Music fans of all ilks will be pleased to hear that Lisa Hannigan is in Kilkenny and ready to rock Kytelers - well lull Kytelers - with her unusually soft and haunting voice on Wenesday July 8.
Lisa has a soft voice which has taken the world by storm in recent years and while currently touring, she has decided to stop off in Kilkenny for just one night with her band on Wednesday.
Lisa Hannigan started her singing career at the age of six as the fairy on top of the Christmas tree in the school play.
On the long car journeys down to West Cork for summer holidays she sang the backing vocals to her mothers’ front seat Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone and to this day knows all of the words to Paul Simon's "Graceland" and the Queen back catalogue.
The first record that Lisa ever bought was Michael Jackson's "Bad". Although in those days it was called a tape. She sang and danced along until the tape wore out.
Lisa was part of The Cake Sale collaboration which came together for the charity Oxfam. Lisa shot to fame with her duet with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody ‘Some Surprise’ which they recorded while in different countries.
A meeting with singer songwriter Damien Rice who was also part of the charity collaboration led to a long period of working together and Lisa spent the next few years touring the world, meeting wonderful musicians and friends and writing songs.
When this collaboration came to an end after seven years, Lisa was left with a notebook of songs and the desire and confidence to put them onto a record. Gathering a talented band of friends together, including Tom Osander on drums, Shane Fitzsimons on double bass and Donagh Molloy on trumpet, they got to work.
Sea Sew is Lisa Hannigan’s platinum selling debut album. “I Don’t Know” is the current single to be taken from the album.
Sea Sew was released in America on ATO Records in January and has already earned early praise from The Los Angeles Times, which calls it “charmingly idiosyncratic” and The New York Times calls “exquisitely ethereal”. Lisa has also performed on The Jay Leno Show and Stephen Colbert Report during her last headline tour of America. In Ireland Lisa was nominated for both the Choice Music Prize and for Meteor Best Irish Female and Meteor Best Irish Album.
Engineer Jason Boshoff took the newly recorded album home with him to London where he, Lisa and Tomo mixed it in the Strongroom in the East End. Lisa's mother Frances began knitting in preparation for the cover artwork for the CD and after spending a happy month stitching the lyrics onto rough cotton, and picking out the many references to the sea in the lyrics, Lisa decided to call the album "Sea Sew".
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to catch Lisa Hannigan on your doorstep here in Kilkenny. Tickets available from Kytelers.
