Alison O'Donnell (musician)

Last updated

Alison O'Donnell
Alison O'Donnell by Niall Reddy at WW.jpg
O'Donnell on stage at The Wishing Well Gig in The Garden, Blackrock, Dublin, July 2010
Background information
Birth nameAlison Felicity Bools
Also known asAlison Leigh, Alison Williams, Assie O'Donnell
Born (1952-10-05) 5 October 1952 (age 72)
Dublin, Ireland
Genres Folk, folk rock, psychedelic, traditional Irish, jazz
Instrument(s)Voice, bodhrán, percussion, autoharp
Years active1963 to present
Labels Deram Records, Stanyan Records, Kissing Spell Records, Osmosys Records, Static Caravan Recordings, Fruits de Mer Records, Floating World Records
Website alisonodonnell.com

Alison O'Donnell (born 5 October 1952) is an Irish musician, solo and band singer-songwriter. Born Alison Bools in Dublin to an English mother and Irish father, raised in Dalkey and educated at Holy Child Killiney. [1]

Contents

Biography

Childhood

O'Donnell grew up in Dalkey and Killiney in south County Dublin, where she had a daily view of Dalkey Island (which was to provide inspiration for song writing in her teens and early 20s). Ballet and sporting activities were early interests until the age of 11 when music became her abiding passion. [2] Her commitment was sealed when she took Cecilia as her Confirmation name (Saint Cecilia being the Patron saint of musicians). At the age of 11 she co-founded the progressive folk rock band Mellow Candle with school friends Clodagh Simonds and Maria White. [3] They released their first single, Feeling High on SNB Records (Simon Napier-Bell) in 1968. [1] [2]

Early career

On leaving school, O'Donnell attended Art College in Dún Laoghaire (now Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology) and briefly joined Blue Tint, a covers band, where she met her first husband, guitarist Dave Williams, who was studying at Trinity College Dublin. This was followed by a secretarial course and employment until a full electric line-up of Mellow Candle reformed. The band lived and worked in Ireland and England between 1969 and 1973 managed by Thin Lizzy manager, Ted Carroll. [2] O'Donnell and Williams spent their wedding evening in concert with Thin Lizzy at the National Stadium in Dublin. Bob Geldof, Luke Kelly and members of Clannad were amongst early spectators at Irish concerts, and several members of the group participated in house sessions with pioneering traditional musicians, Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine. The band released their latterly highly acclaimed, cult album, Swaddling Songs on Decca Records's Deram subsidiary in 1972. [1]

The untimely and unhappy demise of Mellow Candle [4] [5] [6] [2] and the tough economic climate of the Three-Day Week in 1973/74 London sent O'Donnell and Williams to Johannesburg, South Africa. [1] [2] Simonds and Murray ultimately went to New York, and Boylan joined The Gary Moore Band for a time. In the year before their departure they played Belgian bars as a folk duo and formed a short-lived band with guitarist Jimmy Faulkner, who died in 2008. Disenchanted by hard drug use backstage, they abandoned the project. Two years after their arrival in South Africa the couple participated in Palet, an Afrikaans music and poetry programme in 1976 for the fledgling South African Broadcasting Corporation's television service. The show was considered too radical and highbrow, and never aired, resulting in the producer's resignation. They formed traditional group Flibbertigibbet in 1977 with Barrie Glenn and Jo Dudding whom they met at Mangles Folk Club. The band recorded their vinyl album, Whistling Jigs to the Moon in 1978 in South Africa for a slim, niche market, and made several appearances on SATV. The recording was more fully appreciated and reissued in 1996.

