Recording and production

The album was recorded in a cold barn in the Irish countryside and produced in the studio of one of Hannigan's friends over the course of a fortnight. Jason Boshoff produced, recorded and mixed the whole album.

Prior to its release in Ireland, Hannigan previewed tracks "Lille", "Pistachio", "Some Surprise" and "Sea Song" on her MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 page. The album also features musical personnel such as Donagh Molloy, Tom Osander

Tom Osander

Tom Osander is a percussionist who is most often associated with Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan and God Street Wine.Born in Princeton, NJ Osander was a member of the New York City jamband God Street Wine from 1988-1998 , recording six albums and performing more than 1,000 shows across America and...

, Shane Fitzsimons, Lucy Wilkins, Vyvienne Long

Vyvienne Long

Vyvienne Long is a musician from Co. Dublin, Ireland. A classically trained cellist from the College of Music, Dublin and the Escola de Musica in Barcelona, she also sings and plays piano and writes music for her quintet which comprises 2 cellos, piano, doublebass and drums.After touring for many...

 and Gavin Glass, whilst Cathy Davey

Cathy Davey

Cathy Davey is an Irish singer-songwriter. She has released one extended play, "Come Over" , and three albums, Something Ilk , Tales of Silversleeve and The Nameless...

 provides backing vocals on some of the songs.

Artwork

Hannigan knitted the needle-work

Knitting

Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...

 featured on the sleeve

Record sleeve

A record sleeve is the outer covering of a vinyl recording. The sleeve is technically the paper covering that is closest in contact to the surface of the recording, as in "dust sleeve", "liner" and "album liner". The term has come to be synonymous with "record jacket" and "album jacket", which is...

 herself along with her mother, Frances. US television host Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...

 quizzed Hannigan on this when she appeared on his show The Colbert Report, asking if she had sewn the instruments as well – Hannigan is reported to be sewing Colbert a note of thanks for asking her to perform on his show.

Title

Hannigan chose to call the album Sea Sew because of the amount of references to the sea in the lyrics.

Chart performance

Sea Sew entered the UK Albums Chart

UK Albums Chart

The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

 at number 58 after an appearance on Later... with Jools Holland in May 2009.

Chart (2008)	Peak position	Certification
Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...	3	Platinum
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	58
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...  Album Chart	135
U.S. Billboard Heatseekers Chart	3

Awards

Sea Sew was nominated for both the Choice Music Prize

Choice Music Prize

-Establishment:It was established by journalist Jim Carroll and manager Dave Reid in 2005. as an alternative to the industry-dominated Meteor Music Awards. The Choice Music Prize is modelled after the Mercury Prize which is awarded each year to the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland...

 and Best Irish Album at the Meteor Music Awards

Meteor Music Awards

The Meteor Ireland Music Awards are a group of music awards in Ireland...

 in January 2009, with Hannigan's artistic prowess leading to her recently obtaining tax-free status from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners

Office of the Revenue Commissioners

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners , - now called simply Revenue - is the Irish Government agency responsible for customs, excise, taxation and related matters...

 in Ireland.

Choice Music Prize

Sea Sew was nominated for the Choice Music Prize

Choice Music Prize

-Establishment:It was established by journalist Jim Carroll and manager Dave Reid in 2005. as an alternative to the industry-dominated Meteor Music Awards. The Choice Music Prize is modelled after the Mercury Prize which is awarded each year to the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland...

 in 2009. It lost to Jape

Jape (band)

Jape are an Irish electronic–rock band from Dublin. Formed as a side project by Richie Egan whilst part of The Redneck Manifesto, they have released four albums to date; Cosmosphere , The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me , Ritual and Ocean of Frequency...

's third studio album, Ritual

Ritual (Jape album)

Ritual is the third studio album from electronic rock band Jape, released on Co-op Records in 2008. It won the Choice Music Prize for the 2008 Irish Album of the Year in March 2009....

.
|-
| 2009 || Sea Sew || Irish Album of the Year 2008 ||

Meteor Music Awards

Sea Sew led to Hannigan receiving two nominations in the Best Irish Female and Best Irish Album categories at the Meteor Music Awards in 2009.
|-
| 2009 || Sea Sew || Best Irish Album ||
|-
| 2009 || Lisa Hannigan || Best Irish Female ||
|-

External links

• Official site
• Interview with The Daily Telegraph
  The Daily Telegraph
  The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
  
  (features video of Hannigan explaining the song meanings)