SUSAN MCKEOWN

Growing up in Dublin, Susan inherited her love of music from her mother Jeannie, an organist and composer. After stints as a student of opera and musical theatre in Dublin's Municipal College of Music and New York's American Musical and Dramatic Academy respectively, Susan settled in Manhattan's East Village and from there carved out a career over the last decade as both a highly original singer-songwriter and a gifted interpreter of traditional song. An adventurous vocalist and producer, Susan has established herself not only as an interpreter of traditional song with "one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in Irish music" (THE IRISH VOICE) but also as a woman who rocks. Susan has a successful career as a recording artist and tours internationally with her band The Chanting House She is a performer with the unique ability to cross genres and defy categorization.

Sweet Liberty

• Susan McKeown
• 468029
• Harmonia Mundi

An adventurous vocalist and producer, Susan assembled a small group of remarkable musicians to record an album of beauty and simplicity which focuses squarely on the songs and on Susan's clear, stirring contralto. Susan is an enthusiastic collector of traditional songs and endeavors to bring to new audiences rare songs that have yet to be explored in the current Celtic revival. Susan's arrangements of these songs sometimes employ traditional instrumentation but are as likely to surprise the listener with instrumentation not expected on an album of Celtic songs.