Lisa O’Neill, one of the most evocative songwriters in contemporary Irish music today, is sharing a new track with accompanying video, ‘Silver Seed’ from her upcoming album, the beautiful, resonant All of This Is Chance, out February 10th, 2023. ‘Silver Seed’ follows earlier album singles ‘Old Note’ and ‘Goodnight World’.
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 adaptation of Bob Dylan’s All the Tired Horses soundtracked the final scene of epic TV drama Peaky Blinders. All of This Is Chance features orchestral masterpieces such as the ambitious and cinematic ‘Old Note’, and the title track which was inspired by the great Monaghan writer Patrick Kavanagh’s prescient meditation on The Great Hunger. Stirring meditations on nature, birds, berries, bees, and blood ring out over a clacking banjo throughout the album, dusting and devastating all those in its wake.
All Of This Is Chance 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 colorful birds, and beyond them stargazing into the atomized constellations of outer space of which we ourselves are fragments.
A revolving door of esteemed musicians come and go throughout All of This Is Chance, including Joseph Doyle, O’Neill’s long-time collaborator on bass, concertina guru Cormac Begley, the aforementioned 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. Lisa’s young niece, Sadie-Mae O’Neill supplies a precious additional voice on ‘Old Note’.
You can stream Silver Seed below:
Lisa O’Neill will tour the UK and Ireland in Spring 2023, full dates are below. Tickets are on sale now – https://lisaoneill.ie/home/tour/
TOUR DATES
Mon, 23rd Jan – Letterkenny, IE @ Regional Cultural Centre SOLD OUT
Thu, 2nd Feb – Glasgow, UK @ The Mackintosh Church
Fri, 10th Feb – Cavan, IE @ Town Hall Cavan SOLD OUT
Sat, 11th Feb – Cavan, IE @ Town Hall Cavan
Wed, 22nd Feb – Dun Laoghaire, IE @ Pavilion Theatre SOLD OUT
Thu, 23rd Feb – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s SOLD OUT
Thu, 16th March – Leeds, UK @ Howard Assembly Room
Fri, 17th March – York, UK @ The Black Swan SOLD OUT
Sat, 18th March – Kendal, UK @ Brewery Arts Centre
Sun, 19th March – Liverpool,UK @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (Music Room)
Tues, 21st March – Bristol, UK @ St George’s
Wed, 22nd March – Oxford, UK @ SJE Arts Centre
Thu, 23rd March – London, UK @ Barbican Centre
Sat, 25th March – Gateshead, UK @ Sage (Hall 2)
Sun, 26th March – Edinburgh, UK @ Voodoo Rooms
Mon, 27th March – Edinburgh, UK @ Voodoo Rooms SOLD OUT
Tues, 28th March – Manchester, UK @ Band On The Wall
