March 3, 2007 | |
... Walks on the Wild Side of Gaelic Melody ...  Singer-songwriter Susan McKeown was guest lead vocalist on Wonder Wheel, this year's Grammy winner for Best Contemporary World Music Album. The album, with Susan as invited special guest, consists of lyrics from Woody Guthrie, set to music by the Klezmatics. Susan is from Dublin, Ireland. An adventurous vocalist and producer, Susan has established herself not only as an interpreter of traditional song with "one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in Irish music", but also as a woman who rocks. 
Settling in the East Village over a decade ago she began carving out a career as a singer-songwriter with her debut album Bones in 1996. Her often-dark lyrics draw influences from sources as far flung as the ancient Irish legend of The Táin, the words of Chief Seattle, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and urban life in Manhattan. Her arrangements are unusual, unexpected, and pleasantly surprising, from the hurdy-gurdy solo on the rock song I Know, I Know to the pairing of banjo and erhu on The Lowlands of Holland. Growing up in Dublin, Susan inherited her love of music from her mother Jeannie, an organist and composer who brought Susan, the youngest of her five children, along to her church and community gigs. Before she was a teenager Susan was taking her own solos at these events and winning classical and folk singing competitions around the city. After stints as a student of opera and musical theatre in Dublin's Municipal College of Music and New York's American Musical and Dramatic Academy respectively, Susan settled in Manhattan's East Village and from there carved out a career over the last decade as both a highly original singer-songwriter and a gifted interpreter of traditional song. 
Susan has a successful career as a recording artist and tours internationally with a small band, who will back her on our stage. A performer with the unique ability to cross genres and defy categorization, Susan has been praised in the pages of Time Magazine and Rolling Stone, and has performed on the nationally syndicated radio programs A Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, Mountain Stage and The Infinite Mind. She has also appeared on the nationally televised CBS This Morning and Sessions At West 54th as the guest of Natalie Merchant. Susan's heartfelt vocals and inspired music have influenced audiences and musicians alike ... The diverse range of projects with which McKeown has involved herself give the impression that what we have witnessed of her talent to date, is but a taste of what is to come. 
This was an exciting evening of Gaelic melodies sung in a pure sweet voice. — Appearing with Susan were sterling performers from her Chanting House group: Lindsey Horner (shown at left with Susan) (on double bass et al.), Dana Lyn and Eamon O'Leary. Praises for her performances:
Link to her web site:  Link to minute music clips from her albums: |
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Opening for our show tonight were our featured open mike performers:
Our host this evening was Ira Perlman. | ||
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Rolling Stone