How does one begin to describe the magnificent sound that pours from the throat of Susan McKeown? Picture, if you will, a passage of musical notes held aloft on a column of air. They hover, fluttering as a butterfly might, effortlessly defining a melody. Capable of quick, darting movements, they mostly soar. This would be one way to describe the sensation of hearing that voice. This does not, however, begin to describe the power she wields. The tone is dense, like oak, and rich, like stained mahogany. Although much of her material has a dark brooding quality, her stage presence has a light-hearted, relaxed, conversational tone. There's a lively spontaneity that suggests the possibility that anything can happen. Prior to one show at The Fez, just after 9/11, she stopped by a nearby firehouse and told the firemen about her performance that night and invited them to attend as her guests. She mentioned to the audience that they might be coming. They arrived midway through the show, sending a poignant shudder through the packed room. Cheers of awe and gratitude were showered on them. Susan's Celtic material seemed especially moving that night, fitting in with the images of mourning bagpipers we'd witnessed all too often on television. However, the swirling energetic rhythms of her music banished sorrow. For a short while, anyway.
A hallmark of her music is the ability and propensity to take traditional Celtic material and reach into other genres. She'll use Latin and African rhythms and she'll slide effortlessly into jazz vocal stylings. This what I wrote about Susan in a review of a performance in February of 2001: "The ace in Susan McKeown's deck is her soaring, powerful, classically trained voice which delivers displays of extended vocal passages with a gentle vibrato and lengthy notes held aloft on a sustained column of air. Added to this is her ability to take traditional Celtic forms and give them a jazz or rock treatment. She opened with a fast-paced jazzy piece, 'The Winter King', singing 'When the snow falls on the mountain… with the darkness, he's returning, The Winter King.' This was followed by a song about a hare being chased by hounds but was also delivered in a jazzy, funky style. Her sense of humor crops up constantly throughout her sets, as when she exaggerates her Irish accent, saying 't'anks,' following audience applause or when she introduces a song, speaking in a mock Brooklynese, 'This sawng is cawled…' The band is ably anchored by Lindsay Horner, who plays electric and double bass and saxophone and Jon Spurney who plays blistering lead guitar and piano. Most of the set took material from her new album, Lowlands. Then, after treating the crowd to some old favorites, "Snakes" and "Furious," from her first album, she finished the show with three encores. Two were covers. One was "Son of a Preacher Man" that gave Aretha and Dusty Springfield a run for their money. The other was a stunning version of 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes.'" Beginnings As a child Growing up in Dublin, Ireland, Susan was immersed in music. Susan's mom trained as a keyboard player and played both piano and organ, but focused on the organ. She was so good, that when the Hammond Organ manufacturers came to Ireland and looked for a demonstrator, they chose her. There was a Hammond C-3 in the house and as far back as Susan can remember, music was sung and played. Susan was the youngest of five offspring and she was the first and only one out of all of them to take a liking to music. This fulfilled an ardent wish for her mother, and the two of them sang classical and religious music everywhere; in the house, in the car, on the way to do errands, and on the way to her mother's singing jobs; Susan stayed home during the evening dinner dance gigs but accompanied her to the day jobs, where her mother played organ and sang at weddings and funerals. "That [the music] bonded us, in a whole other way," Susan said.
Loss and Moving Ahead When Susan turned 15, she lost her mother to a recurring bout with cancer. Of course, this was an enormous loss. However, something intervened that shielded her from its full impact. Susan's singing prowess had grown to the extent that she was seen as having the potential to be a professional opera singer and was offered a scholarship to study opera at the Municipal College of Music in Dublin. Her mother died in August and she started school in September. When I expressed shock at the difficulty of carrying such a heavy load along with all that grief, she said, "Oh, no… It allowed me to immerse myself in studying and I didn't have to deal with what was really going on until much later." For one year, she attended college classes at 8:00am for an hour, then went to regular high school at 9:00 o'clock. She also took classes at the college three afternoons after school and Saturdays. Classes included: music theory, chorale, piano, voice, sight reading, and breathing. The teachers at the college wanted her to quit regular high school, leave behind her general education, and study only classical music. She'd be expected to sign a contract and give herself over fully to formal studies. She chose not to follow that advice and stayed in regular high school. Folk, Not Opera After one year, she rebelled against the regimentation and dropped opera, deciding that she liked folk singing more. Singing folk music felt more natural and she liked the way it told a story. She sang lead for numerous bands. They'd busk in the streets and perform Irish and English folk music in pubs. Initially, she'd hated studying Irish language and folklore in grade school and the way it was crammed down their throats. Later on, when she began singing as a teenager, she realized that she liked it. She finished her l ast year of high school, took a year off and then attended the University College, Dublin, majoring in English and Philosophy. She sang in the streets and in the pubs with groups throughout the last year in high school and during college "for fun and to make a little money, but mostly just to keep making music." She reflected on how she came to take charge of matters when dealing with the groups she performed with. in Dublin. In the usual male sexist manner, predominant in Ireland at the time, a promoter would come to settle up the fee or book the band and first approach one of the male members who'd then send him over to Susan, saying "She's organizing things." It went back, she said, to watching her mother going out, making music, making money, and taking charge of her own life. She noticed the difference, she said, when she came to the United States. There was less questioning when it came to women being in charge of their careers. Coming to America In 1990 she accepted a scholarship to the American Music and Dramatic Academy in New York. It wasn't until she arrived here that she realized that it was a school for musical theater, which she really wasn't into. She decided that, well, since she was here, she'd stick with it. After one year, she dropped the program (which included dancing -- definitely not her cup of tea) but stuck with the voice teacher at the school. The holistic style that the teacher employed really agreed with her. It involved dealing with and eliminating stress in her life, and helped her get rid of "all the bad habits" she picked up "singing on the streets of Dublin." She added, "I haven't had a sore throat from singing since." For a while, she made ends meet by waitressing and taking acting jobs at the Irish Arts Center, but before long was able to make music her full-time career.
