#isa burke

[goingtothebes]

pictures from various goats shows last week!! i don't recall which ones!!!

[krispyweiss]

Aoife O’Donovan Brings “Apathy” to “Saturday Morning”

Hear Aoife O’Donovan perform enough times and it becomes evident she likes to leave room for some improvisation in her tightly rehearsed music.

The singer/songwriter/guitarist appeared on “CBS Saturday Morning” to showcase three tracks from 2022’s Age of Apathy. Playing with her road band - multi-instrumentalist Isa Burke, electric bassist Ethan Jodziewicz and drummer Robin MacMillan - O’Donovan took slight liberties with the songs as released both on the studio album and the subsequent Live from the Hi•Fi to delight fans and still provide new listeners with an accurate aural picture of what makes O’Donovan, O’Donovan.

Burke sung Allison Russell’s parts of on “Prodigal Daughter” stunningly; “Phoenix” unfolded more deliberately than previous versions; and “B-61” found the core band accompanied by keyboards. Throughout it all, O’Donovan sung with her mix of power and fragility in a tight vocal bond with Burke that suggests a partnership that extends longer than it does in reality and one that should continue.

And when the harmonies were over, O’Donovan was free to add vocal asides and expand and contract syllables to suit her in-the-moment whims to magical effect.

Using his hands, brushes and sticks, MacMillan is a master of color while Jodziewicz is a lead bassist who never plays anything the same way twice. Together the quartet - and occasional quintet - almost assuredly lured more fans into O’Donovan’s slowly building corps.

1/14/23

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Aoife O’Donovan feat. Allison Russell - “Prodigal Daughter” (Kimmel)

Making slight changes to the studio arrangement, but bringing Allison Russell along, Aoife O’Donovan performed a stellar rendition of “Prodigal Daughter” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

The exclamation point is part of the title of the show, which provided O’Donovan with her late-night debut as a solo artist. Fans couldn’t have asked for a more-successful premiere.

O’Donovan, Russell and second acoustic guitarist Isa Burke have a sisterly vocal blend that weaves itself into the flooring provided by electric bass and brushed drums. The soothing delivery helps smooth the song’s tale of frayed family ties:

Prodigal daughter/returns like a lamb to the slaughter/looking for something in the water/to wash away the the pain, they sing.

Grade card: Aoife O’Donovan feat. Allison Russell - “Prodigal Daughter” (Kimmel) - A

1-4-22

[krispyweiss]

Family First: Aoife O’Donovan Cancels Final Night of Europe Tour to Get Back to Florida Amid Hurricane Watch

Aoife O’Donovan ended her Age of Apathy tour one day early to get back to her family in the states.

O’Donovan’s Nov. 8 concert in Belgium is off as the singer travels home to Florida, where hurricane watches are issued as subtropical storm Nicole is forecast to become a category 1 hurricane.

“I feel that I have to get back to my family as quickly as possible,” O’Donovan said in a statement.

“Being a parent to a small child makes it impossible to take the risk of being trapped outside the state if airports are closed and conditions become dangerous. Thank you for understanding and please accept my sincere apologies.”

Thus ends O’Donovan’s promotion cycle for this year’s Age of Apathy LP.

“Playing these songs live with Isa Burke, Robin MacMillan and Ethan Jodziewicz and to all of you has been such an honor,” O’Donovan said.

Her touring schedule picks back up Jan. 31, 2023, in Scotland, where O’Donovan will perform Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska solo, front-to-back.

11/8/22

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Aoife O'Donovan - “Prodigal Daughter” (Salt Lick Sessions)

There’s an art to making a song about a “Prodigal Daughter,” a granddaughter and a wounded mother who doesn’t know she’s a grandmother feel really good.

One element is setting it to a sprightly melody. Another essential is driving it with brushed drums and electric bass.

And the final piece is the acoustic guitar and vocal interplay between Aoife O’Donovan and Isa Burke as they sing during a “Salt Lick Session:”

Prodigal daughter/returns like a lamb to the slaughter/I know forgiveness won't come easy, not for you/look at the child upon my knee she/has eyes of blue/she resembles me resembling you

Everything about the O’Donovan/Tim O’Brien co-write screams sad song. But O’Donovan and her Age of Apathy Band are artists. And this live-in-studio version of “Prodigal Daughter” therefore feels really good.

Grade card: Aoife O'Donovan - “Prodigal Daughter” (Salt Lick Sessions) - A+

10/25/22

[krispyweiss]

Livestream Review: Aoife O’Donovan with Yasmin Williams from Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., Feb. 25, 2022

With a new set of songs and a new band with which to play them, Aoife O’Donovan kicked off a new year of touring with a concert/livestream from Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center.

Dubbed the Age of Apathy Band, Lula Wiles’ Isa Burke on acoustic and electric guitars and fiddle, drummer Robin McMillan and electric bassist Ethan Jodziewicz backed O’Donovan on a set heavy on songs from Age of Apathy, with no musical nods to Crooked Still or I’m With Her. Moody and atmospheric on record, tracks such as “B61,” “What Do You Want from Yourself” and “Lucky Star” are still finding their on-stage personalities just two shows in to the tour.

