Eileen Ivers Captures Spirit of Irish Influence On American Roots Music in Epic New Album

Courtesy: Shock Ink

Beyond The Bog Road Taps Deep Wells Of History, Heartbreak And Joy

(Press Release) To appreciate not only the excellence of Eileen Ivers' Beyond The Bog Road ... more than that, to understand its importance to this uniquely innovative traditionalist ... consider the arc of her singular career.
 
The daughter of Irish immigrants in New York, she was still a child when she won the first of her nine All-Ireland Fiddle Championships. In years to come, she would record on more than 80 albums, perform with symphony orchestras, appear before presidents and royalty around the world.
 
Yet one achievement eluded her until now. With
Beyond The Bog Road, releasing on March 4, she looks outward and inward, toward the Irish saga in the New World and its presence in Ivers' heart, as inspiration and consolation, enduring and assuring.
 
Though Ivers has maintained a demanding concert schedule and involved herself in other projects, eight years have passed since her last album. Nonetheless, there could have been no more appropriate time to lay the groundwork for this milestone achievement. During her sessions, her father-in-law, mother-in-law and father all passed away. In that same period, she welcomed the addition of her son to the family. Deep feeling is the wellspring of Irish music, as Beyond The Bog Road confirms.

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The musicians and guest artists she assembled felt this too. They traveled with Ivers to the places conjured by her compositions and arrangements. On two tracks, bluegrass innovator Tim Shelton of  NewFound Road tapped into the Scots/Irish roots of his genre and its Appalachian antecedents. Ivers' unaccompanied introduction to "Walk On" evokes the Cajun world, itself the product of people transplanted far from home. Scots and Britons established vigorous presences in Canada's Nova Scotia, the inspiration for the medley "Mackerel Sky / Iona / Waiting For Aidan / Chasing Butterflies." Dance was a vital link between the Irish, Spanish and African communities in New Orleans; Louis Armstrong recognized it in his tune "Irish Black Bottom," presented here by Ivers with respect and playfulness.
 
In describing these and the other selections that she wrote or arranged for Beyond The Bog Road, Ivers (who also solely produced the album) remarks in her well-researched and informative 16-page liner notes booklet, "The bog roads of Ireland were paths into ancient sod fields, laboriously farmed to provide an essential source of fuel and warmth. These same roads led millions of emigrants away from their beloved homeland into a flourishing Diaspora who nurtured and passed down their traditions. These roads still lead away and guide home as they reflect an infinite timeline of past, present and future."
 
Ivers recalls those roads where she spent every summer of her youth, as they beckoned in the urban streetscape of New York. Beyond The Bog Road illuminates them as well for every listener who values what history and emotion can bring to music.
 

A nine-time winner of the All-Ireland fiddle championship (not to mention taking a first in the banjo category), Eileen Ivers co-founded the influential Cherish The Ladies Irish-American, all-female ensemble before embarking on her solo career. She has performed with more than 40 orchestras, worked with artists as diverse as Sting, Patti Smith and the Chieftains, played on the soundtrack to James Horner's milestone film Titanic and been featured instrumentalist in the original production of
Riverdance.

Beyond The Bog Road will be released on Entertainment One Music/Musical Bridge.
 
For further information, visit EileenIvers.com.
 
Beyond The Bog Road
1. Walk On (Ivers)
2. Kitty's Wedding (traditional)
3. Farewell My Love And Remember Me (traditional)
4. El Camino De Santiago / Moonlit Boreen / Canbrack Girls (Ivers)
5. Crossroads (Ivers/Mulligan)
6. Mackerel Sky / Iona / Waiting For Aidan / Chasing Butterflies (Ivers/Mulligan)
7. Linin' Track (traditional)
8. Green Fields Of America (Ivers/Mulligan)
9. Le Rêve du Quêteux Tremblay / Le Bedeau De L'Enfer (traditional)
10. Irish Black Bottom (Venaele/Armstrong)
11. Coming Home (Ivers)

Eileen Ivers on tour:
MARCH 4 Marin Center / Irish-American Crossroads Festival, San Rafael, CA
MARCH 11 Performing Center at Purchase College, Purchase, NY
MARCH 12 Toledo Symphony, Toledo, OH
MARCH 13 Kent, OH, Kent Stage
MARCH 17 Dallas Symphony, Greenville, TX
MARCH 18 Dallas Symphony, Dallas, TX
MARCH 19 Dallas Symphony, Dallas, TX
MARCH 25 Newton, NJ, Newton Theater
JULY 1 Vail, CO, w/Dallas Symphony
JULY 14 Cape Cod, MA, Melody Festival
JULY 15  Cohasset, MA, South Shore Music Conference
JULY 21 Trumansburg, NY, Grass Roots Festival
JULY 22 Cleveland OH, Irish Cultural Festival
JULY 23 Cleveland OH, Irish Cultural Festival
JULY 24 Cleveland OH, Irish Cultural Festival
AUGUST 13 St. Paul, MN, Irish Fair
AUGUST 14 St. Paul, MN, Irish Fair
NOVEMBER 27 Notre Dame, IN, University of Notre Dame