Lowlands (album)

Lowlands
Studio album by Susan McKeown
Released	September 26, 2000
Recorded	1999-2000
Studio	Mission Sound (Brooklyn, New York)
Genre	Folk
Length	52:09
Label	Green Linnet
Producer	Susan McKeown
Susan McKeown chronology
Mother (1999) Lowlands (2000) A Winter Talisman (2001)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[2]

Lowlands is an album by Irish songwriter and folk singer Susan McKeown, released in September 26, 2000, by Green Linnet Records. ^[3]

The tracks on this album present an array of styles, including African, Appalachian, Middle Eastern, and Irish. "Lord Baker" is often heard as fragment of a ballad, but here McKeown has included the full story, making this the longest track on the album. The Scots songs "The Dark Haired Girl" was translated into Irish by McKeown. ^[4]

Background

In a interview with FolkWorld, McKeown noted

The new album was a big musical project with over twenty-five musicians guesting; it must have been a formidable task getting all of these people together. "The musicians on the album come from Ireland, England, the US, Iceland, Norway, Mali, India, China, but most of them live in New York. I choose musicians because of what they will bring of their own experience, in the context of an arrangement I have in mind. ^[5]

In early 2001, McKeown embarked on an International tour of the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland to support the release of the album. ^[6]

Track listing

All songs Traditional unless otherwise noted.

1. "The Dark Haired Girl" (An Nighean Dudh) (sung in Irish)
2. "John Coughlin"
3. "The Hare's Lament"
4. "Slan agus Beannact/ Goodbye and Farewell" (sung in Irish)
5. "The Snows They Melt the Soonest"
6. "Nansi Og Ni Obarlain/ Young Nancy Oberlin" (sung in Irish)
7. "Lord Baker" [Lord Bateman. Child Ballad 53]
8. "Dark Horse on the Wind" (Liam Weldon)
9. "The Lowlands of Holland"
10. "Bonny Greenwoodside" [Child Ballad 20]
11. "To Fair London Town"
12. "The Moorlough Shore"

Personnel

• Aidan Brennan – guitar
• Mamadou Diabaté – kora
• Johnny Cunningham – fiddle
• Joanie Madden – whistle, low whistle
• Matt Darriau – kaval, Irish flute, clarinet, bass clarinet
• Ole Mathisen – clarinet
• Jamshied Sharifi – synthesiser
• Skuli Sverisson – electric bass
• Benjamin Wittman – percussion)
• Garry Leonard – guitar
• Greg Anderson – bouzouki
• Paddy League – bodhran
• Todd Schietroma – cahones, shakers, caxixis, handclaps
• Des More – guitar
• Eilis Egan – box
• Samir Chatterjee – tablas
• Oliver Straus – handclaps
• Wang Guowei – erhu
• Eaman O'Leary – banjo
• John Anthony – caxisis
• The group Lunasa consisting of:
• Donough Hennessy – guitar
• Kevin Crawford – whistles
• Sean Smyth – fiddle
• Trevor Hutchinson – acoustic bass

The following appear on the track "To Fair London Town":

• Michelle Kinney (cello)
• Cillian Valelly (uilleann pipes)

References

1. {Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, eds., All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music, 4th ed. (San Francisco: Backbeat Books / All Media Guide, 2001), 843.
2. Larkin, Colin (2006). "McKeown, Susan". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0195313734.
3. McKeown, Susan. Lowlands. CD. Green Linnet, 2000 (catalog GLCD 1205). Discogs. Accessed November 19, 2025.
4. Lowlands at AllMusic . Retrieved November 19, 2025.
5. Laffey, Sean. "Susan McKeown". Folkworld.de. Accessed November 19, 2025
6. Pesselnick, Jill (16 September 2000). "Album Forecast: Something Sound for Everyone". Billboard. Vol. 112, no. 38. p. 62. Retrieved 19 November 2025.