Taken from her new album ‘All Of This Is Chance‘, a Folk Radio Featured Album of the Month (reviewed here), Lisa O’Neill has shared an intimate live video in which she performs a stripped-back version of ‘The Globe’ on guitar. It was filmed on the coast of Kerry and Directed by Myles O’Reilly. The video was accompanied by an announcement of her headline US Tour (as well as two dates supporting Richard Thompson); the dates for which can be found below.
…an epic canyon of sense and sound in which Lisa O’Neill has crystallized her place in the world as a performing artist and created a timeless piece of work, wholly unbound by style or genre, a universal shot of medicinal magic from which we should all take understanding and move forward with open-eyed wonder for the world in which we live.
Thomas Blake, Folk Radio
The video was filmed in the beautifully scenic County Kerry, Ireland, and I believe that’s the Blasket Islands you can see off the coast, which were evacuated by the Irish government in 1953. Watching Lisa sat there all alone, it’s hard to not be reminded of Seamus Heaney’s beautiful poem ‘The Given Note’, which tells how a lone fiddler on one of the Blasket Islands received a tune, a lament (Port na bPucai) on the air one night.
On the most westerly Blasket
In a dry-stone hut
He got this air out of the night.
Strange noises were heard
By others who followed, bits of a tune
Coming in on loud weather
Though nothing like melody.
He blamed their fingers and ear
As unpractised, their fiddling easy
For he had gone alone into the island ,
And brought back the whole thing.
The house throbbed like his full violin.
So whether he calls it spirit music
Or not, I don’t care. He took it
Out of wind off mid-Atlantic.
Still he maintains, from nowhere.
It comes off the bow gravely,
Rephrases itself into the air.
Lisa O’Neill US Tour Dates
Tuesday, April 25 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop
Thursday, April 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
Friday, April 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
Saturday, April 29 – Newport, RI @ Newport Live at Colony House
Sunday, April 30 – Exeter, NH @ The Word Barn
Tuesday, May 2 – West Stockbridge, MA @ The Foundry
Wednesday, May 3 – Cambridge, MA @ Club Passim
Friday, May 5 – Evanston, IL @ Space (supporting Richard Thompson) SOLD OUT
Saturday, May 6 – Chicago, IL @ Maurer (supporting Richard Thompson) SOLD OUT
Sunday, May 7 – Chicago, IL @ Szold Hall
Thursday, May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo
Saturday, May 13 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
Ticket Links: https://lisaoneill.ie/home/tour/
Buy the album: https://lisaoneill.ffm.to/allofthisischance