Lisa’s playing a blinder

The choice of song in the climactic final scene of ‘Peaky Blinders’ just had to be perfect – and it was.

The artists’ name is Lisa O’Neill. She’s a folk sensation and she’s in Cork this weekend and then some.

Cavan native O’Neill is one of the most evocative songwriters in contemporary Irish music today and she has just announced her new album ‘All Of This Is Chance’ which is out on 10 February.

On top of that, her current Irish tour will bring her to Coughlan’s in Cork city tonight, Thursday, and tomorrow night before she heads west to DeBarra’s in Clonakilty for a show on Sunday.

Following 5 BBC Folk Awards nominations, Choice Music Prize nominations and a Folk Album of the Year accolade in The Guardian in 2019 for her album ‘Heard a Long Gone Song’, O’Neill has become a big deal in the contemporary folk scene in recent years.

A raconteur in the truest sense of the word, O’Neill begins her extraordinary new collection of songs “here on earth, on Irish soil, hands in the land”.

The album features orchestral pieces such as the cinematic ‘Old Note’, the title track of the album, inspired by the great Monaghan writer Patrick Kavanagh's prescient meditation on ‘The Great Hunger’.

Throughout all 8 songs on the album, it feels like O’Neill is writing in a constant state of wonderment.

Not only is it a portrait of an artist in love with nature, but one perplexed by the ever-expanding gulf between it and modern society.

A revolving door of esteemed musicians come and go throughout the album, including long-time collaborator on bass Joseph Doyle, Kerry concertina guru Cormac Begley, the cinematic genius of Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Kate Ellis of the Crash Ensemble, pianist Ruth O’Mahony Brady, drummer Lorcan Byrne, producer Dave Odlum on guitar, as well as Colm O’Hara on trombone, Brian Leach on hammer dulcimer, Mic Geraghty on harmonium and David Coulter on saw.

Lisa’s young niece, Sadie-Mae O’Neill supplies a precious additional voice on ‘Old Note’.

It is at times a dramatic album, addressing wonder, fear of the suppression of the spirt, and the disconnect from the land.

For this reason, it requires a gentle touch to close out. ‘Goodnight World’ is a lullaby, simplified as if sung to a child, despite its darkness.

The sleeve of the album features a dog sneezing on dandelion seeds, reinforcing the artist’s wonder at the randomness of the universe, canine allergies and all.