After the break-up of Flibbertigibbet in 1979 O'Donnell worked as a session singer for singer-songwriters and advertising agency recordings, toured in the musical I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road produced by Des and Dawn Lindberg, and performed in a series of satirical revues in 1980/81 with South African actors and musicians: Tortue Revues I and II in Rockey Street's famed 80s clubs, and Fool Marks and Commit No Nuisance at the Chelsea Hotel Hillbrow with music by David Marks (songwriter, producer and archivist), who had earlier given Flibbertigibbet their first run at The Market Theatre in Johannesburg. [1] In the early to mid-80s O'Donnell appeared briefly with jazz group Theta and an early incarnation of the popular rock group Ella Mental at Sun City. She recorded an album with writer/producer Terry Dempsey's band, Plastik Mak, which included his hit song Daydreamer and performed in after-show cabaret with musician/actress Michelle Maxwell and on the folk club stage with blues/folk guitarist Mike Dickman. She also appeared regularly with singer-songwriters Colin Shamley and Roger Lucey, guesting on their respective albums. During this period she assisted in running the door for Club Le Chaim, which featured musicians opposed to the Apartheid regime. In the year before she departed Johannesburg for London in early 1986, O'Donnell co-wrote the repertoire and performed with contemporary jazz group Earthlings at night . By day she worked for South African Associated Newspapers, which at that time included The Rand Daily Mail and The Sunday Times . [1]

Later music career

Between 1986 and 1996 O'Donnell worked in public sector administration in London. At this time interest in Mellow Candle was gathering pace. The pre-drums demos were released as The Virgin Prophet and the re-mastered Swaddling Songs has been reissued on vinyl and CD regularly since then. In 2006 a Mojo magazine poll Beyond Folk the group was listed in the top 50 genre-bending folk classics of the last forty years. [7] The band features in a number of Top Ten lists in Galactic Ramble (a complete study of 60s and 70s music in the UK). [8] Tracks are regularly licensed out to compilations, amongst them, O'Donnell's Messenger Birds for The Story of British Folk (a double CD collection covering British folk music from the early 60s to modern day contemporaries), the co-written Sheep Season on Early Morning Hush, [9] Notes from the Folk Underground 1969–1976, [10] and Heaven Heath on Legends of Ireland. [11] In 2007 an original vinyl copy of Swaddling Songs sold to a Canadian eBay bidder for $2,650. [12]

In 1997 after leaving an administrative post with the London School of Economics, O'Donnell moved to Brussels, working with jazz and folk musicians, in pantomime, and giving voice coaching lessons and workshops. O'Donnell's own vocal training had included a period at the Leinster School of Music & Drama in Dublin in her teens, in Johannesburg during the mid-1970s for a six-month period with a teacher specialising in syncopation, and a further three months with a former opera singer. Traditional group Éishtlinn was formed by O'Donnell with Flemish guitarist Philip Masure in 1998. The band played in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, releasing the album, Éist Linn in 2001.

O'Donnell returned to Ireland in 2001 but continued to work with three Flemish women singers in French, Flemish and English in the band Oeda, which came joint second in the nationwide Belgian band competition Nekka-contest 2001–2002. Soetkin Collier, of Oeda, is more frequently associated with the Belgian folk group Urban Trad, who finished second in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.

O'Donnell's repatriation after 28 years away from the Irish music scene meant that she had to embark on a steep learning curve. She sings and plays bodhrán in sessions, festivals, gigs and charity events in Ireland and abroad, mostly collaborating with other artists. O'Donnell and a male entrant won a medal each for a "Newly Composed Song in English" at the Dublin Fleadh in 2004, they being the only two entrants in the category that year. Aside from her concert repertoire of original psych folk and trad rock songs, she has a wide repertoire of traditional, folk and jazz songs. She is a member of An Góilín (a traditional singers' club) TAC (Traditional Arts Collective) and was part of the Howth Singing Circle. [13] With instrumentalist Isabel Ní Chuireáin, she released the album Mise agus Ise in 2006.

From 2007 there were collaborations and contributions to recordings with Dave Colohan of Agitated Radio Pilot, Canadian psych folk band, Mr. Pine, Colin Harper's collective The Field Mouse conspiracy and The Guessing Game, the 9th album from the Doom metal band Cathedral. In 2008 O'Donnell featured on a vinyl double A-Side single of Nick Drake's Day is Done and Nico's Frozen Warnings with Graeme Lockett of Head South By Weaving [14] and an EP, The Fabric of Folk, with The Owl Service. They appeared together at the Green Man Festival. O'Donnell and Steven Collins of The Owl Service have collaborated regularly, including on several tracks for her first solo album, Hey Hey Hippy Witch , released in 2010. [15] [16] [17] Other contributors and collaborators on this project are Michael Tyack of the psychedelic folk rock band Circulus, Kevin Scott of Mr. Pine, Head South By Weaving and Gavin Prior and Dave Colohan of United Bible Studies. In 2008 O'Donnell became a member of United Bible Studies, an experimental psych folk collective which draws on students from a number of countries [18] and has contributed to a prolific output of albums and recording projects since that time. [19] She contributed to their 2009 album The Jonah and a UBS/Jozef Van Wissem vinyl album, Downland, in 2011.

