Website: http://susanmckeown.com

"A singer of passion, grace and striking presence with the ability to capture both the essence of a traditional folk song or the more hard-edged domain of contemporary adult rock; she seems to personify both past and present."
- IRISH EXAMINER

Susan McKeown is from Dublin, Ireland. 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.

Settling in the East Village over a decade ago she began carving out a career as a singer-songwriter with her debut album "Bones" in 1996. Her often-dark lyrics draw influences from sources as far flung as the ancient Irish legend of The T?°in, the words of Chief Seattle, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and urban life in Manhattan. Her arrangements are unusual, unexpected, and pleasantly surprising, from the hurdy-gurdy solo on the rock song "I Know, I Know" (Bones, 1996 Prime/SNG) to the pairing of banjo and erhu on "The Lowlands of Holland" (Lowlands, 2000 Green Linnet).

Hailed by Q Magazine as the surprise hit of Glastonbury 2000, Susan's heartfelt vocals and inspired music have influenced audiences and musicians alike. In December 2003 The Klezmatics invited Susan and Arlo Guthrie to be guest vocalists on their tribute concert to Woody Guthrie at New York's prestigious 92nd Street Y. Entitled "Holy Ground", the concert was a huge success - a recording and tour are in the works for 2006. Susan and Richard Thompson perform backing vocals on Cathal McConnell's song "The Gypsies". Fairport Convention recorded Susan's arrangement of the Robert Burn's classic "Westlin' Winds" for their album "The Wood and The Wire". Susan is the lead vocalist in the OBIE award-winning Mabou Mines production "Peter & Wendy", and scored music for the San Jose Repertory Theatre production of "By the Bog of Cats", which starred Holly Hunter.

"She walks on the wild side of Gaelic melody."
- BOSTON GLOBE

Susan has a successful career as a recording artist and tours internationally with her band The Chanting House. A performer with the unique ability to cross genres and defy categorization, Susan has been praised in the pages of Time Magazine and Rolling Stone, and has performed on the nationally syndicated radio programs A Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, Mountain Stage and The Infinite Mind. She has also appeared on the nationally televised CBS This Morning and Sessions At West 54th as the guest of Natalie Merchant.

Growing up in Dublin, Susan inherited her love of music from her mother Jeannie, an organist and composer who brought Susan, the youngest of her five children, along to her church and community gigs. Before she was a teenager Susan was taking her own solos at these events and winning classical and folk singing competitions around the city. 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.

The diverse range of projects with which McKeown has involved herself give the impression that what we have witnessed of her talent to date, is but a taste of what is to come.

"McKeown grabbed both song and audience by the throat, dragged them through heaven and hell and back again, and left the stage to the loudest applause heard all evening." - Rolling Stone