Lisa O’Neill, the Cavan singer-songwriter is to release a new six-track EP on November 19th.
The EP’s lead single ‘The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right’ which arrives today with a video by Ellius Grace featuring appearances from musicians Kae Tempest, Kevin Rowland, Spider Stacey of The Pogues and Iona Zajac, Nigerian/Irish poet Feli Speaks, actresses Olwen Fouéré and Hazel Doupe and actors John McArdle and Jack Walsh, along with Ishmael Claxton, Daniel O’Neill, Aiesha Wong, Nancy Ogden, Roseabelle O’Neill, Charlie Dineen, Sadie Mae O’Neill and Ellie Doyle.
The tune features Zazac on backing vocals and Seamas Hyland on accordion among others. Full lyrics below.
The EP also featues a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All The Tired Horses’ that previously featured on the closing scene of the final episode of Peaky Blinders, ‘Homeless In The Thousands (Dublin in the Digital Age)’ featuring Peter Doherty which was released in January, recent live favourite ‘Mother Jones’ about the Irish activist who emigrated to America and became a union organiser Mary G. Harris Jones, who in 1902 was called ‘the most dangerous woman in America’ – following her organising of miners against mine owners leading directly to the introduction of America’s first child labour laws. The EP is completed with a stunning version of the seasonally topical ‘The Bleak Midwinter’ and a moving reading of the James Stevens poem ‘Autumn 1915’.
Forthcoming Tour Dates:
Lisa O’Neill’s tour of Ireland begins at the end of the month and ends with a show at Dublin’s Vicar Street on December 21st.
Oct 29 – The MAC, Belfast
Oct 30 – The MAC, Belfast
Nov 2 – Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Nov 6 – DeBarras, Clonakilty – with John Splillane as his special guest
Nov 7 – De’Barras, Clonakilty
Nov 8 – De’Barras, Clonakilty (Matinee Show)
Nov 13 – The Dock Arts Centre, Leitrim
Nov 14 – The Dock Arts Centre, Leitrim
Nov 15 – Set Theatre, Kilkenny
Nov 16 – Set Theatre, Kilkenny
Nov 20 – Belltable, Limerick
Nov 21 – Belltable, Limerick
Nov 22 – Quiet Lights Festival at St Lukes, Cork
Nov 23 – The Attic Hotel, Doolin, Clare
Nov 28 – Jerome Hynes NOH, Wexford
Dec 21 – Vicar Street, Dublin – w/ Junior Brother
THE WIND DOESN’T BLOW THIS FAR RIGHT
I’ve lately been thinking of an old friend,
Who I haven’t seen in a while
Last night I dreamed that the same friend, passed without saying goodbye
Oh, to be wild like the roses
Oh, to be red with delight
My blood is red out of fury
The wind doesn’t blow this far right
Some terrors are born out of nature
Some terrors are born overnight
Some terrors are born out of leaders
With their eye on a different prize
The thing is, some leaders are players
And players sometimes can be clowns
And clowns then sometimes can be dangerous
When they’re there and yet they can’t be found..
The Big Mac,
The big man,
The big bomb
The power of money and lies
The power of fear in the people
The wind doesn’t blow this far right
Some terrors are born out of nature
Some terrors are born overnight
Some terrors are born out of leaders
With their eyes on a different prize
Oh, to be wild like the roses
Oh, to be red with delight
My blood is red out of fury
The wind doesn’t blow this far right
Drill baby drill
Don’t baby don’t
Don’t you hear the winds
Feel the fires as they burn
Beautiful planet
Beautiful home
Drill baby drill
Don’t baby don’t
Kill baby kill
Don’t baby don’t
Don’t you hear the kids as you blindly bulldoze on
Beautiful children starved to the bone
Kill baby kill
Don’t baby don’t
About Lisa O’Neill
It’s been a remarkable few years for Irish songwriter Lisa O’Neill. Her acclaimed recent album ‘All of This Is Chance’ reached number 1 in the Irish Indie Charts and ranked highly on many critics 2023’s Albums of The Year Lists. Amongst the wealth of praise, Gideon Coe at BBC 6 Music picked it as his Album Of The Year. It was No. 3 in Mojo Magazine’s Folk Albums Of The Year, and No.24 in their main Albums Of The Year List. Bob Boilen at NPR deemed it his No.3 Album of The Year and it was one of Songlines’ Top 10 Albums Of The Year and Uncut Magazine’s No.17 Album Of The Year and at No. 33 with The Quietus. May 2023 saw Lisa make a memorable appearance on Later with Jools Holland.
A raconteur in the truest sense of the word, O’Neill is a five-time BBC Folk Award nominee and her previous album Heard a Long Gone Song was named The Guardian’s 2019 Folk Album of the Year. She had two songs feature in Peaky Blinders – Blackbird, her own composition, and an adaptation of Bob Dylan’s All the Tired Horses soundtracked the final scene of the epic TV drama.
All Of This Is Chance took O’Neill’s inimitable voice to greater heights, or depths, depending on which way you look at it. Throughout all eight songs on this album, it feels like she is writing in a constant state of wonderment. Not only a portrait of the artist in love with nature, but one perplexed by the ever-expanding gulf between it and modern society. O’Neill sings across that divide while simultaneously digging deep into the land, eyes transfixed on a universe of colourful birds, and beyond them stargazing into the atomized constellations of outer space of which we ourselves are fragments.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