O'Donnell is known for her enthusiastic and varied collaborations. Recent work includes Bajik, a live band playing new and recent O'Donnell material formed in 2010, headlining at their maiden concert in Spain at the Datura Folk Festival, a contribution to the album Towards Abstraction by Big Dwarf, a contemporary electronic psychedelic band and a joint album with Head South By Weaving, The Execution of Frederick Baker, both in 2013. [20] [21] Between 2014 and 2015 there has also been a CD and vinyl release with Firefay, British folk noir group.

She appeared on the TV documentary Phil Lynott: Scéalta Ón Old Town , about the making of Phil Lynott's music video for the 1982 song Old Town, first broadcast on RTÉ One on 30 December 2018. [22] [23] In February 2024, she featured in the BBC Two Northern Ireland documentary "Legends of Harper", about Belfast author, musician, songwriter and composer Colin Harper, with whom she has been a long-time collaborator. [24] [25] [26]

Personal life

O'Donnell married Dave Williams in January 1972 in Dublin and Ian Brower in Johannesburg in January 1986. She has one daughter, Kate Brower, born London 1988. O'Donnell has worked under her mother's maiden name since 1980.

O'Donnell developed an interest in Genealogy in 1996, working extensively on her family tree. This led to an appearance in the BBC Four documentary series Family Ties (a precursor to Who Do You Think You Are? ) in 2004. [27] [28] [29] The programme focused on her grandmother Nina, a singer who, long after her death, was revealed to be a secret bigamist with another family living in Scotland (the two branches of the family are now in contact). [30] O'Donnell's musical heritage hails from her English maternal granny, Irish great-grandfather Peter, and her grandfather P.S.G. O'Donnell and his two brothers Rudolph Peter and Bertram Walton, military musicians with distinguished careers with the Royal Marines Band Service during the first half of the twentieth century. [31] [32] [33] [34] O'Donnell is an animal-lover, particularly of cats and dogs. She lives in Dublin.

Discography

Albums

Singles

EPs

Guest appearances

See also

Related Research Articles

Skid Row were an Irish blues rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, based in Dublin and fronted by bass guitarist Brendan "Brush" Shiels. It was the first band in which Phil Lynott and Gary Moore played professionally before finding greater fame with Thin Lizzy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thin Lizzy</span> Irish rock band

Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wrixon left after a few months. Bell left at the end of 1973 and was briefly replaced by Gary Moore, who himself was replaced in mid-1974 by twin lead guitarists: Scott Gorham, who remained with the band until their break-up in 1983, and Brian Robertson, who remained with the band until 1978 when Moore re-joined. Moore left a second time and was replaced by Snowy White in 1980, who was himself replaced by John Sykes in 1982. The line-up was augmented by keyboardist Darren Wharton in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Lynott</span> Irish musician (1949–1986)

Philip Parris Lynott was an Irish musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the co-founder, lead vocalist, bassist, and primary songwriter for the hard rock band Thin Lizzy. He was known for his distinctive pick-based style on the bass and for his imaginative lyrical contributions, including working-class tales and numerous characters drawn from personal influences and Celtic culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Bell</span> Northern Irish rock and blues musician

Eric Robin Bell is a Northern Irish rock and blues musician, best known as a founding member and the original guitarist of the rock group Thin Lizzy, of which he was a member from 1969 to 1973. After his time in Thin Lizzy, he briefly fronted his own group before joining the Noel Redding Band in the mid-1970s. He has since released several solo albums and performs regularly with a blues-based trio, the Eric Bell Band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Ireland</span>

Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altan (band)</span> Irish folk music band

Altan are an Irish folk music band formed in County Donegal in 1987 by lead vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and her husband Frankie Kennedy. The group were primarily influenced by traditional Irish language songs from Donegal and have sold over a million records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">De Dannan</span> Irish folk music group

De Dannan is an Irish folk music group. It was formed in 1975 by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn, Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, with Dolores Keane (vocals) subsequently being invited to join the band. The fiddler Mickey Finn (1951–1987) is also acknowledged to have been a founding member.

