- Music
- 09 Jan 24
Aoife O'Donovan's latest album is imbued with collective action and feminist ideals.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan’s first self-produced LP is set for release on March 22 via Yep Roc Records. The album's title track 'All My Friends' is available now, featuring The Westerlies, The Knights and San Francisco Girls Chorus.
Inspired by the evolution of women’s rights in the U.S. over the last century and the passage of the 19th amendment, O’Donovan draws on the works of American suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt alongside her personal experiences as a woman to capture a modern feminist perspective within her lyrics, releasing of the album’s title track on what would be Chapman Catt’s 165th birthday. The song memorializes Tennessee during the summer of 1920 the fierce battle over the final state signatory needed to ratify the amendment.
“The seeds of this song predate the entire project as a whole,” explains O’Donovan. “This song is about camaraderie, companionship, people united in common struggle against oppression. I imagine the women literally marching in Tennessee as the dawn lifted over the fields. I imagine the struggle of needing just one more state to ratify, and just how much weight that final vote held. I imagine the collective longing for the country of our birth to open her arms. The opening, featuring my voice in harmony with The Westerlies, sets the tone for the record. Slowly, the strings enter, enveloping the chorale in rich tones, and then when the band kicks in after that first verse, we hear the gorgeous aching sound of the San Francisco Girls Chorus.”
O’Donovan co-produced All My Friends alongside Eric Jacobsen and Darren Schneider, a bulk of the recording taking place at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, Brooklyn Recording in Brooklyn, New York, and Power Station in Manhattan, New York. The album was mixed by Schneider and mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering.
Following her three-time Grammy nominated album Age of Apathy, which primarily focused on themes of accepting indifference, O’Donovan latest project highlights the importance of community and collective action.
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All My Friends is now available for pre-order on CD and multiple LP versions, with the standard LP set to be released on March 22.
O’Donovan will begin her world tour starting January 25, performing at National Stadium in Dublin on January 27 along with appearances at Big Ears Festival, FreshGrass Bentonville and more:
Aoife O’Donovan 2024 Tour Dates
January 25, 2024 - Copenhagen, DK - Bremen Theatre
January 26, 2024 - Glasgow, UK - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
January 27, 2024 - Dublin, IE - National Stadium
February 10, 2024 - West Palm Beach - Kravis Center
March 24, 2024 - Knoxville, TN - Big Ears
March 27, 2024 - Grand Ole Opry - Nashville, TN
March 30, 2024 - Denver, CO - Gates Concert Hall
May 17, 2024 - Bentonville, AR - FreshGrass Bentonville
May 25, 2024 - Grass Valley, CA - Strawberry Music Festival
June 18, 2024 - London, UK - Barbican Hall