Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan has announced her upcoming solo album All My Friends, set for release on March 22 via Yep Roc Records. The 9-song collection - O’Donovan’s first self-produced LP - is inspired by the passage of the 19th amendment and the evolving landscape of women’s rights in America over the past century. O’Donovan artfully draws on speeches and letters by suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt to write intricately filigreed new, original songs infused with modern perspective and her own experiences as a woman and mother. Amidst a lush, genre-blurring soundscape featuring brass, orchestra, girls’ choir, and O’Donovan’s own “stunning” (Rolling Stone) voice, All My Friends wrestles with questions of what has - and hasn’t - changed for American women in the 100 years since gaining the right to vote.
All My Friends, co-produced by O’Donovan, Eric Jacobsen and Darren Schneider, was mostly recorded at Full Sail University in Orlando by Schneider, Brooklyn Recording in Brooklyn and Power Station in Manhattan. The album was mixed by Schneider and mastered at Chicago Mastering by Bob Weston. The project follows O’Donovan’s 3x GRAMMY nominated 2022 album Age of Apathy, which NPR named “a moving self-portrait,” and No Depression called “an astounding accomplishment.” 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,” while The New York Times praised the album’s “musical surprises: daring melodic leaps, unexpected chord progressions, [and] subtle rhythmic shifts.” 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.
While Age of Apathy centered around coming to terms with indifference, All My Friends reminds us of the power of collective action. 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. The project features a number of special guests including Anaïs Mitchell, Sierra Hull, Noam Pikelny, The Knights, The Westerlies, The San Francisco Girls Chorus, Alan Hampton, Griffin Goldsmith and more.
