Aoife you don't know me by now...
A multi-Grammy award winning Irish-American singer-songwriter is returning to Cork this summer in what has become an almost annual tradition.
Boston native Aoife O'Donovan will play DeBarra’s Folk Club, Clonakilty, on 28 July where she will perform Bruce Springsteen’s seminal 1982 album ‘Nebraska’ in its entirety.
O’Donovan first performed 'Nebraska' from start to finish in 2011, but it was nearly a decade later where her version of the album resonated globally - when she performed it as a livestream benefit for MusiCares in May 2020. This Cork show will be her first time performing the album live in Ireland.
Since 2011, O’Donovan has performed the album in renowned venues around the world including London’s King’s Place, Cambridge Sanders Theatre, and at the Newport Folk Festival.
Speaking about her connection to the album, O’Donovan has said: “I first heard it sitting in the back seat of my dad’s car and I was terrified. I got really deep into the songwriting aspect of it. I was just floored at how he was able to paint such a vivid, stark picture.”
A multi-instrumentalist, O'Donovan moves freely beyond genre — weaving folk, bluegrass, and indie rock into something timeless. She has released four critically acclaimed solo albums, ‘Fossils’, ‘In the Magic Hour’, ‘Age of Apathy’, and ‘All My Friends’, which accumulated ten Grammy nominations across a career defined as much by collaboration as by her solo work.
A founding member of the progressive string band, Crooked Still, and one-third of the folk trio, I'm With Her, alongside Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz, O'Donovan has built some of her most celebrated work in partnership.
I'm With Her's 2025 album ‘Wild and Clear and Blue’ took home two Grammys – Best Folk Album and Best American Roots Song for ‘Ancient Light’, and swept Folk Alliance International's Artist and Album of the Year. Her song ‘B61’ had earlier earned her Folk Alliance International's Song of the Year.
Though late July might seem a long way off right now, tickets are expected to go fast for O’Donovan’s Cork show. Tickets cost €29 and are on sale now via debarra.ie.