Lisa O’Neill

Video Premiere: Lisa O’Neill “Goodnight World”

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Ahead of her extensive tour, watch a stunning live performance of Goodnight World by Lisa O’Neill, captured by Myles O’Reilly, Donal Dineen and Daniel O’Neill.

Ahead of a series of tour dates taking in Edinburgh, Cardiff, London, Dublin, Derry, Belfast and lots more (see below), Lisa O’Neill has shared a live performance video for Goodnight World that was beautifully captured by Myles O’Reilly, Donal Dineen and Daniel O’Neill.

Goodnight World features on Lisa’s latest album, All Of This Is Chance. In his review of that album, Thomas Blake notes how this closing album track offers a small window of calm…

Somehow, the closing lullaby, ‘Goodnight World,’ has a differing impact to all that has gone before. Where the songs as a whole are submerged, overwhelmed almost, by the impossible weight of the universe and our unlikely existence within it, this song makes the world seem small again, emphasised by that tiny moon you see on the front cover, surrounded by an explosion of dandelion seed, sat perfectly and incalculably at the centre of it all. And so the focus is on a window of calm, a small break in the never-ending unanswerable and a switch of emphasis as she sings with mindful serenity, “goodnight moon and sunshine, everyone I love lies under you tonight”. It is an absolutely beautiful way to end this epic canyon of sense and sound in which Lisa O’Neill has crystallised 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.

Myles O’Reilly: “The dream team. The opportunity to work with Donal, who all my life has been such a huge inspiration. His superior filming ethos, his stop animation, the visuals that he makes for music videos and for live performances. I have always been drawn to Donal’s dreamy aesthetic since his music TV show No Disco 1998. When I wasn’t doing my homework and looking at him instead..  and so to team up with Donal to film Lisa, who never fails to make my hair stand up with her honest beauty, was such a thrilling and rewarding experience.”

Source: Video Premiere: Lisa O’Neill – Goodnight World (Live)

Listen to “The Monday Morning Brew” #14

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Listen to the Monday Morning Brew ft John Renbourn, Allysen Callery, Rachel Sermanni, Clara Mann, Sweet Baboo, Ivan Moult, Katy J Pearson & more.

The Monday Morning Brew is a weekly Folk Radio Playlist available on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services (see links below).

Featuring John Renbourn, Allysen Callery (ft. Bob Kendall – Folk Radio UK Session), Langkamer & Fenne Lily, Iona Zajac, Brigid Mae Power, Aoife Nessa Frances, Junior Brother, Rachel Sermanni, Clara Mann, Scott William Urquhart & Constant Follower, Cinder Well & Jim Ghedi, Lisa O’Neill, Shirley Collins, Brighde Chaimbeul, The Deadlians, Sweet Baboo, Emma Tricca, Alasdair Roberts, Samana, Flyte & Laura Marling, Ivan Moult, Lankum, Katy J Pearson & Broadside Hacks, The Gentle Good, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, LYR, Landless, Anna & Elizabeth, Lisa Hannigan, Skipper’s Alley, Salt House, Anne Briggs, Olivia Chaney, Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan.

Source: The Monday Morning Brew #14

Absolute class! Christy Moore, Lankum & Lisa O’Neill perform episode 1 of “Vision”

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Episode One of VISION featuring music & conversation from Christy Moore, Lankum, Lisa O’Neill and Vicar St founder Harry Crosbie. Hosted by Tommy Tiernan.

For further episode release dates, keep an eye on Socials: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Aikenpromotions Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Aikenpromotions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Aikenpromot…

This project has been part-funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht Sport and Media from the Live Performance Support Scheme.

Raw, brutal masterpieces: 2018’s best folk albums

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Lori Watson

Lisa O’Neill, Lori Watson, Trembling Bells, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy were among the many standout acts in a very distinguished year for the genre

The best folk of 2018 was raw, bloody and brutal. Stick in the Wheel’s Follow Them True (From Here) started the year with an uncompromising take on traditional music, delivering ancient songs such as The Unquiet Grave as if they were emerging from the earth after years of being lost. Experimental flourishes (Nicola Kearey’s vocals treated with Auto-Tune, for example) only added to the uncanny, arresting mood. In November, the band also released an atmospheric mixtape, which is hugely worth checking out.

Lisa O’Neill’s Heard a Long Gone Song (River Lea) went even further. Her resolutely unpretty, belly-deep Irish drawl hymned the decline of industry, depression, and the deaths of young children. Let it submerge you and a modern folk masterpiece emerges, its roots twisting back to records such as Lal and Mike Waterson’s Bright Phoebus, which has sadly been pulled from sale in recent weeks because of copyright issues. Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy’s warm and wildly varied Anchor (Topic), reminds you how adventurous that family always were and still are.

Other women forged folk forwards this year. Lori Watson’s Yarrow Acoustic Sessions (self-released) marked the arrival of a stunning new talent: her explorations of Scottish songs and poems offer endlessly rewarding listens. You Are Wolf’s inventive concept album about water, Keld (Firecrest), also held many hidden depths, while Olivia Chaney made a bold move away from folk foundations on the gorgeous Shelter (Nonesuch). Let It Calm You Down, from Let the Cards Fall (Real World) by the Breath, was my favourite original ballad of the year, Ríoghnach Connolly’s voice as tender as the grasp of a child’s hand. Jackie Oates’s The Joy of Living (ECC) was quietly devastating in its personal explorations of life and death, while Kitty McFarlane’s Namer of Clouds (Navigator) struck a sweet note for debut folk-influenced singer-songwriters.

Instrumental music was also at its best taking bold turns. Sam Sweeney’s The Unfinished Violin (Island) explored war, while Solasta’s A Cure for the Curious (self-released) introduced a new trio mixing up traditional dances with imaginative arrangements. The year’s best psych-folk is still working well as the winter draws in: the Left Outsides (Cardinal Fuzz) and Trembling Bells (Tin Angel) giving us lusty, spectral lights. And shout-outs to two records I missed, but which I have loved in recent months: Emma Tricca’s St Peter (Dell’Orso), heavy with atmosphere and beauty, and Sam Lee and Peter Wiegold’s extemporisations on folk songs, Van Diemen’s Land (NMC). Modern folk’s bounties keep giving.

Source: Raw, brutal masterpieces: 2018’s best folk albums

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