Irish folk singer/songwriter Lisa O'Neill is a powerful storyteller with a distinctive voice and a keen eye for provincial detail. She found success with the release of 2013's Same Cloth or Not and 2018's Heard a Long Gone Song, both of which received nominations for Ireland's prestigious Choice Music Prize. O'Neill continued to refine her soulful and idiosyncratic style on her lush and deeply personal fifth long-player, 2023's All of This Is Chance. Born and raised in Ballyhaise, County Caven, O'Neill moved to Dublin when she was 18 to study music at Ballyfermot College. She spent the next several years there working in the service industry, honing her writing and performing skills. She released her full-length debut, Has an Album, in 2009. A modest regional success, the LP caught the attention of British singer/songwriter David Gray, who conscripted O'Neill to join him on his 2011 American and Canadian tour as both the opener and a bandmember. Her sophomore effort, Same Cloth or Not, appeared in 2013 and earned O'Neill her first Choice Music Prize nomination. 2016 saw O'Neill appear on the debut album by Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, an Indian-folk-jazz fusion band featuring Scottish singer/songwriter James Yorkston, double bass player Jon Thorne, and Indian sarangi player and singer Suhail Yusuf Khan. Later that year, she released her third long-player, the austere and darkly humorous Pothole in the Sky. 2018's Heard a Long Gone Song marked O'Neill's debut outing for River Lea Recordings, the traditional music imprint of Rough Trade Records. The set comprised a fluid mix of trad-folk songs and original compositions. It included a cover of the Shane MacGowan-penned "Lullaby of London" and the potent working-class anthem "Rock the Machine," the latter of which won Best Original Folk Track at the 2019 RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards. 2019 also saw O'Neill issue the three-song EP, The Wren, The Wren, and contribute a cover of Bob Dylan's "All the Tired Horses" to the final scene of the popular television drama Peaky Blinders. A pair of singles, the lush, orchestral "Old Note" and the stark and wistful "Goodnight World," arrived in 2022. Both cuts appeared on O'Neill's fifth full-length outing, All of This Is Chance, the following year. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Carlow Arts Festival 2018

Lisa O'Neill

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