Aoife O'Donovan - All My Friends

 

Album inspired by women's sufferage

Limited edition opaque violet vinyl LP

Features collaborations from Anais Mitchell, Sierra Hull, Noam Pikelny, Griffin Goldsmith, The Westerlies and others

Aoife O'Donovan's new solo album All My Friends is inspired by the evolving landscape of women's rights in America over the past century. O'Donovan infuses the experiences of the Suffragettes, who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment and paved the way for their daughters, with her own experiences as a modern woman who wants to build a future for her own daughter.

The album is comprised of a five-song "piece" with brass, orchestra, girls choir, bass, drums, etc, interspersed with four other songs — all dealing with the passing of the 19th amendment and how the country has and has not evolved over the past 100 years.

Aoife used speeches/letters from movement leader Carrie Chapman Catt and reframed them in a more modern light — Track 3 ("War Measure") is a reimagining of an actual letter that Woodrow Wilson wrote to Carrie about women voting. And you'll recognize the album closer, an arrangement of the Bob Dylan penned protest song, "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll."

The project — O'Donovan's first self-produced album — features a number of special guests including Anaïs Mitchell, Sierra Hull, Noam Pikelny, Alan Hampton, Griffin Goldsmith and more. 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.

 

1. All My Friends

2. Crisis

3. War Measure

4. Someone to Follow

5. The Right Time

6. Daughters

7. America, Come

8. Over the Finish Line (featuring Anaïs Mitchell)

9. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carro

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