GRAMMY Winner Aoife O'Donovan Shares New Single "Daughters," Meditating on The Eternal, Multigenerational Quest for Women’s Rights
All My Friends Out March 22nd: Self-Produced Album Inspired by 19th Amendment, Featuring Special Appearances by Anaïs Mitchell, Sierra Hull & More
Tour Dates Also Announced, Including Release Show at Nashville’s American Legion Post 82, Virginia Arts Festival Curated by O'Donovan & More Following Big Ears Festival & Grand Ole Opry
February 6, 2024: Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan has unveiled a new single “Daughters” from her forthcoming studio album All My Friends, due out March 22nd via Yep Roc Records. As with the entire collection, “Daughters” is a meditation on the eternal quest for women’s rights and equality. O’Donovan infuses the experiences of the Suffragettes, who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment and paved the way for their daughters, with her own experiences as a modern woman who wants to build a future for her own daughter. “Looking back from the next century, what will they see?” She sings in the first verse.
Watch the “Daughters” lyric video HERE.
O’Donovan recorded vocals live at Full Sail University in Orlando with guitar, bass and drums before adding the lush string arrangement by The Knights, recorded in NYC and conducted by Eric Jacobsen, O’Donovan’s husband and album co-producer. The track also features brass quartet The Westerlies and mesmerizing vocal harmonies by the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus (aged 12-18).
O’Donovan’s new solo album All My Friends is inspired by the evolving landscape of women’s rights in America over the past century. The project - O’Donovan’s first self-produced album - features a number of special guests including Anaïs Mitchell, Sierra Hull, Noam Pikelny, Alan Hampton, Griffin Goldsmith and more. Most of the songs on the album grew out of two commissions O’Donovan took on - from the Orlando Philharmonic where she now lives, and the FreshGrass Festival in her native Massachusetts. Following performances with both institutions, O’Donovan continued to explore the themes that would become All My Friends in full. Listen to the title track “All My Friends” HERE.
In addition to the new single, O’Donovan has announced a handful of US tour dates with instrumental acoustic ensemble Hawktail today, including an album release show at Nashville’s American Legion Post 82 on March 29, a few days after her anticipated return to the Grand Ole Opry on March 27. Please see all upcoming dates below, including previously-announced performances at Big Ears Festival (featuring the Knoxville Chamber Orchestra), FreshGrass Bentonville and more, plus her Barbican Hall debut in London on June 18, with Eric Jacobsen conducting the Guildhall Session Orchestra and Music Centre London Session Choir.
“Light In The Eastern Sky”, a new festival curated by Aoife O’Donovan has also been announced today. Presented by Virginia Arts Festival, the one day event will take place on June 1 in Norfolk, VA and the lineup will feature O’Donovan + Virginia-based artists Yasmin Williams and The Wildmans. More info on the one-day musical event, including workshops and a performance by O’Donovan, HERE.
Aoife O’Donovan 2024 Tour Dates
February 10, 2024 - West Palm Beach - Kravis Center
March 24, 2024 - Knoxville, TN - Big Ears !
March 27, 2024 - Nashville, TN - Grand Ole Opry
March 29, 2024 - Nashville, TN - American Legion Post 82 %
March 30, 2024 - Denver, CO - Newman Center for the Performing Arts %
May 17, 2024 - Bentonville, AR - FreshGrass Bentonville
May 23, 2024 - Healdsburg, CA - Little Saint %
May 24, 2024 - Menlo Park, CA - The Guild Theatre %
May 25, 2024 - Grass Valley, CA - Strawberry Music Festival %
June 1, 2024 - Norfolk, VA - Light in the Eastern Sky (presented by Virginia Arts Festival)
June 7, 2024 - Charleston, SC - Spoleto Festival #
June 18, 2024 - London, UK - Barbican Hall ~
July 25-28, 2024 - Cambridge, UK - Cambridge Folk Festival
August 15-18, 2024 - Manchester, VT - Green Mountain Bluegrass Festival %^
! performing with the Knoxville Chamber Orchestra
% performing with Hawktail
# performing with members of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra
~ performing with Guildhall Session Orchestra and Music Centre London Session Choir
^ performing with Crooked Still
About Aoife O’Donovan
Deemed “a vocalist of unerring instinct” by the New York Times, GRAMMY Award-winning artist Aoife O’Donovan operates in a thrilling musical world beyond genre. She has released three critically-acclaimed and boundary-blurring solo albums including her most recent record, 2022’s boldly orchestrated and literarily crafted Age Of Apathy, which earned three GRAMMY nominations and was named “a moving self-portrait” by NPR. Folk Alliance International named the song “B61” their 2022 Song Of The Year. In addition to appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, CBS Saturday Morning, Kelly Clarkson and PBS Newshour, Pitchfork said O’Donovan “taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell.” Following the release of Age of Apathy, O’Donovan also recorded and toured behind a full album reinterpretation of Bruce Springsteen’s landmark Nebraska album, with performances at Newport Folk Festival, Tønder Festival, and more.
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 front woman of the string band, Crooked Still and is the featured vocalist 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 and spent a decade as a regular contributor to the radio variety shows “Live From Here” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Connect with Aoife O’Donovan