Susan McKeown – CD release for Sweet Liberty at Fez – April 20, 2004
By Alice Farrell in New York

I was thrilled recently to hear a radio interview with Susan McKeown and to learn that she had a new release coming out. Even luckier was I to find out that she would be playing a release gig here in New York the very next week, and I eagerly set out to get a copy of the CD and arrange to report on the gig for you all. Needless to say, I was not disappointed!!!!

I have long been a fan of Susan McKeown's work and count her voice among my most favorite interpreters of song, in any form. This Cd Sweet Liberty (on Harmonia Mundi) has taken the form of a collection of songs with regard to immigration, a subject she is well versed in, being an immigrant to New York herself in the early 1990s. In contrast to some of her more recent albums which have focused on pure traditional material, this CD brings a wealth of musical styles including the stark beauty of African chant and the melodious swing of Mariachi music.

She was joined for the evening by Eamon O'Leary on guitar and Dana Lyn on fiddle, as well as a number of guest artists during the evening, including Lindsay Horner (bass) and Jon Spurney (guitar) from her band The Chanting House, and singer/songwriter Casey Neill, and banjo player Jack Ward, representing just a smattering of the renowned musicians featured on the album, which include Susan's long-time collaborator Johnny Cunningham, in one of his final appearances.

The show was off to a jaunty start with Fair Annie , which she got from the singing of Paddy Tunney, and is a warm and refreshing take on lyrics that I myself knew from a version of In the Month of January which I've been singing for years. Then it was onto the title track Sweet Liberty which centers of the mellow core of her voice, with its rising and falling lilt that carries you along with the story.

She also featured some of her older material, this being her 10th year of playing in the club Fez, and particularly mentionable was the song Nansaí Óg Ní Obarláin from her cd Lowlands, on which she was joined by the exemplary bodhran skills of Paddy League, and then continuing on with one of my favorites, a combination of Robert Burns Westron Wynde and the traditional Westlin Winds , skipping along over both of them with her jaunty rocked up fusion of traditional and modern.

Other highlights of the evening included the bluegrass song I'm Just a Pilgrim on this Road Boys for which she was joined by Portland based singer Casey Neill, and the Winter it is Past which also features on the album and is probably the clearest and strongest I have heard her voice sounding in years, with a pristine piano accompaniment, and the air of a Broadway ballad peeking through the traditional ornamentation of the familiar lyrics “…and straight I will repair, to the Curragh of Kildare.”

However the high point of the evening, and the album has to be the collaboration on Eggs in her Basket with Mariachi Real de Mexico. Here Susan has found a wonderful compliment to the smokiness of her voice, and her agility with intricate syncopation, ideally suited to the complex Mariachi rhythms that have given this English folk tune an entire new life.

The album also features Oró Mhíle Grá (A Thousand Times My Love) where she collaborates with the group Ensemble Tartit from Northern Mali , with pulsing chanting and hand clapping the perfect compliment to the rolling verse of the traditional tune.

The evening was a delight for old fans and new, to get a chance to hear material from this marvelous new CD and hear the continued brilliance, warmth of not only Susan's voice but her overall musicianship and the art of song collecting. This is a true testament to the immigrant experience in America , coming to these shores and influencing and being influenced by the immense amount of music and culture around her.

She's currently touring in support of this album with Dana Lyn and Eamon O'Leary and you can find out where they'll be at http://www.susanmckeown.com and pick up a copy of the album at the same site.