Olivia Chaney | ||
| Allmusic Biography : A talented English folk artist and multi-instrumentalist, Olivia Chaney has become one of the most celebrated new stars in British folk. A gifted songwriter and interpreter of traditional songs with a clear, expressive voice and a sure hand with a number of instruments, including piano, guitar, harmonium, and cello, Chaneys fluid style evokes genre greats like Sandy Denny, Maddy Prior, and June Tabor. In addition to releasing acclaimed solo outings like The Longest River (2015) and Shelter (2018), Chaney has collaborated with contemporaries like Seth Lakeman, Kronos Quartet, and Alasdair Roberts, and is a member of Offa Rex, an eclectic folk-rock group that also includes the Decemberists. Chaney was born in Florence, Italy in 1982, and spent most of her childhood in Oxford, England. Early on, Chaney took notice of her fathers record collection, and began soaking up the influences of noted singer/songwriters (most notably Bob Dylan) and British folk-rock acts (such as Fairport Convention and Bert Jansch), while occasionally playing boogie-woogie with her dad on the family piano. By the time she was 14, Chaney began studying at Chethams School of Music in Manchester, after she won a scholarship to study piano and voice, and after focusing on the classical repertoire, she moved on to Londons Royal Academy of Music, also on scholarship, with an emphasis on jazz and improvisation. After completing her studies, Chaney divided her time between teaching herself the guitar and the harmonium and working as an actress and vocalist with several British theater companies, including Shakespeares Globe Theatre. In 2010, Chaney recorded and self-released an EP, which garnered enthusiastic reviews for her blend of traditional and contemporary styles and helped spread the word about her in the U.K. folk community. Chaney contributed tracks to a pair of compilations from Folk Police Records, The Oak, Ash and Thorn Project and The Woodbine & Ivy Band, both released in 2011, and she participated in recordings by Seth Lakeman (Hearts & Minds), Alasdair Roberts (A Working Wonder Stone), and Wolf People (Fain). Chaney also performed and recorded with the Balearic Folk Orchestra, and in 2013 she was nominated for two prizes at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, the Horizon Award (for best emerging artist) and Best Original Song (for her composition "Swimming in the Longest River"). Around the time of the Folk Awards, it was announced that Chaney had signed a recording deal with Nonesuch Records, and her first release for the label, the album The Longest River, was issued in April 2015. In 2017 she appeared on a pair of tunes on the Kronos Quartets Folk Songs LP, and released Queen of Hearts, the Grammy-nominated debut album by Offa Rex, a folk-rock supergroup featuring Chaney and the Decemberists. Chaney returned to the studio later that year to record her second LP for Nonesuch, Shelter. Produced by Thomas Bartlett (David Byrne, Father John Misty, St. Vincent), the album featured eight original songs and two covers, and was released in June 2018. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 4 Title: Olivia Chaney Released: Tracks: 5 Duration: 19:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Back Garden Beautiful (03:17) 2 Imperfections (04:23) 3 The Kings Horses (04:41) 4 Swimming in the Longest River (03:39) 5 Ballade (03:01) |
 | Album: 2 of 4 Title: The Longest River Released: 2015-04-28 Tracks: 12 Duration: 50:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 False Bride (04:04) 2 Imperfections (04:32) 3 Waxwing (03:25) 4 Loose Change (04:10) 5 Swimming in the Longest River (04:36) 6 The Kings Horses (04:24) 7 Too Social (03:37) 8 La Jardinera (03:22) 9 Theres Not a Swain (04:18) 10 Holiday (04:13) 11 Blessed Instant (05:10) 12 Cassiopeia (04:25) |
