Susan McKeown – the creatively restless GRAMMY Award-winning
and BBC Award-nominated vocalist – is readying 'Belong' for November 13
release. The Irish-born singer has finally come home, marking half of her life
in the States with an exploration of American roots-derived music that delves
deeply into matters of the heart.
Opening with 'On the Bridge to Williamsburg,' a duet with
Irish singer-songwriter Declan O'Rourke, 'Belong' is Susan at her most
personal, charting intimate details of relationships, plotting their
trajectories, examining the shards and remnants as though on an archaeological
excavation. James Maddock (from Wood) and banjo and accordion player Dirk
Powell (Irma Thomas, The Raconteurs, Joan Baez) join Susan for 'Everything We
Had Was Good,' a break-up song about ending well. 'The Cure for Me' was in part
inspired by lines from 'Night Ferry,' Seamus Heaney's elegy for poet Robert
Lowell. Erin McKeown guests on 'Fallen Angel.'
In a distinguished career, McKeown has performed with Pete
Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Linda Thompson, Billy Bragg, Arlo Guthrie and The
Klezmatics. McKeown has recorded mariachi music, klezmer music, African music,
Celtic music, and contemporary songwriting. She won a GRAMMY for 'Wonder
Wheel,' in collaboration with the Klezmatics on lyrics by Woody Guthrie. In
2010, she made 'Singing in the Dark,' a fascinating exploration of creativity
and madness.
She has performed throughout Europe and North America
including Glastonbury, The Edinburgh Festival, Carnegie Hall and Disney Hall.
In a concert review, Rolling Stone said, "McKeown grabbed both song and
audience by the throat, dragged them through heaven and hell and back again,
and left the stage to the loudest applause heard all evening."
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