Susan McKeown
Encyclopedia
Susan McKeown is an Irish
songwriter, folk
singer and producer.
. She was greatly influenced by her mother, an organist and composer who died in 1982. Susan briefly attended the Municipal College of Music, Chatham Row (now incorporated into the Dublin Institute of Technology
), Dublin, as a teenager before abandoning a promised opera career in order to sing folk and rock. Together with John Doyle
, McKeown formed The Chanting House in 1989. Mainly performing as a duo, they toured Europe with Donogh Hennessy and other musicians, the set list consisting of original songs and traditional tunes. They released a cassette-only album called The Chanting House in 1990.
McKeown was awarded a scholarship to attend The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan. So in 1990, with a bursary from The Arts Council of Ireland she relocated to New York City
. Doyle followed and they were soon to join forces with Seamus Egan
and Eileen Ivers
with whom they recorded one live cassette and one track, "If I Were You", which they contributed to the album 'Straight Outta Ireland' in 1993. McKeown's musical collaboration with Doyle ended with his departure in the summer of 1993.
, and Through the Bitter Frost & Snow, a collaboration with bassist Lindsey Horner. She was beginning to divide her work into albums of traditional music
(Bushes and Briars, 1998) and singer-songwriter albums (Bones, 1995; Prophecy, 2002).
McKeown suggested to Cathie Ryan and Robin Spielberg the idea of recording an album of songs relating to motherhood, resulting in The Mother Album (1999). McKeown began producing with the albums Lowlands (2000 Green Linnet) and Sweet Liberty (2004 World Village/Harmonia Mundi). Probably most successful among her traditional song releases, the latter earning a BBC Folk Music Award nomination for her setting of an English gypsy song with a Mariachi band. Her second release for Harmonia Mundi's World Village imprint was Blackthorn (2006).
In 2001 she produced A Winter Talisman with Scots fiddler Johnny Cunningham
, with whom she subsequently toured each winter until his death on December 15, 2003.
On December 19, 2003 Susan joined the klezmer
band The Klezmatics onstage at the 92nd Street Y
(New York) in a concert of songs they had composed to lyrics by Woody Guthrie
. She has toured and appeared with The Klezmatics often since then, performing in Europe and across the US from Carnegie Hall
to Disney Hall in LA. Together they recorded Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2004) and Wonder Wheel (2006) which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
In 2009, McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg (lead singer of the Klezmatics) released Saints & Tzadiks (World Village/Harmonia Mundi), an album combining Yiddish and Irish songs.
McKeown devised and produced Songs from the East Village, a world music album of songs from the students, parents and staff of The East Village Community School in Manhattan which was released in September 2010.
In October 2010 she released the solo album, Singing in the Dark, an exploration of creativity and madness. With lyrics from poets who were writing through the lens of depression, mania and addiction, the music was composed by McKeown, Leonard Cohen, John Dowland, Violeta Parra, and Klezmatics members, Lisa Gutkin and Frank London
.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
songwriter, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer and producer.
Early years
Susan McKeown was born on February 6, 1967 to John Ryan and Jane Ann (Jeannie) McKeown in Terenure, Dublin, IrelandRepublic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. She was greatly influenced by her mother, an organist and composer who died in 1982. Susan briefly attended the Municipal College of Music, Chatham Row (now incorporated into the Dublin Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology was established officially in 1992 under the but had been previously set up in 1978 on an ad-hoc basis. The institution can trace its origins back to 1887 with the establishment of various technical institutions in Dublin, Ireland...
), Dublin, as a teenager before abandoning a promised opera career in order to sing folk and rock. Together with John Doyle
John Doyle (musician)
John Doyle is an Irish musician and songwriter. For four years he served as acoustic guitarist with the Irish/American band Solas. He is now an active solo artist...
, McKeown formed The Chanting House in 1989. Mainly performing as a duo, they toured Europe with Donogh Hennessy and other musicians, the set list consisting of original songs and traditional tunes. They released a cassette-only album called The Chanting House in 1990.
Immigration to New York
Upon graduating from University College DublinUniversity College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
McKeown was awarded a scholarship to attend The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan. So in 1990, with a bursary from The Arts Council of Ireland she relocated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Doyle followed and they were soon to join forces with Seamus Egan
Séamus Egan
Séamus Egan is an Irish musician.-Early days:Séamus Egan was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania to Irish émigrés Jack and Ann Egan. At the age of three his parents moved the family back home to County Mayo, Ireland....
and Eileen Ivers
Eileen Ivers
Eileen Ivers is an Irish-American musician.Eileen Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents and grew up in the Bronx. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of nine. Her teacher was the Irish fiddler Martin Mulvihill. She toured with Mick Moloney's band The...
with whom they recorded one live cassette and one track, "If I Were You", which they contributed to the album 'Straight Outta Ireland' in 1993. McKeown's musical collaboration with Doyle ended with his departure in the summer of 1993.
Solo career
With new musicians, as "Susan McKeown and the Chanting House" she performed at clubs such as Sin-é, Fez, The Bottom Line and The Bowery Ballroom and recorded a cassette album - "Snakes" in 1993. But it was the release of Bones in 1995 -- an album of original songs with her take on a centuries-old keen (caoineadh) and a classic arrangement of Robert Burns' "Westlin' Winds" (later recorded by Fairport Convention) -- that secured her reputation as a singer-songwriter and launched her solo touring and recording career. In 1997 she recorded three albums: her own Bushes & Briars (Alula), Peter & Wendy, the soundtrack to the OBIE award-winning Mabou Mines theatrical production of the same name which was composed by Johnny CunninghamJohnny Cunningham
Johnny Cunningham was a Scottish folk musician. He was a founding member of Silly Wizard, as well as a member of Relativity, The Raindogs, and Nightnoise. Throughout his career, Cunningham was also a fiddler, composer and producer. His younger brother, Phil Cunningham, is a multi-instrumentalist...
