Aoife O'Donovan

With special guest Hawktail

Sanders Theatre

Fri. March 17, 8:00 PM

Aoife O'Donovan

With her ethereal voice and substantive songwriting, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and musician Aoife O'Donovan captivates fans and critics alike. She has released three acclaimed solo albums, is co-founder of the bands I’m With Her and Crooked Still, and is the featured vocalist on The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. A Boston-area native, she returns to Celebrity Series following her celebrated 2021 Celebrity Series at Home streaming concert with Chris Thile.

For her show at Sanders Theatre, O’Donovan performs Bruce Springsteen's 1982 Nebraska album solo in its entirety, in one of just nine US dates. The New York Times described Aoife's 2020 performance of the album as "saluting Springsteen's songcraft with clear, pitch-perfect articulation and affable delivery."

Hawktail

Hawktail is the instrumental acoustic quartet of fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice, and mandolinist Dominick Leslie. Place of Growth, acoustic quartet Hawktail’s third and most conceptual album, is a journey through the natural world—a journey designed for a single sitting. From the weightless joyride of “Updraft” to the reflective daydreaming of “Shallows”, each track sketches its own scenery. It's the season of sweet mandolin bells when the cry of a fiddle sounds at night, when guitars are played outdoors and upright bass propels the dance. This modest instrumentation—realistically captured—holds worlds within.

Hawktail opens, and members of Hawktail support O'Donovan on a set of her originals to follow the Nebraska performance.

“...[her voice,] at once open and mysterious, compelling in its understatement. Where another singer might head for a showy, dramatic peak, O’Donovan often eases back, letting her phrases evaporate like mist.”
New York Times