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Ireland’s Lisa O’Neill is one of the most striking folk singers performing today. Transcendent and original, her inimitable voice is raw, evocative and laden with emotion.
“Seldom does a voice emerge so singular it stops you in your tracks. Lisa O’Neill possesses such a voice” – The Big Issue
O’Neill’s pure song writing and organic music – she plays the guitar and banjo – alight in songs that reach the soul. She’s built a reputation as a modern artist tapped into the ancient, whose voice pulls at the heart and harkens to different worlds. Her live sets are a striking mix of originals and interpretations – the music stark and cerebral, the voice singular and personal, and stage presence charismatic. A recent live review in The Guardian noted “Her voice...is transporting live: imagine Edith Piaf coming from the Irish border counties, brilliantly stomping her boots.”
O’Neill has been lauded by artists and critics alike. The Edge called hers “a unique voice in Irish song writing”, Cillian Murphy opined “She’s an extraordinary singer songwriter”, while Iggy Pop gushed
“Beautiful, what a strong, beautiful voice”. The New York Times declared “O’Neill is a cultural hero in her own right” and NPR Music’s Bob Boilen called O’Neill’s music “stunning, cinematic”.
A raconteur in the truest sense of the word, O’Neill is a five time BBC Folk Award nominee and her previous album “Heard a Long Gone Song” was named The Guardian’s 2019 Folk Album of the Year.
Her remarkable adaptation of Bob Dylan’s “All the Tired Horses” soundtracked the final scene of epic TV drama Peaky Blinders.
“All of This Is Chance “ (her first release for indie titans Rough Trade) features orchestral masterpieces such as the ambitious and cinematic “Old Note", and the title track which was inspired by the Monaghan writer Patrick Kavanagh's epic poem, “The Great Hunger”, as well as stirring contemplations on nature, birds, berries, bees, and blood ring out over a clacking banjo throughout the album, dusting and devastating all those in its wake.
This album takes O’Neill’s inimitable voice to greater heights, or depths, depending on which way you look at it. Throughout all eight songs on this album, it feels like she is writing in a constant state of wonderment. Not only a portrait of the artist in love with nature, but one perplexed by the ever- expanding gulf between it and modern society. O’Neill sings across that divide while simultaneously digging deep into the land, eyes transfixed on a universe of colourful birds, and beyond them stargazing into the atomised constellations of outer space of which we ourselves are fragments.
Uncut Magazine called O’Neill’s mesmeric LP “All Of This Is Chance” “The first indisputable classic of 2023”. It came in at No.17 in Uncut Magazine’s Albums The Year plus CD covermount track in the Review Of The Year 2023 issue. And in Mojo Magazine Albums Of The Year 2023 the album is No. 24.
Lisa will be joined by fellow Irish musician Brian Leach playing hammered dulcimer - an instrument with such a beauty of sound.
When: Friday 19 January
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Venue
City Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place, Sydney NSW 2000