Edel Murphy feat. Ewan Cowley announce their debut single release “Motherland” the Natalie Merchant classic.
DEBUT SINGLE :: 18.10.2024 - PRE-SAVE :: https://lnk.fuga.com/motherland
Written by respected US songwriter Natalie Merchant, “Motherland”, performed by Edel Murphy and produced by Ewan Cowley, is the first single to be released from their touring show “Motherland Songs”. Set to a widescreen, contemporary folk sound featuring Edel Murphy’s signature vocal poignancy, the song is a mother’s cry from the heart in response to the lure of coming adulthood, exploring identity, displacement and belonging.
EDEL MURPHY
Edel is a singer, actor and musician from Dublin, Ireland. Early in her career she toured the world backing up Emmy-nominated Irish music group Celtic Woman and starred as Soprano Soloist with the world renowned Riverdance – The Show at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin and at Hammersmith Apollo, London. She featured at 3Arena Dublin in early 2020 at that show’s 25th anniversary run and appears on its 25th Anniversary filmed special.
Starring in Motherland Songs since its debut show in Dublin in 2019, Edel has toured Ireland several times with the show to wide acclaim and been described as having “a voice that would silence angels” (artsreview.com).
EWAN COWLEY
Ewan is a musician, producer and solo artist with credits ranging from The High Kings, Moya Brennan, Bill Whelan, Lisa Lambe, Hayley Westenra, Tommy Fleming. Ewan’s debut solo EP “The Elevated Life” received wide national airplay and featured the duet “The Thorns From Your Heart” featuring Lisa Lambe which was included on RTE Radio 1’s Recommended list.
Edel and Ewan began their collaboration when they were touring the world in the hit show Celtic Woman. During jam sessions on long tour bus journeys across the US, with ukuleles and guitars being passed around, the pair found they shared a love of American songwriters like Nanci Griffith and Natalie Merchant, Nina Simone and Paul Simon. When they both came off the road to continue their solo careers, the idea of creating a show for Edel to showcase her unique voice and celebrate songs written or made famous by great female artists had been born.
In 2016 Edel released her first EP, “Bluebonnet Spring”, featuring her original song “Careless Hands” which has enjoyed both UK and Irish radio play (BBC, RTÉ) followed by the single ‘Atlantic Sky’ (2018). Future recordings will include studio performances of songs from the Motherland Songs show released via Irish label Cavalier Records and distributed via Crashed Music Group.
MOTHERLAND SONGS
Motherland Songs is a live music show starring Irish singer Edel Murphy, journeying into the heart of Irish music and Americana. Edel and live band perform folk anthems and modern classics from such songwriting greats as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Nanci Griffith, Nina Simone and Kate Bush intertwined with traditional Irish songs and poetry in a revival of shared Transatlantic heritage.
Unforgettable female characters are the heartbeat of Motherland Songs. Many of the songs in the show have been written or made famous by the greatest female artists, celebrating universal experiences of working life, motherhood, inequality, independence, love, and the search for social justice.
Following her extensive tours of the US, Europe and Asia as a vocalist with hit shows Celtic Woman and Riverdance, Edel Murphy brings you through the Dustbowl of the Great Depression, into the homes of 1950s urban desperation, down streets of protest in the 1960s and into the tumult of the 21st century.
Motherland Songs is a historical jukebox of memorable women, from the teenage runaway of “She’s Leaving Home” by The Beatles to Dolly Parton’s infamous and misunderstood “Jolene”. “No Frontiers” is an Irish song which lovingly evokes Amelia Earhart, the US heroine of transatlantic flight whose plane touched down in the north of Ireland in 1932, completing the first flight across the Atlantic by a lone female pilot.
Other texts are taken from contemporary news reports, diary entries, interviews and published work by US poets including Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou.
Dynamic and character driven musical interpretations are interspersed with poignant and socially relevant spoken word from such Irish writers as Sara Berkeley and Edna O’Brien.
LINKS
http://www.instagram.com/edelchanmurphy
http://www.instagram.com/ewancowleymusic
http://www.instagram.com/motherlandsongs
http://www.facebook.com/edelchanmurphyperformer