It’s been nearly a decade since Irish singer-songwriter Karan Casey played a Tucson concert, but she hopes her show on Saturday, Nov. 4, makes up for some of that lost time.
“We will be performing some of my older repertoire and songs from the new album and actually showcasing new material that I have also composed,” Casey said in an email interview about her In Concert Tucson show with her trio — violinist and vocalist Niamh Dunne and guitarist Sean Óg Graham.
“They are amazing. We have been working together as a trio for some time now and they were both a big part of the new album,” she said, referring to “Nine Apples of Gold,” which she released last February.
This is the first time Casey, whose neo-trad Irish band Solas last performed here in 2012, is bringing the trio to Tucson as part of her two-week tour that will hit 10 cities in the Southwest and Northwest United States through Nov. 12 to promote the album.
“Nine Apples” is her 12th career album and her first since 2018’s “Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale.” The album explores female empowerment through friendships and “the camaraderie found in female activism in striving and working towards a fairer more equitable world for everyone,” she said.
“If women are treated with the respect we deserve, then we all benefit from this,” said Casey, a cofounder of FairPlé, an Irish organization formed in 2020 to advocate for gender balance and representation in Irish traditional and folk music.
The situation in her native Ireland regarding women’s role in music influenced Casey’s writing. So did the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Irish singer-songwriter Karan Casey returns to Tucson with her trio for a show Saturday, Nov. 4.
“Obviously as someone who has a deep engagement with America — I lived in America and have worked in America for over 30 years — so in celebrating and advocating for female reproductive rights, I’m having that conversation about Ireland,” she said. “It’s also incredible to me that Ireland is now one of the more forward thinking countries and we have become a beacon of hope on these issues worldwide.”
The Irish Times said the album “speaks of an artist in her prime in full possession of her expressive powers and using them to shine a light on the many inequities that blight women’s lives.” The review also praised the album for echoing the chutzpah of the late Sinéad O’Connor.
Casey said she hopes listeners will “feel emboldened and moved by the camaraderie and female stories of friendship and love to be kinder to women in our everyday lives, as well as in a broader political or socio-economic context.” But she also hopes we hear the beauty of the singing, which includes duets with Irish contemporary vocalist Pauline Scanlon, Irish blues singer Ríoghnach Connolly and Dunne, “the harmonies, the words and images, the beautiful balm of the melodies, the instrumentation and the arranging.”
Graham cowrote several of the songs and produced the album. In addition to singing on the album, Dunne wrote the string arrangements.
“We are in the zone as a musical group now and it’s a very special thing for me at this stage in my life and career to have been gifted this musical treat.” Casey said.
The Karan Casey Trio will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4831 E. 22nd St. Tickets are $27 through inconcerttucson.com.
Up next: In Concert Tucson will host a performance of “Irish Christmas in America“ featuring vocalist Caitríona Sherlock on Dec. 9 at the Berger Center for the Performing Arts.
