/April ’23 Irish tour, Casey will be accompanied by the dynamic duo Niamh Dunne and Sean Óg Graham, both members of the popular Irish band Beoga: Niamh Dunne (fiddle, vocals), who comes from a rich family heritage of Irish traditional music; and Seán Óg Graham (guitar), a talented arranger, composer and producer who is in great demand as an accompanist.
Tour Dates
Scotland
Jan 26th – Glasgow – Celtic Connections – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall with Celtic Odyssée
Jan 28th – Glasgow – Celtic Connections – City Halls
US
Feb 3rd – 4th – Kansas City, MO – Folk Alliance conference
March 2nd – Putney, VT – Next Stage
March 3rd – Greensboro, VT – Highland Center for the Arts
March 4th – Bangor, ME – Gracie Theatre
March 5th – Cambridge, MA – Club Passim
March 7th – Wilmington, DE – The Grand Opera House – The Baby Grand
March 8th – Harrisburg, PA – Susquehanna Folk Music Society at The Abbey Bar
March 10th – Peninsula, OH – G.A.R. Hall
March 11th – Blairstown, NJ – Roy’s Hall
March 12th – Reisterstown, MD – Music in the Valley
March 15th – Bloomington, IN – Buskirk-Chumley Theater
March 16th – East Lansing, MI – Ten Pound Fiddle
March 17th – Fremont, MI – Dogwood Center for Performing Arts
March 18th – Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark
Ireland
March 24th – Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow
April 13th – Duncairn Arts Centre, Belfast
April 14th – Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
April 15th – Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare
April 20th – Glór, Ennis, Co. Clare
April 21st – National Opera House, Wexford
April 22nd – Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford
April 23rd – Hawkswell Theatre, Sligo
April 27th – Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny
April 28th – Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co. Meath
April 29th – Triskel Christchurch, Cork
April 30th – Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Tickets and more details: http://www.karancasey.com/