The Career In the mid to late 1990's, the East Village club of Siné (pronounced shin-ay) showcased a prodigious array of talent. It was there that I first heard Susan with her band, The Chanting House. With Michelle Kinney on cello and Chris Cunningham on lead guitar, and Lindsay Horner on bass, their acoustic sensibility was perfect for the small space that Siné occupied. They could also crank it up at larger venues, however, as shown when they played the Prospect Park bandshell in Brooklyn, NY. During this time, in 1995, the CD Bones was released. With three exceptions, it showcased the songs she had been writing since she'd come to New York. The entire album is one woman's call to arms, taking back rights that were once denied.. Some standouts (with some lyrics thrown in here), included: "Cé Leis é," …I don't want to possess you…" Albatross, …Like an anchor, you clung to my rock… "Snakes," All of this pain, o mercy sweet… all of this pain, I'll stamp it out beneath my feet… "Love and Superstition," …Whoever said it was gonna be easy… thanks for the lesson, I hope I learned it well… and "Storm in a Teacup," …Has your world turned upside down, is it hard for you to love me now… And there's more, lots more. What a gem of an album. Through the Bitter Frost and Snow (1997) is a collection of both traditional songs and some that Susan and Lindsay Horner wrote. It has a jazz-like feel throughout owing to bassist Lindsay's strong grounding in that genre (multi-talented, He often contributes on woodwinds as well). Susan had been dissuaded from singing jazz by a musician who thought she shouldn't extend herself outside of Celtic folk. It was Lindsay, she says, who told her what bullshit that was, and gave her impetus once again to use her talents as far as she wished. We have a lot to thank him for. One standout for me is "Bold Orion" (by Leo Kretzner), an epitome of a folk song given a jazz treatment. Susan's voice glides through the lyrics while the bass and drums between Lindsay and Jeff Berman really cook. On Lowlands (2000) the theme is entirely traditional. Susan sings in Gaelic on the very first track "An Nighean dubh/The Dark Haired Girl," (and two others as well) and the effect is powerful as she glides over flutes and the beat of the boron. Brilliant fiddler Johnny Cunningham, formerly of Silly Wizard joins her on this album, as well as Joanie Madden of Cherish the Ladies. On "The Lowlands of Holland," Susan chose solely the erhu, a Chinese 2-stringed, vertical fiddle and a banjo for backing instruments, showing once again her propensity for stretching the boundaries of Celtic music. Her most current CD, Prophecy, is at present available only at Susan's concerts and at her website, http://house-of-music.com/susan. Dominated by original compositions, she considers it to be a follow-up to Bones. It's being shopped around for a label. Hopefully, this will come to pass soon and it will find a place on the music store shelves some time after the first of the new year. If Susan's earlier work is like a hit of raw, dark chocolate (and it surely is), this CD, produced by her and guitarist Jon Spurney is a sundae with hot fudge, whipped cream, and the chocolate chunks as well. The instrumental support breaks new ground. Track three, "Chances Are," (definitely NOT the Johnny Mathis song) an absolutely sumptuous feast, marches along stately to a beat reminiscent of Ravel's Bolero. Jon Spurney contributes e-bow guitar, Hammond B-3 organ and mellotron. The addition of a muted trumpet floating lightly in the background is a delicious touch. On this CD, Natalie Merchant makes a welcome appearance, with a background vocal on "Rivers" and in a duet on the Emily Dickenson poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," set to music. Susan has said that she can't just write songs simply for the sake of writing. They have to come, unbidden, from a place deep inside of her, usually not the jolliest of sorts. If the songs on this CD are a good example, it's working. Life is bustling these days, with the addition of new daughter Roisin (pronounced Ro-shan), writing yet another album, and who knows, someday maybe, an album of cover songs (my suggestion, as well as one other person). She does the greatest covers! We talked about her regimen for sustaining her magnificent vocal instrument. She feels that everyone has to find what works best for themselves. She stays limber by singing around the house on a regular basis, pehaps a bit more on the day of a gig. She stays hydrated by drinking plenty of water and finds that the breathing excercises only become necessary when he regular routine isn't working. One recent addition to the routine is running. She likes to run one or two miles per day and says that she finds it "meditative." That's fitting… her music has a similar effect on those who listen to her. It might be meditative, or contemplative, or perhaps a sense of sheer exaltation. If readers haven't exerienced that effect or have any doubts, pick up a CD or better yet, shut the TV off, drop the remote and get to one of her shows, Then buy the CD(s). Bones and Through the Bitter Frost and Snow are available on PrimeCD records at www.primecd.com Lowlands is available on Green Linnet records at www.greenlinnet.com Susan is scheduled to play at the Chenango Colorscape Festival in Norwich, NY on September 6th at 5pm. She's also slated to play on September 5th at the Living Room in its new location at 154 Ludlow Street in the East Village in New York City in late October. Check the Living Room web site and ours for updates . Looking a bit more forward, she'll be playing at The Music at the Mission, Episcopal Mission in the Highlands, 253 Marshall Hill Rd. in West Milford on February 21st. For gig updates and for compilation CDs that feature Susan, check her website http://house-of-music.com/susan.