Each week we will highlight one artist from Paddy McCarthy’s regular Music And Entertainment Guide for your reading pleasure. To read the full weekly guide, visit our ePaper.
I’m going to start my music page this week with the introduction of a beautiful contemporary singer songwriter, Siobhán O’Brien. I have listened to her latest album “You Can’t Run Out of Love” and boy do I like it. I am not going to review the whole album now, but I will next week.
Here is a little piece on Siobhán and I am sure we are going to be hearing quite a lot from her in the future. With music running four generations deep in her blood it’s no wonder Siobhán may have attracted admirers ranging from Bono to Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen to Tom Paxton, and even been dubbed “A voice the world should hear” by world famous Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains.
She also has a famous uncle, one of Ireland’s greatest talents and that is none other than Brendan Bowyer from the Showband days with the Royal and Big 8 showbands and who now resides in Las Vegas and is still going strong.
O’Brien may have found her voice as a kid, but after years of chasing her dream she has finally found her feet as an artist and has emerged ready to tell her story. The story is ultimately one of a small-town girl who grows up by meeting the big bad world. It’s the story of the continual leaps of faith we all must take in ourselves if we are to keep alive the dream of living authentically to our calling. It is the story of coming to accept a truth we all resist – that to pursue life on our own terms we must be continually prepared to risk what we have in the hope of something better.
“You Can’t Run Out Of Love” is an indie/folk music blend reminiscent of Joan Baez, Brandi Carlile, and Joni Mitchell.
Against the backdrop of a corporate controlled music landscape that actively suppresses anything that is not destined for a mass audience, Siobhán has taken yet another leap of faith, this time in the generosity of the human spirit, she launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the wider promotion of her album.
Why? “Because an artist has a duty to express herself to as many souls as possible if there is even a chance that it can change one person for the better. Why else would I bear my soul to the world if I didn’t believe there was someone out there like me who’s face, I could lift from the mud, just as mine has been lifted so many times by others who have gone before.”