, and Through the Bitter Frost & Snow, a collaboration with bassist Lindsey Horner. She was beginning to divide her work into albums of traditional music
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
(Bushes and Briars, 1998) and singer-songwriter albums (Bones, 1995; Prophecy, 2002).
McKeown suggested to Cathie Ryan and Robin Spielberg the idea of recording an album of songs relating to motherhood, resulting in The Mother Album (1999). McKeown began producing with the albums Lowlands (2000 Green Linnet) and Sweet Liberty (2004 World Village/Harmonia Mundi). Probably most successful among her traditional song releases, the latter earning a BBC Folk Music Award nomination for her setting of an English gypsy song with a Mariachi band. Her second release for Harmonia Mundi's World Village imprint was Blackthorn (2006).
In 2001 she produced A Winter Talisman with Scots fiddler Johnny Cunningham
Johnny Cunningham
Johnny Cunningham was a Scottish folk musician. He was a founding member of Silly Wizard, as well as a member of Relativity, The Raindogs, and Nightnoise. Throughout his career, Cunningham was also a fiddler, composer and producer. His younger brother, Phil Cunningham, is a multi-instrumentalist...
, with whom she subsequently toured each winter until his death on December 15, 2003.
On December 19, 2003 Susan joined the klezmer
Klezmer
Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
band The Klezmatics onstage at the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
(New York) in a concert of songs they had composed to lyrics by Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. She has toured and appeared with The Klezmatics often since then, performing in Europe and across the US from Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
to Disney Hall in LA. Together they recorded Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2004) and Wonder Wheel (2006) which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
In 2009, McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg (lead singer of the Klezmatics) released Saints & Tzadiks (World Village/Harmonia Mundi), an album combining Yiddish and Irish songs.
McKeown devised and produced Songs from the East Village, a world music album of songs from the students, parents and staff of The East Village Community School in Manhattan which was released in September 2010.
In October 2010 she released the solo album, Singing in the Dark, an exploration of creativity and madness. With lyrics from poets who were writing through the lens of depression, mania and addiction, the music was composed by McKeown, Leonard Cohen, John Dowland, Violeta Parra, and Klezmatics members, Lisa Gutkin and Frank London
Frank London
Frank London is a New York City-based trumpeter, bandleader, and composer active in klezmer and world music. He also plays various other wind instruments and keyboards, and occasionally sings backup vocals. With The Klezmatics, he won a Grammy award in Contemporary World Music for "Wonder Wheel...
.
Discography
- The Chanting House (1990) - cassette only
- The Chanting House - Live (1992) - cassette only
- Bones (1995)
- Peter and Wendy (1997), with Johnny CunninghamJohnny CunninghamJohnny Cunningham was a Scottish folk musician. He was a founding member of Silly Wizard, as well as a member of Relativity, The Raindogs, and Nightnoise. Throughout his career, Cunningham was also a fiddler, composer and producer. His younger brother, Phil Cunningham, is a multi-instrumentalist...
, Seamus EganSéamus EganSéamus Egan is an Irish musician.-Early days:Séamus Egan was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania to Irish émigrés Jack and Ann Egan. At the age of three his parents moved the family back home to County Mayo, Ireland....
, Karen Kandel and Jamshied SharifiJamshied SharifiJamshied Sharifi was born October 17, 1960 in Topeka, Kansas to an Iranian father and an American mother. At an early age, Sharifi was exposed to Jazz and Middle Eastern music by his father and to European classical and church music by his mother. He began to study classical piano at age five and... - The Soul of Christmas: A Celtic Music Celebration (1997) Thomas Moore/Johnny Cunningham
- Through the Bitter Frost & Snow (1997), with Lindsey Horner
- Mighty Rain (1998) with Lindsey Horner
- Bushes and Briars (1998)
- Mother: Songs Celebrating Mothers & Motherhood (1999), with Cathie RyanCathie RyanCathie Ryan is a singer and bodhrán player from Detroit, Michigan. Her parents came from Ireland and she is generally seen as an Irish or Celtic musician....
and Robin Spielberg - LowlandsLowlands (Susan McKeown album)Lowlands is an album by Irish songwriter, and folk singer Susan McKeown, released in 2000.The tracks on this album present an array of styles, including African, Appalachian, Middle Eastern and Irish. "Lord Baker" is often heard as fragment of a ballad, but here McKeown has included the full story,...
(2000) - A Winter Talisman (2001), with Johnny CunninghamJohnny CunninghamJohnny Cunningham was a Scottish folk musician. He was a founding member of Silly Wizard, as well as a member of Relativity, The Raindogs, and Nightnoise. Throughout his career, Cunningham was also a fiddler, composer and producer. His younger brother, Phil Cunningham, is a multi-instrumentalist...
- Prophecy (2002)
- Sweet Liberty (2004)
- Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2004 limited issue, reissued 2006 with 4 additional tracks) by The KlezmaticsThe KlezmaticsThe Klezmatics are a Grammy Award-winning American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins...
(guest appearance by Susan) - Blackthorn: Irish Love Songs (2006)
- Wonder Wheel (2006), by The Klezmatics (guest appearance by Susan)
- Saints & Tzadiks (2009) with Lorin Sklamberg
- Songs from the East Village (2010) - production only
- Singing in the Dark (2010)