Aoife O’Donovan’s Age of Apathy Solo Sessions Out Today
Features Solo-Acoustic Tracks Of Eight Songs From 3x GRAMMY-nominated Album Age Of Apathy
Listen/Share: “Galahad”
Critically lauded singer/songwriter Aoife O’Donovan’s Age of Apathy Solo Sessions is out today on Yep Roc Records. The companion album to her three-time GRAMMY-nominated album Age of Apathy, the digital-only collection features eight acoustic versions of songs reimagined as intimate solo performances.
Age of Apathy, nominated for Best Folk Album, Best American Roots Performance, and Best American Roots Song for the song “Prodigal Daughter” featuring Allison Russell, garnered critical praise. Rolling Stone hailed “stunning,” NPR Music “a moving self-portrait,” and “No Depression “an astounding accomplishment.” Pitchfork says O’Donovan “taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell,” while The New York Times praises the album’s “musical surprises: daring melodic leaps, unexpected chord progressions, [and] subtle rhythmic shifts.”
Recorded through a unique residency with Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, O’Donovan wrote and recorded 2022’s Age Of Apathy on-site at their studio with GRAMMY-nominated engineer Darren Schneider while collaborating entirely remotely with producer Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens).
Recently profiled on PBS NewsHour’s arts and culture series, CANVAS, which highlighted Aoife’s embrace of many musical contexts, especially that of a folk singer. When asked about her GRAMMY nod in the folk category, she noted, “I feel like to call somebody a folk singer…I think it encompasses so much more than folk as a genre. To me, it means somebody who sings for the people, a bard, a storyteller.”
Aoife will continue to tour, heading to Europe and the UK in late Spring, followed by U.S. Summer dates, including shows with her Age of Apathy band, which features Isa Burke, recently nominated for Americana Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year. A complete list of dates follows below; tickets are available here.
Aoife O’Donovan Performances
May 30 – Dresden Music Festival – Dresden, DE^
June 3 – Queen’s Hall – Edinburgh, UK
June 7 – Debarras Folk Club – Clonakilty, IE
June 10 – Doolin Folk Festival – Doolin, IE
July 14 – Vancouver Folk Festival – Vancouver, AB
July 15 – Palace Theatre – St. Paul, MN*
July 16 – Big Top Chautauqua – Bayfield, WI*
July 18 – Masonic Temple – Detroit, MI*
July 19 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON*
July 21 – North Carolina Museum of Art – Raleigh, NC*
July 22 – Greenfield Lake Amphitheater – Wilmington, NC*
July 23 – Wolf Trap – Filene Center – Vienna, VA*
July 24 – The Coves at Smith Mountain Lake – Union Hall, VA*
July 27 – Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards – Lafayette, NY*
July 29 – Payomet — North Truro, MA~ !
August 19 – Green Mountain Bluegrass Festival – Manchester, VT^
August 25 – The Long Road – Leicestershire, UK
August 26-27 – Tønder Festival – Tønder, DK
August 28 – Tolhuistuin – Amsterdam, NL
September 5 — Ryman Auditorium — Nashville, TN*
September 9 – Moon River – Chattanooga, TN
September 22-24 – FreshGrass Music Festival – North Adams, MA
October 21 – Annenberg Center – Penn Live Arts – Philadelphia, PA~ ✺
October 25 – Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA~ ∞
October 26 – Troubadour – West Hollywood, CA~ ∞
October 27 – Boulder Theater – Boulder, CO~ ∞
October 28 – Harris Concert Hall – Aspen, CO~ ∞
October 29 – Strings Music Festival – Steamboat Springs, CO~ ∞
~ performing the album Nebraska solo
! with Alisa Amador
✺ with Yasmin Williams
∞ with Allison De Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
* supporting Nickel Creek
^ duo with Eric Jacobsen
The Apathy Sessions Tracklisting:
1. Phoenix
2. Galahad
3. Passengers
4. B61
5. Age of Apathy
6. Elevators
7. Sister Starling
8. Town of Mercy
About Aoife O’Donovan
GRAMMY Award-winning artist Aoife O’Donovan operates in a thrilling musical world beyond genre. Deemed “a vocalist of unerring instinct” by The New York Times, she has released three critically-acclaimed and boundary-blurring solo albums including her most recent record, 2022’s boldly orchestrated and literarily crafted Age Of Apathy. Recorded and written over the course of Winter and Spring 2021 with acclaimed producer Joe Henry, Age Of Apathy is “stunning” (Rolling Stone) and “taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell” (Pitchfork).
Age of Apathy received three nominations at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards including one for Best Folk Album while Folk Alliance International named her song “B61” its 2022 Song Of The Year.
A savvy and generous collaborator, Aoife is one third of the group I’m With Her with bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. The trio’s debut album, See You Around, was hailed as “willfully open-hearted” by NPR Music. I’m With Her earned an Americana Music Association Award in 2019 for Duo/Group of the Year, and a GRAMMY Award in 2020 for Best American Roots Song.
O’Donovan spent the preceding decade as co-founder and front woman of the string band, Crooked Still and is the featured vocalist on The Goat Rodeo Sessions – the group with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. She has appeared as a featured vocalist with over a dozen symphonies including the National Symphony Orchestra, written for Alison Krauss, performed with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, and spent a decade as a regular contributor to the radio variety shows “Live From Here” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”