| The Longest River : Allmusic album Review : Olivia Chaney is being hailed as the new heroine of folk music in her native England, and one listen to her first full-length album, 2015s The Longest River, makes it clear shes everything shes cracked up to be -- a superb singer, a gifted multi-instrumentalist, a talented songwriter with a clear and distinct point of view, and an insightful interpreter of the work of other tunesmiths. At first glance, The Longest River recalls the work of Sandy Denny, mainly in the strength and clarity of Chaneys voice and her ability to sound determined and vulnerable at once. However, as much as Chaney has clearly studied Denny and the major U.K. folk acts of the 60s and 70s, shes found a voice of her own that embraces folkie tradition, the key figures in the golden age of singer/songwriters, and a lyrical worldview thats clever and compassionate but unblinkingly honest at the same time. Chaney navigates the tricky paths of love and eros ("Swimming in the Longest River"), recalls a less than successful sojourn in New York ("Imperfections"), and casts a sharp eye on mismatched relationships ("Too Social," "Holiday") as she sings in a manner thats lovely but too pointed in her observations to be simply pretty; Chaneys instrument somehow puts her characters into sharp relief rather than spraying a polish over their faults. She handles most of the instruments on The Longest River, confirming shes a sure hand on guitar, harmonium, piano, and synthesizers (though none of the keyboards here sound electronic), and Leo Abrahams (who co-produced the album with Chaney) and Jerry Boys (the veteran engineer who has worked with many of the British folk acts who informed Chaneys approach) have made The Longest River sound rich but spare at the same time, putting the focus on the artist and letting nothing else get in the way. If this album has a flaw, its a bit too severe at moments, presenting Olivia Chaney with a folkie purity that sometimes fails to acknowledge the eclectic range of her work. But ultimately, The Longest River is a brave album in which Chaney presents her music without filters, and reveals herself as a major talent who embraces the past and present with confidence and remarkable skill. In short, she really is that good. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 4 Title: Folk Songs Released: 2017-06-09 Tracks: 9 Duration: 39:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Oh Where (03:19) 2 Ramblin’ Boy (05:49) 3 The Butcher’s Boy (03:53) 4 Factory Girl (07:09) 5 Last Kind Words (03:17) 6 I See the Sign (06:02) 7 Montague, que tu es haute (02:31) 8 Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier (03:55) 9 Lullaby (03:35) |
| Folk Songs : Allmusic album Review : The Kronos Quartet have famously refused to allow themselves to be hemmed in by the narrower parameters of the traditional classical repertoire, devoting themselves to contemporary classical works, experimental pieces, and other compositions outside the usual confines of art music. Folk Songs clearly falls into the third category, and lives up to the title; it features nine selections drawn from the American, British, and French traditional songbooks, and finds the ensemble performing with vocalists Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant. With the exception of Giddens sprightly take on "Lullaby," the tone of the vocal performances is somber, with these songs depicting tragic and unfortunate circumstances. Though Kronos accompaniment is superb throughout, their arrangements are generally subtle and never upstage the singers. In fact, the quartets attack imaginatively meshes with the tone and spirit of the vocalists, especially as violinists David Harrington and John Sherba mimic Olivia Chaneys harmonium on "Ramblin Boy." While the strings dont aim for strictly Appalachian effects on these songs, most of these performances strike a satisfying balance between honoring the melodies of these numbers (the austere backing to Merchants turn on "The Butchers Boy") and bending them into new and intriguing shapes ("I See the Sign," where Amidons guitar picks out the framework of the tune and the quartet spins around it, by turns sweet and chaotic). And the instrumental version of "Last Kind Words" is a memorable blend of percussive pizzicato lines and bluesy sway that suggests this album could have been nearly as strong without the work of the vocalists, fine as they are (especially Giddens and Merchant, both of whom rise to this challenge with flying colors). Folk Songs is a smart and emotionally effective exploration of the folk tradition that respects musical history without being chained to it, and its an experiment the Kronos Quartet would do well to repeat in the future. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 4 Title: Shelter Released: 2018-06-15 Tracks: 10 Duration: 44:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Shelter (04:16) 2 Dragonfly (04:35) 3 Arches (06:10) 4 IOU (04:05) 5 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (04:33) 6 Colin and Clem (05:01) 7 O Solitude (04:05) 8 Long Time Gone (03:17) 9 Roman Holiday (04:13) 10 House on a Hill (04:03) |