<i>Thin Lizzy</i> (album) 1971 studio album by Thin Lizzy

Thin Lizzy is the debut studio album by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, released on 30 April 1971. The album was followed by the EP New Day, produced and recorded by Nick Tauber at Decca Studios on 14–17 June 1971 and released on 20 August 1971. The songs from the EP were included in later editions of the album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dónal Lunny</span> Irish folk musician and producer (born 1947)

Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician and producer. He plays guitar and bouzouki, as well as keyboards and bodhrán. As a founding member of popular bands Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Mozaik, LAPD, and Usher's Island, he has been at the forefront of the renaissance of Irish traditional music for over five decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh</span> Musical artist

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish folk music band Altan, which she co-founded with her husband Frankie Kennedy in 1987. Ní Mhaonaigh is recognised as a leading exponent in the Donegal fiddle tradition, and she is often considered one of the foremost singers in the Irish language, her native tongue. She was part of the Irish supergroup T with the Maggies who performed in January 2009 at Temple Bar TradFest in Dublin their first ever two concerts under that name and who released in October 2010 their debut album. After nearly 22 years with Altan, on 28 December 2008 Ní Mhaonaigh premiered in Gweedore her debut solo album Imeall which was later released worldwide in February 2009. After 29 years with Altan, in October 2016 Ní Mhaonaigh released her alternate band Na Mooneys' debut album Na Mooneys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mellow Candle</span> Irish progressive folk rock band (1968–1973)

Mellow Candle was an Irish progressive folk rock band, active from 1968 to 1973. They released one studio album, Swaddling Songs, in 1972. A collection of demos and sessions for the album, recorded 1969–1971, was released in 1996 as The Virgin Prophet.

Máire Breatnach is an Irish fiddle, violin and viola player. She also sings in Irish on some of her albums. Since the early 1990s, she has recorded five solo albums, participated in many collaborations, and developed didactic material for children, mostly in Irish.

Gay Woods is an Irish singer. She was one of the original members of Steeleye Span.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aoife O'Donovan</span> Musical artist

Aoife O'Donovan is an American singer and Grammy award-winning songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still and she also co-founded the Grammy Award-winning female folk trio I'm with Her. She has released three critically acclaimed studio albums: Fossils (2013), In the Magic Hour (2016), and Age of Apathy, as well as multiple noteworthy live recordings and EPs, including Blue Light (2010), Peachstone (2012), Man in a Neon Coat: Live From Cambridge (2016), In the Magic Hour: Solo Sessions (2019), and Bull Frog's Croon (2020). She also spent a decade contributing to the radio variety shows Live from Here and A Prairie Home Companion. Her first professional engagement was singing lead for the folk group The Wayfaring Strangers.

<i>Swaddling Songs</i> 1972 studio album by Mellow Candle

Swaddling Songs is the only studio album by Irish progressive folk rock band Mellow Candle, originally released in 1972 by Deram Records.

<i>Celtic Folkweave</i> 1974 studio album by , Mick Hanly and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill

Celtic Folkweave is a studio album by Mick Hanly and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, released in 1974 by Polydor Records. Considered a seminal album in the traditional Irish music genre, the musicians involved in the recording would go on to found some of the most innovative and important groups to perform traditional Irish music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clodagh Simonds</span> Irish musician, songwriter and singer (born 1953)

Clodagh Simonds is an Irish musician, songwriter and singer. She was born in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland and raised and educated in Killiney, County Dublin.

