Bman's Blues Report: Eleanor McEvoy's new single "Harbour" coincides with January UK tour

MOSCODISC is pleased to announce the Monday 23rd January 2012 UK release of Eleanor McEvoy’s new single Harbour, originally featured on Eleanor’s 2010 album I’d Rather Go Blonde. Harbour is the follow-up single to 2011’s You’ll Hear Better Songs (Than This), taken from McEvoy’s critically acclaimed 2011 album, Alone.

"Harbour" by Eleanor McEvoy

Fresh from her 4th December 2011 guest appearance on BBC Radio 2’s Weekend Wogan (where she performed You’ll Hear Better Songs and a haunting interpretation of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors), Eleanor will embark on a series of UK concerts in January, including the Song For Ireland at Celtic Connections Festival, Glasgow.

Harbour is a simple love song about not wanting to face life and wanting so much for someone to make it all better - Will you be a harbour? / At my shoulder / Always watching over / Try to hold me closer / Shelter me and shield me from the world.

When it came time to record the Alone album, Eleanor headed to a studio tucked away in the Norfolk countryside. “In the converted barn, I stepped up to the microphone and sang my songs,” recalls Eleanor. “My state of mind wasn’t the brightest, but there was something about being in the studio with no agenda, deadline, or pressure, it just came out.”

The product of those tranquil sessions resulted in her current album Alone that includes incredibly haunting performances - up close, personal, and timeless. This is Eleanor McEvoy in her most intimate setting, running through the journey of her writing and singing career.

McEvoy is one of Ireland’s most accomplished female singer/songwriters. Her life as a musician began at the age of four. She has released albums on the Geffen and Columbia record labels and continues to tour the world over to her ever increasing legion of fans.

Eleanor’s seductive and compelling Irish accent adds an emotional punch to her quirky, perceptive songs, ranging from love ballads and story-telling to ironic, amusing and all-consuming observations on the irony of everyday life. Respected as a fine multi-instrumentalist (violin, guitar, piano) in both traditional and contemporary music, she is best known for Only A Woman’s Heart, the title track of an anthology album that’s gone on to be the best selling recording in Irish chart history.

A Woman’s Heart celebrates its 20th anniversary in the guise of four consecutive nights of concerts at Dublin’s prestigious Olympia Theatre from 29th February to 3rd March, 2012.

Wednesday 25th January
BOOTLEGGERS MUSIC BAR, KENDAL, CUMBRIA
Tickets: £6 advance, £6.75 advance PayPal, £7.50 on the door
Box Office: 01539 723 824 / www.bootleggersbar.com
24 Finkle Street, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 4AB

Friday 27th January, 7.30pm
CELTIC CONNECTIONS FESTIVAL,
GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL
Song For Ireland featuring Eleanor McEvoy
Tickets: £23, £20, £18 / Box Office: 0141 353 8000
Book Online: www.celticconnections.com/book/event/118454
Song For Ireland info: www.celticconnections.com
2 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3NY

Sunday 29th January, 8pm
COX’S YARD
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, WARWICKSHIRE
Tickets: £8 advance (plus booking fee), £10 on the door
Box Office: 01789 404 600 / Book Online - www.coxsyard.co.uk
Bridgefoot, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6YY

Monday 30th January
O2 ACADEMY 2 ISLINGTON, LONDON
Eleanor McEvoy, Al Lewis, Peter Katz
Tickets: £12.00 (plus booking fee) / Box Office: 0844 477 2000
Book Online: www.o2academyislington.co.uk
N1 Centre, 16 Parkfield Street, Islington, London, N1 0PS

Friday 24th February, 7.30pm
BELFAST NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL
CASTLEREAGH CIVIC CENTRE, BELFAST
Tickets: £8 (plus booking fee)
Book Online: www.ticketmaster.ie
1 Bradford Court, Upper Galwally, Belfast, BT8 6RB

Saturday 25th February, 3pm
BELFAST NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL
CUBE CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE, BELFAST
Tickets: £18.00 (plus booking fee)
Book Online: www.ticketmaster.ie
2 University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NH

ELEANOR McEVOY - OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY

Exposed to music at a very early age, Dublin born Eleanor grew up in a strict Catholic household in the grey north-side suburb of Cabra. After a musical upbringing playing the piano, violin and performing on stage with her older siblings, Eleanor graduated in music from Trinity in Dublin and set out to pay her way through life as a jobbing musician. Already writing her own songs, she was waiting for the opportunity to branch out on her own. To initially pay her way, Eleanor spent 4 years in Ireland's National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), she recorded studio sessions as a singer, fiddle and keyboard player and joined Irish diva Mary Black's touring band. She then decided to cash in her savings and go for it; spending the cash on better song demos, home recording gear and a decent guitar.

Out of the blue, two chances came along at once. Mary and her record company manager/husband decided Eleanor's song "A Woman's Heart" would be a fitting title and lead song for the compilation they were putting together of contemporary Irish female performers. Simultaneously the legendary Tom Zutaut of Geffen Records (who signed the likes of Guns N Roses and Motley Crue), on a scouting mission to Dublin, heard Eleanor in a pub, bought her demo cassette and on the spot decided he wanted to sign her to Geffen.

Everything changed and Eleanor was off to tour the world, while at the same time A Woman's Heart went into the Irish charts and still remains the biggest Irish selling record in the home market.

Zutaut’s departure from Geffen led to Eleanor re-signing to Columbia Records in New York City where she and her band cut the album What’s Following Me? Columbia reinvested, but Eleanor let the band go and went in to a French Chateau with producer Rupert Hine (Rush, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner) and engineer Ruadhri Cushnan (George Michael, Mumford and Sons, the Maccabees). Events took a lurch sideways, as Eleanor was attacked walking home from the studio in London. Traumatised and with a damaged hand, Eleanor had to recruit a new band to tour the album. Sadly the album was not what Columbia had in mind, and after the briefest airing of Snapshots, they let her go. (Bizarrely Sophie, a song from the album has become a focus of hope and comfort for anorexics worldwide on YouTube with videos made with the song as the soundtrack)

Having recovered and not about to give up, in 2001 Eleanor moved to Wexford and recorded Yola, a far more tranquil and thoughtful album, which remains to this day a talisman in the Hi-Fi community.

Embarking on full time song-writing during this period, she’s co-written with Rodney Crowell, Lloyd Cole, Henry (The Christians) Priestman and Johnny Rivers. Her most recent writing companion is Dave Rotheray of the Beautiful South. This culminated in the recording and performance of Dave’s Life Of Birds album. Eleanor co-wrote five songs, sang and played on several of the tracks and was a special guest on Dave’s 2011 tour.

ELEANOR McEVOY - DISCOGRAPHY

ELEANOR McEVOY - 1993
WHAT’S FOLLOWING ME? - 1996
SNAPSHOTS -1999
YOLA - 2001
EARLY HOURS - 2003
OUT THERE - 2005
LOVE MUST BE TOUGH - 2008
I’D RATHER GO BLONDE - 2010
ALONE – 2011