So when opener Yasmin Williams joined O’Donovan and company for the “Age of Apathy” encore and added her unique style of acoustic guitar (more on that later), the potential for these songs was reached.

O’Donovan shone brightest when performing a solo-acoustic version of “The Lakes of Pontcahrtrain;” and on full-band takes of Bruce Springsteen’s “Open All Night,” and earlier solo numbers such as “Red and White and Blue and Gold” - both with Burke on violin - and “Detour Sign.” These are songs O’Donovan has lived in for years and seemed most comfortable singing.

Early-tour, getting-to-know-you tentativeness notwithstanding, O’Donovan and Burke already mesh seamlessly both vocally and with the former’s rhythm finding a good nesting place inside the latter’s leads. Jodziewicz brings a busy, jazzy-like style of bass to the fold, while McMillan is all about color, playing with brushes, sticks, mallets and his hands to add unique shading to the aural canvas.

With her technique on full visual display, Williams’ 45-minute set was a revelation in the Feb. 25 livestream setting and she sounds as crystalline on stage as on vinyl. A guitarist who sits somewhere between Tommy Emmanuel’s percussive style and Stanley Jordan’s tapping, Williams plays instrumentals exclusively and proves Jimmy Page doesn’t have exclusive rights to cello bows.

Employing tap shoes, fingerpicks, a hammer, the aforementioned bow and occasionally taping a kalimba thumb piano to her guitar as it lay across her lap, Williams epitomized the concept of a one-woman band on numbers such as “On a Friday Night” and unreleased material with working names such as “Untitled No. 2 Million.”

That she so effortlessly found her spot in “Age of Apathy” was just more testament to her specialness.

Grade card: Aoife O’Donovan with Yasmin Williams from Kennedy Center, 2/25/22 - B

2/26/22

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Lula Wiles - Shame and Sedition

At the confluence of Laurel Canyon folk and alternative rock flows the music of Lula Wiles’ Shame and Sedition.

The third album from the trio finds Isa Burke, Eleanor Buckland and Mali Obomsawin taking on crises both personal (“The Way that it Is”) and societal (“Television”) while binding their dual musical personalities with an admixture of acoustic guitars and three-part harmonies and grinding electric guitars and droning violins.

It’s as if they took Rob Rule (the band) and Ryley Walker (the dude) home to meet the Mamas (but not the Papas) and Roger McGuinn as they make a musical through line from 1965 to 1995 to 2021.

Multi-instrumentals all, Burke (guitar/keys/fiddle), Buckland (guitar/fiddle) and Obomsawin (guitar/bass/keys) handle nearly every note save for drums courtesy of Sean Trischka. He adds the lone - incongruous - male voice to “Do You Really Want the World to End” and helps propel the other 10 tracks with percussion work that skitters across the soundscape as if someone dumped a bag of marbles on the studio floor during “Wake Up” and adds drama to sweeping strokes of guitar twist and mourning violin on “Cold Water.”

I swear that I never meant to fade out and disappear/OK, so that’s not true/but I never meant to lose myself in you/you were a story I told myself in a fever dream/but now I’m free of the morphine drip of you wanting me/I should’ve believed you sooner when you told me who you are, Burke declares.

“Oh My God” takes on another kind of evil - the rich kind that preys on society at large - and promises revenge.

What have you been doing since the world shut down/counting all the cards you stole to build your house/your insidious extraction won’t protect you now/’cause we’re turnin’ on the lights that you’ve been shootin’ out

At 50 minutes, Shame and Sedition is a touch too long. But it’s front-loaded and through “Mary Anne,” track No. 8, Lula Wiles offer a collection of songs that sum up the alienation of the young 2020s in a timeless fashion.

Grade card: Lula Wiles - Shame and Sedition - B

6/24/21

[alittlemorevodka]

Vodka has always had a soft spot for close female harmonies and the wonderful three-piece, Lula Wiles, does not disappoint. Steeped in the traditions of folk music, Lula Wiles band mates, Isa Burke, Eleanor Buckland, and Mali Obomsawin, add just a hint of a more modern indie sound that keeps their music fresh and delightfully accessible while remaining true to the story-telling traditions of folk music. Love Gone Wrong (seen / heard here) is the lead-off track to the band’s sophomore long player, What Will We Do (January 2019). 

So what does a track by track analysis reveal about Lula Wiles sound? They fall in the difficult category between indie-folk, straight folk and country. These are all just flavorings, though, as the troupe is not committed, or beholden, to a particular genre or sound. They adopt a melody or style to reflect what the lyrics demand. The effect overall is a sound that is diverse enough to hold your interest throughout the twelve tracks and cohesive enough to belong together in the same collection. It’s a balancing act that these three young women handle to perfection.

You can find more information on Lula Wiles by heading up to their web site, or pick up digital and physical copies of their music music from their bandcamp.com link. Check out the full-flavor-folk of Lula Wiles now, by checking out their music!