The Owl Service is an English alternative folk music collective that formed in 2006, by multi-instrumentalist Steven Paul Collins, named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orla Gartland</span> Irish singer, songwriter, musician

Orla Gartland is an Irish singer, songwriter and musician. Gartland released her debut studio album, Woman on the Internet, in 2021, which reached number 3 on the Irish album chart, number 1 on the UK Indie Chart, and number 10 on the UK Albums Chart. Her second studio album Everybody Needs a Hero came out in October 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Kim (Irish musician)</span> Musical artist

Katie Sullivan, also known as Katie Kim, is an Irish musician, singer-songwriter, multi instrumentalist and composer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Alison O'Donnell – Biography". Alisonodonnell.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 ""I'm very driven because I'm much older than everyone else" – The Irish Times, Lauren Murphy. Aug 15, 2017". irishtimes.com. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk Jeanette Leech (Jawbone, 2010). (Chapter about Mellow Candle)
  4. ↑ "Mellow Candle". Janet Records. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  5. ↑ Irish Folk, Trad and Blues: A Secret History, Colin Harper & Trevor Hodgett, 2005.
  6. ↑ Seasons They Change (The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk) Jeanette Leech, 2010
  7. ↑ "Mojo magazine's "Beyond Folk" list, 2006". Muzieklijstjes.nl. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Galactic Ramble". Galactic Ramble. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Chocoreve – Early Morning Hush – UK Acid-Folk Compilation 1969–1976". Chocoreve.blogspot.com. 15 August 2008. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  10. ↑ "Early Morning Hush: Notes From The UK Folk Underground 1969–1976". last.fm. 11 February 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  11. ↑ Compilation: The Story of British Folk from Fairport Convention to Johnny Flynn, Spectrum Music (Mellow Candle, Messenger Birds) 2010 – Compilation: Early Morning Hush – Compilation: Legends of Ireland (Rhino Records E2 75202 1998)
  12. ↑ Richard (21 January 2011). "Galactic Ramble – Mellow Candle: 'not a folk band as such'". Galacticramble.blogspot.com. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  13. ↑ "Howth Singing Circle". Howthsac.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  14. ↑ "Alison O'Donnell With Head South By Weaving – Fruits De Mer Volume 2". discogs.com. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  15. ↑ "Review of Alison O' Donnell: Hey Hey Hippy Witch". Pennyblackmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  16. ↑ "Review of Hey Hey Hippy Witch". music-news.com. 29 January 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  17. ↑ "Alison O'Donnell – Reviews". Alisonodonnell.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  18. ↑ Article on United Bible Studies The Wire, issue 382, December 2015.
  19. ↑ Irish acts making their way in the 'New Weird' scene - Offbeat and hard to categorise, the music movement is being led by labels around the country By Ed Power, The Sunday Times (16 August 2020)
  20. ↑ The Execution of Frederick Baker by Head South by Weaving & Alison O'Donnell
  21. ↑ A Seance at Syd's: an Anthology of Modern Acid-Folk-Haunt-Psych-Prog-Space-Radiophonic-Rock Etc Quotes
  22. ↑ PHIL LYNOTT: SCÉALTA ÓN OLD TOWN RTÉ Press Centre (3 December 2018)
  23. ↑ Phil Lynott's Dublin 1982 RTÉ Archives
  24. ↑ Colin Harper documentary to air on BBC 2 features Bono, Johnny Marr and Horslips irishnews.com, February 14, 2024.
  25. ↑ Colin Harper’s Legends Of Tomorrow release 25 year anthology imro.ie
  26. ↑ Legends of Harper BBC iPlayer
  27. ↑ "Family Ties, Season 1 Episode 6, Mother of Pearl". Locatetv.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  28. ↑ The OpenLearn team (11 January 2006). "Family Ties". Open2.net. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  29. ↑ "Who Do You Think You Are? Family Ties, BBC FOUR". BBC. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  30. ↑ "Alison O'Donnell – Genealogy". Alisonodonnell.com. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  31. ↑ "Major P S G O'Donnell MVO, Mus Bac (Oxon), LRAM, RM – His life as a Musician and Senior Non-Commissioned Officer By "Marcher"". Royalmarinesbands.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  32. ↑ "Royal Air Force at Beulah". Raf.eavb.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  33. ↑ "Classical Music on the Web – WALTON O'DONNELL". Musicweb-international.com. 20 August 1939. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  34. ↑ "A THIRD GARLAND OF BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC – Bertram Walton O'Donnell". Musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  35. ↑ O'Donnell's fire burns on The Irish Times , Tony Clayton-Lea. 12 July 2017
  36. ↑ Exotic Masks and Sensible Shoes - Bandcamp.com
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.