Following the hand of fate which guided them from a remote village in the Austrian Alps to a tiny island in Greece, long time musical collaborators and world wanderers, Irish traditional singer and musician Nuala Kennedy and Dubliner / New Yorker singer songwriter Eamon O’ Leary have created an atmospheric new album of songs entitled Hydra.
Hydra is an island where cars are prohibited and the main mode of transport is by donkey or by foot. Recorded in an eighteenth century carpet factory whose large open windows overlook the port, the album vibrates with the unhurried bohemian charm and luscious simplicity that made this place so attractive to past luminaries such as Henry Miller, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lawrence Durrell, Leonard Cohen and his love Marianne Ihlen…
Indeed Leigh Fermor’s book cover for Mani, illustrated by the artist John Craxton, inspired the cover for Hydra which depicts a melusine or two-tailed mermaid.
The cover was carved by hand, for wood block print by the renowned old-school printing artist Peter Nevins. Nevins has also produced cover work for Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Anais Mitchell who sings backing vocals here on ‘Liffeyside’ alongside Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) and Cathal McConnell of the Boys of the Lough.
Other special guests include fiddler Liz Knowles who provides string arrangements on the album, and Brian Mac Gloinn (Ye Vagabonds) on mandolin.
Nuala and Eamon have collaborated with luminaries from across the folk world and beyond including Bonnie Prince Billy, Mike Scott, Beth Orton, Sam Amidon, Anais Mitchell, Liz Carroll, Kevin Burke and in the Alt alongside their friend John Doyle.
Noted for their instrumental skills and songwriting as well as a rich tapestry of traditional song; Nuala and Eamon recorded Hydra live together in a spacious open room inside the old carpet factory, with windows opening onto the Aegean Sea. Here they present a timeless selection of stories of the sea, of love and courtship, of work and ritual, of emigration, of war… Hydra reverberates with a sense of space, and a palpable delight in place and storytelling.
Artist’s website: www.nualakennedy.com
‘Liffeyside’ – official video:
Tour Dates
August 2024
22 Clonakilty De Barras (Seated)
23 Cork Everyman Theatre (Seated)
24 Limerick Dolans
25 Galway Roisn Dubh
26 Dublin Nch Theatre (Seated)
27 Dublin Whelans (Standing)
30 Manchester New Century Hall
31 Glasgow Qmu
1 September – Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith (Nuala & Eamon)
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