Following five BBC Folk Awards nominations and a Folk Album of the Year accolade in The Guardian in 2019 for her recent album ‘Heard a Long Gone Song’ on Rough Trade’s River Lea imprint, ‘The Wren’ EP in 2019 and an adaptation of Bob Dylan’s ‘All the Tired Horses’ for the final scene of epic TV drama Peaky Blinders. O’Neill, one of the most evocative songwriters in contemporary Irish music today, returns with this new album, and her first for the Rough Trade label, the beautiful, resonant ‘All Of This Is Chance’, to be released on 10th February and available on exclusive silver vinyl at indie retail and the webstore. Pre-order HERE
A raconteur in the truest sense of the word, O’Neill starts this extraordinary collection here on earth, on Irish soil, hands in the land. The album features orchestral masterpieces such as the ambitious and cinematic ‘Old Note,’ the title track ‘All Of This Is Chance’, inspired by the great Monaghan writer Patrick Kavanagh’s prescient meditation on The Great Hunger as well as stirring meditations on nature, birds, berries, bees, and blood that ring out over a clacking banjo, dusting and devastating all those in its wake.
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.
‘All Of This Is Chance’ takes Lisa’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 O’Neill 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 atomized constellations of outer space of which we ourselves are fragments.
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 even greater significance. The experience of immersing herself in and researching Kavanagh’s remarkable 6,000-word poem was part catalyst to make 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. Lisa’s young niece, Sadie-Mae O’Neill supplies a precious additional voice on Old Note.
It is at times a dramatic album, addressing wonder, fear the suppression of the spirt and the disconnect from the land. It requires a gentle touch to close out. Goodnight World is a lullaby, simplified as if sung to a child, despite its darkness (Everyone I love lies under you tonight).
The sleeve of this album reflects the random wonder of the universe. A dog sneezed on dandelion seeds, and as the singer says – All Of This is Chance!
“Uncompromising, stunning, soul-shaking stuff.” – The Guardian, Folk Album of the Year
“Vertiginous, violet-they scroll across the sky, words with wings VVV, whether wrens or angels one cannot determine, perhaps an alternate universe fusion of both, up down, high, low-dizzy, still; at peace, at war: redemption dreams arise from the clay: soul’s peace, as the bird in the bough its little eye closes slowly: all is chance, they say, indeed-save this, indisputably, O’ Neill’s Art’s gentle triumph.” – Pat McCabe
“It matters little how people get to hear Lisa O’Neill’s music; any path to increased exposure for an artist like this makes the world a better place… With a voice emitting the power of Eliza Carthy, the conviction of a June Tabor and original songs that instantly sound so right, she is among the best things to be found performing in the folk world today.” Danny Neill, FRUK
“At a time when sameness threatens to drain the world of charm and surprise, Lisa O’Neill stands tall for difference, as an outlier with a mission to frame the world as she sees it and to perform it accordingly. Her voice is her own. No small achievement.” The Irish Times
“About as far from safe as it’s possible to get. A special talent indeed.” 9/10 – Hot Press
