Aoife O'Donovan Queen's Hall Edinburgh 3rd June 2023 Review
Aoife O’Donovan played her only Scottish date on her current tour at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, and fans of this GRAMMY award winning artist were obviously not missing the chance to catch up with Aoife and her music (old and new songs).
Opening this evening’s set with “Ryland (Under The Apple Tree)", Aoife O’Donovan was obviously happy to be back in Scotland and this venue, and despite the loss of her luggage by the airline while en-route to us from a previous show (in Germany) that easy going rapport with her audience continued throughout the show.
Aoife O’Donovan is obviously a natural story-teller, a watcher of not only people but the little things in life that so many of us let slip by us in our all too busy lives, but somehow in her songs all of this comes together in stories, little moments that somehow seem to slow the world down to Aoife’s more gentle pace.
There is a new album out, well a recent one from 2022, “Age of Apathy” and some of this evening’s songs came from this album. With songs like “B61, “Lucky Star” and “Phoenix” it is obvious that these are works from a gifted songwriter as they often take unexpected twists and turns in their construction. Aoife O’Donovan clearly knows how to craft a song, and to categorise Aoife as a “folk singer” really does little justice to the wide ranging scope of her music. If anything, Aoife O’Donovan is more like a songwriter a little out of time as to me she could easily belong to that period of classic singer-songwriters from the 1970s.
Writing songs is one obvious talent that Aoife O’Donovan possesses and it is all too easy to let that overshadow her talents on guitar, and some of these songs have a few challenges that are masked by a laid back playing style.
Opening this show was Rory Butler (who grew up in Edinburgh) with a trio of backing singers and more than a few stories to tell in his songs, including “Carefree” and “Linda’s Café”, both from his 2022 album “Carefree”.
Like Aoife O’Donovan, Rory Butler has a performance style and music that just slows life down a little and takes you away from some of the hustle and bustle of your daily life. That slowing down may just be an illusion, but for Rory life is becoming a little more hectic as he announced that his daughter was born only a few days ago.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Opening this evening’s set with “Ryland (Under The Apple Tree)", Aoife O’Donovan was obviously happy to be back in Scotland and this venue, and despite the loss of her luggage by the airline while en-route to us from a previous show (in Germany) that easy going rapport with her audience continued throughout the show.
Aoife O’Donovan is obviously a natural story-teller, a watcher of not only people but the little things in life that so many of us let slip by us in our all too busy lives, but somehow in her songs all of this comes together in stories, little moments that somehow seem to slow the world down to Aoife’s more gentle pace.
There is a new album out, well a recent one from 2022, “Age of Apathy” and some of this evening’s songs came from this album. With songs like “B61, “Lucky Star” and “Phoenix” it is obvious that these are works from a gifted songwriter as they often take unexpected twists and turns in their construction. Aoife O’Donovan clearly knows how to craft a song, and to categorise Aoife as a “folk singer” really does little justice to the wide ranging scope of her music. If anything, Aoife O’Donovan is more like a songwriter a little out of time as to me she could easily belong to that period of classic singer-songwriters from the 1970s.
Writing songs is one obvious talent that Aoife O’Donovan possesses and it is all too easy to let that overshadow her talents on guitar, and some of these songs have a few challenges that are masked by a laid back playing style.
Opening this show was Rory Butler (who grew up in Edinburgh) with a trio of backing singers and more than a few stories to tell in his songs, including “Carefree” and “Linda’s Café”, both from his 2022 album “Carefree”.
Like Aoife O’Donovan, Rory Butler has a performance style and music that just slows life down a little and takes you away from some of the hustle and bustle of your daily life. That slowing down may just be an illusion, but for Rory life is becoming a little more hectic as he announced that his daughter was born only a few days ago.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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