Nuala Kennedy – new album

Nuala Kennedy - new album and tour

Scottish-based Irish traditional singer and musician Nuala Kennedy celebrates ten years as a solo recording artist this coming January with the launch of Behave The Bravest, her fourth solo album.

Recorded over six months, in three continents, while touring with the Nuala Kennedy Band in Sydney, Australia; Los Angeles, California and in her adopted city of Edinburgh, Scotland. The record was mixed by the much-lauded producer Paul Savage of Chem 19, Glasgow and mastered by Grammy award-winning engineer Adam Berg in L.A. Behave The Bravest features two iterations of Nuala Kennedy Band, one based in Scotland and one in America, reflecting her heavy international touring schedule.

The material on Behave The Bravest harks back to Kennedy’s origins as a player and singer of traditional music in Ireland. Old traditional ballads of loss and immigration, continue to find resonance in the modern world, while two of the songs sung in Irish Gaelic attest to Kennedy’s love of the national and first official language of Ireland.

Kennedy is renowned for her creative reworking and reimagining of traditional songs and the jewel in the record is undoubtably her flowing interpretation of ‘Fair Annie of the Loch Royanne’ one of the great traditional story-ballads and one of several songs on the record with a strong female lead character. Kennedy enjoys researching traditional song and she weds a serious pedigree of traditional musicianship and deep understanding of the history of her native music with a light-hearted musical spontaneity.

Recorded live in studio Behave The Bravest is testament to the superlative performance skills of Kennedy and her fellow musicians. You can watch a video of the opening track ‘Lovely Armoy’ which Kennedy found in the Sam Henry Collection.

Nuala Kennedy is known world – wide as a superlative performer of traditional music and is one of the most in-demand musicians on the global folk scene. She has recently graced the cover of Irish Music Magazine, Sing Out! and regularly appears on the mainstage at festivals around the world. Recognized for her cross-genre collaborations, she has performed and recorded with American songwriter Will Oldham (an album that received 5 stars from MOJO magazine) as well as cutting-edge Canadian composer the late Oliver Schroer (nominated for a 2012 Canadian Folk Award).

Nuala Kennedy has a fresh, singular take on Scottish/Irish traditional music.

Artist’s website: www.nualakennedy.com

“mellifluous flute playing and delicately ornamented singing” The Scotsman

“frisky, excitingly vital and wonderfully original” ****Songlines

“a flute player and composer of remarkable finesse, fearless of the unknown” The Irish Times

‘Lovely Armoy’: