Age of Apathy

Grammy ® award-winner, Aoife O’Donovan’s first solo studio album since 2016 was produced by Joe Henry and recorded at Full Sail Studios in Orlando, Florida. The co-founder of the trio, I’m With Her, continues her passion for collaboration on this album that includes guest appearances by Madison Cunningham and Allison Russell. The album’s singles include “Phoenix,” “Passengers,” and “Prodigal Daughter.”

The 11 tracks on this record came together in an extraordinarily fertile few months, sparked by O’Donovan’s move out of New York in September 2020. Transplanted to the lush forests of central Florida, O’Donovan found something she’d never known before: the time and space to craft an album away from a packed performing schedule and the rigors of the road.

Joe Henry’s suggestion to feature Madison Cunningham and Allison Russell on vocals took the music to places that O’Donovan could not have imagined alone. “Allison and Madi are so unique,” she says. “Having never sang togeth – er in person, they were doing what they heard, singing from the heart, as opposed to what I’d have told them to do in a typical studio setting.” On “Galahad,” Russell’s high tones manifested the ghostly figure of an Arthurian maiden; on “Passengers,” Cunningham added a winning electric guitar line alongside her iridescent vocals.

Despite the success and fame of many musical projects – from Crooked Still to I’m With Her, from her Live from Here collaborations with Chris Thile to her two previous solo albums – this album still feels like a personal breakthrough to O’Donovan. “I love singing and performing so much that I’ve never really considered myself a songwriter in the same way that some people do,” she says. “But I’m really proud of these songs and the experience of writing them has really given me a new confidence.”