Aoife O’Donovan’s “Boldest Music By Far” (NY Times): New Album Age Of Apathy Out Today

READ A PROFILE OF O’DONOVAN OVER AT THE NY TIMES

“A set of quietly startling songs that are at once intimate and ambitious, autobiographical and metaphysical.”

— New York Times

“Stunning…O’Donovan meditates on road-tripping to Neil Young, finds deep meaning in a rescued bird, and collapses time on “What Do You Want From Yourself?”, a title that sums up this album’s self-searching power.” 

— Rolling Stone

“Paints portraits of America like Simon and Garfunkel…her gorgeous voice floats through the arrangements like a clarinet.”

— NPR Music

“An astounding accomplishment…O’Donovan creates immersive, sonically rich worlds.” 

— No Depression

Listen To Age Of Apathy HERE

Today, Aoife O’Donovan shares Age Of Apathy (Yep Roc Records), an acclaimed new album produced by GRAMMY-winner Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens). Already the subject of praise from Rolling Stone, NPR Music, No Depression and many more, Age Of Apathy finds the GRAMMY- and Americana Award-winning singer and songwriter composing astute examinations of life, love and existence that, according to The New York Times, are filled with “musical surprises: daring melodic leaps, unexpected chord progressions, [and] subtle rhythmic shifts.” It’s the culmination of O’Donovan’s lifelong dedication to her craft, and an artful articulation of the philosophy behind her work. 

Says O’Donovan in a new Jon Pareles-penned The New York Times profile: “Music is everything to me — it’s literally the most important thing. When I think about where do I want my life to go, where do I want to be when I’m older, what’s going to happen after we die — the music is the thing that will get us through to the end. And music is what will be there after we’re gone.” Read the full profile here. 

Listen to Age Of Apathy here: https://ffm.to/ageofapathy

And watch O’Donovan’s new Omar Cruz-directed video for “Passengers” featuring Madison Cunningham here. 

Recorded through a unique residency with Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, O’Donovan wrote and recorded Age Of Apathy on-site at their studio with GRAMMY-nominated engineer Darren Schneider while collaborating entirely remotely with Henry. Remote collaborations introduced unexpected rhythms and textures into the architecture of the songs, allowing O’Donovan to bend her sound into more expansive shapes. The result: an enveloping soundworld that singularly showcases Aoife’s masterful songwriting and emergent literary prowess. 

Aoife O’Donovan will be touring Age Of Apathy throughout 2022. See full dates below.

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

SPRING 2022 DATES

February 24 - Bolivia, NC - Odell Williamson Auditorium %

February 25 - Washington DC - Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater %

February 26 - Fairfield, CT - The Warehouse %

February 27 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground %

March 1 - Portsmouth, NH - The Music Hall %

March 2 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair %

March 3 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg %

March 4 - Northampton, MA - Academy Of Music Theatre % ^

March 5 - Albany, NY - Swyer Theatre %

March 18-25 - Miami, FL - Cayamo Cruise

March 25 - Charleston, SC - Charleston Music Hall ~

March 26 - Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle ~

March 27 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel ~

March 29 - Nashville, TN - The Ryman Auditorium ~

April 7 - Berkeley, CA - Freight & Salvage ^

April 9 - Grass Valley, CA - Center for the Arts ^

April 10 - Carmel, CA - Sunset Center ^

April 12 - Santa Barbara, CA - Lobero Theatre ^

April 13 - La Jolla, CA - The Loft 

April 14 - West Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour ^

April 15 - Scottsdale, AZ - Virginia Piper Theatre ^

May 13 - Hamilton, MT - Bitterroot Performing Arts Center ^

May 14 - Denver, CO - First Baptist Church ^

May 25 - Washington DC - The Kennedy Center Concert Hall !

May 26 - Washington DC - The Kennedy Center Concert Hall !

Jun 10 - Copenhagen, DK - CPH Americana

June 11 - Stockholm, SE - STHLM Americana

June 12 - Oslo, NO - Oslo Americana

June 16-19 - Telluride, CO - Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Aug 26 - Vineyard Haven, MA - Beach Road Weekender

% support from Yasmin Williams

^ support from Taylor Ashton

~ supporting Gregory Alan Isakov

! performing with the National Symphony Orchestra, Renée Fleming, Lalah Hathaway, Moses Sumney

2022 EUROPEAN TOUR DATES

June 2 - Manchester, UK - Hallé St. Peter's

June 3 - Dublin, IRE - Liberty Hall

June 4 - Cork, IRE - St. Lukes 

June 5 - Belfast, UK - The Black Box

June 7 - Budapest, HU - House of Hungarian Music

June 8 - Vienna, AT - Haus Der Musik

June 10 - Copenhagen, DK - CPH Americana

June 11 - Stockholm, SE - STHLM Americana

June 12 - Oslo, NO - Oslo Americana

October 28 - Copenhagen, DK - Musikhuset

Oct 31 - Cambridge, UK - Junction 2

Nov 1 - Birmingham, UK - St. Paul’s Church

Nov 2 - London, UK - Barbican Milton Court Concert Hall