Aoife O’Donovan Shares “Prodigal Daughter” Featuring Allison Russell

Age Of Apathy, Out January 21, 2022 On Yep Roc Records

Produced By GRAMMY-Winner Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens)

Listen To “Prodigal Daughter” Here: Https://Youtu.Be/P05neut_Pt4

Today, GRAMMY-winning singer and songwriter Aoife O’Donovan shares “Prodigal Daughter,” the latest preview of her new album Age Of Apathy (out January 21 on Yep Roc Records). Featuring Allison Russell and co-written with Tim O’Brien, “Prodigal Daughter” recasts the biblical parable as a multigenerational tale of abandonment and tentative reconciliation. O’Donovan’s emotive performance — bolstered by Russell’s echoing harmonies and O’Brien’s mandolin — tugs at the tension and guilt at the heart of the song’s mother and daughter reunion. Aoife ties it together with heart-wrenching detail: pleading with her mother for forgiveness, the daughter points to a granddaughter that “resembles me resembling you” — a stark reminder of their interconnectedness and the almost cyclical rebellions of children against their parents.

Listen to “Prodigal Daughter” here: https://youtu.be/p05neUT_PT4

Produced by fellow GRAMMY-winner Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens), Age Of Apathy finds O’Donovan in rare form. Atop richly textured arrangements — ornate but never fussy — O’Donovan reflects on the emotional disconnect wrought by the internet age and strives to reconnect with more visceral motivations: flesh-and-blood relationships, calls to social justice, and carving out a joyful existence amid apocalyptic forecasts of the future. Her melodies are distinct and beautiful, and her ability to thread together various songwriting traditions is evidence of a master at work.

O’Donovan recorded Age Of Apathy through a unique arrangement with Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, logging daily hours on-site at their studio with GRAMMY-nominated engineer Darren Schneider (Deep Purple, Koryn Hawthorne, Trivium) — who also mixed the album — all the while collaborating entirely remotely with Henry. 

Released last month, lead single “Phoenix” soars. Directed by photographer Omar Cruz, the video finds Aoife in a gorgeous desert landscape, embracing the open skies and windswept landscape. Watch “Phoenix” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gse9eGYim74

Keep an eye out for more tour dates coming soon, and pre-order Age Of Apathy here: https://ffm.to/ageofapathy

ABOUT AOIFE O’DONOVAN

Aoife O'Donovan operates in a thrilling musical world beyond genre. Deemed “a vocalist of unerring instinct” by The New York Times, she has previously released two critically-acclaimed and boundary-blurring solo albums including In the Magic Hour, which Rolling Stone hailed for its "Impressionistic, atmospheric songs [that] relay their narratives against gorgeous pastoral backdrops."  

A savvy and generous collaborator, Aoife is one third of the group I’m With Her with bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. The trio’s debut album, See You Around, was hailed as "willfully open-hearted” by NPR Music. I’m With Her earned an Americana Music Association Award in 2019 for Duo/Group of the Year, and a Grammy-award in 2020 for Best American Roots Song.

O'Donovan spent the preceding decade as co-founder and frontwoman of the string band, Crooked Still and is the featured vocalist and a songwriting contributor on The Goat Rodeo Sessions - the group with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. She has appeared as a featured vocalist with over a dozen symphonies including the National Symphony Orchestra, written for Alison Krauss, performed with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, and spent a decade as a regular contributor to the radio variety shows "Live From Here” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”

AGE OF APATHY

Sister Starling

B61

Phoenix

Age Of Apathy

Elevators

Prodigal Daughter

Galahad

Town Of Mercy

Lucky Star

What Do You Want From Yourself?

Passengers