Nuala Kennedy & Eamon O’ Leary
‘sumptuous folk songs… bracingly beautiful’
Folk Album of the Month THE GUARDIAN * * * *
‘Dazzling‘ MOJO * * * *
‘HYDRA’
New Album by Nuala Kennedy & Eamon O’ Leary
LISTEN TO HYDRA https://nualakennedyandeamonoleary.bandcamp.com/album/hydra
Released: 21st August 2024 (UK/IRL), 1st November 2024 (USA/Europe).
Following the hand of fate which guided them from a remote village in the Austrian Alps to a tiny island in Greece, long time musical collaborators and world wanderers, Irish traditional singer and musician Nuala Kennedy and Dubliner / New Yorker singer songwriter Eamon O’ Leary have created an atmospheric new album of songs entitled ‘Hydra’.
Hydra is an island where cars are prohibited and the main mode of transport is by donkey or by foot. Recorded live in an eighteenth century carpet factory whose large open windows overlook the port, the album vibrates with the unhurried bohemian charm and luscious simplicity that made this place so attractive to past luminaries such as Henry Miller, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lawrence Durrell, Leonard Cohen and his love Marianne Ihlen…
Indeed Leigh Fermor’s book cover for ‘Mani’, illustrated by the artist John Craxton, inspired the cover for ‘Hydra’ which depicts a melusine or two-tailed mermaid.
The cover was carved by hand, for wood block print by American old-school printing artist Peter Nevins. Nevins has also produced cover work for Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Anais Mitchell who sings backing vocals here on ‘Liffeyside’ alongside Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) and Cathal McConnell of the Boys of the Lough.
Other special guests include fiddler Liz Knowles who provides string arrangements on the album, and Brian MacGloinn (Ye Vagabonds) on mandolin.
Nuala and Eamon have collaborated with luminaries from across the folk world and beyond including Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Mike Scott, Beth Orton, Sam Amidon, Anaïs Mitchell, Liz Carroll, Kevin Burke and in The Alt alongside their friend John Doyle.
Noted for their instrumental skills and songwriting as well as a rich tapestry of traditional song; Nuala and Eamon recorded Hydra in a spacious open room inside the old carpet factory, whose windows open onto the Aegean Sea. Here they present a timeless selection of stories of the sea, of love and courtship, of work and ritual, of emigration, of war… Hydra reverberates with a sense of space, and a palpable delight in place and storytelling.
Booking: nuala@nualakennedy.com
USA booking agent: flynnc@fliartists.com
Press Contact: will@willmccarthy.com
Recent Tour Dates:
Celtic Connections International Festival
Friday 24th January 2025
Irish Tour January 17-26th 2025
Irish Cultural Centre, London
September 1st 2024
Support for Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, across the UK and Ireland, AUG 2024
‘beautiful songs both traditional and self-penned, performed with all the assurance you would expect from these seasoned road warriors. A class act.” Edinburgh Music Review, Tradfest 2022
