Tyrrell’s incredible journey is one you’d be well advised to follow… A purveyor of elegant yet seductively psychedelic folk songs…. -Iain Shedden, The Australian
Story is at the forefront for troubadour Áine Tyrrell who draws deeply on her Irish roots, with one boot in the red dirt of her adopted country of Australia and the other firmly planted in her homeland. Underpinning her contemporary narratives and musical sojourns with a solid respect for tradition and a passion for adventure and travelling to new lands, both real, and musical.
‘I am Irish,’ she says, ‘but there is a real sense of place in Australia in my music. It’s not strictly Irish and it’s not Australian. I am so proud of the musical heritage I come from. The sense of tradition musically is earthing and grounding, but tradition in its essence has boundaries, expectations, and ingrained rules. Leaving home made me push my own boundaries of music and self. It has given me permission to break the rules,’ she says. ‘I have learned to dip from that deep well, but I value the freedom I have to express it in my way and I have Australia to thank for that.’
Her unique musicianship and an equally deft touch with a killer hook or a heartrending lament has attracted the attention of many celebrated musicians in Ireland and Australia including Glen Hansard who mentored her 2017 EP release ‘Fledgling Fall’. Tyrrell’s seductive, mournful voice, atop a stirring Celtic soul romp, is given a little extra finesse by her friend Hansard on her the single ‘Don’t Be Left Crying’. The song climbing to Number One on Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE’s Independent Music Charts on her first ever release in Ireland.
That’s just part of the story that continues to unfold for the Australia-based Irish singer Tyrrell on her extraordinary journey. The gypsy spirit runs strong in Tyrrell who spent 2017 on back to back musical odysseys across Europe, Ireland and Australia packed with guitars, banjos, tin whistles, and three kids aboard a bus. As if touring venues and playing world class festivals across the world wasn’t enough for Tyrrell, she used the time in Ireland to record her new album is due for release in 2018 with funding from Creative Victoria. The album is a musical journey across her homeland collaborating with long time musical producer, Mark Stanley (The Mary Janes) as well as Liam O’Maonlai (Hot House Flowers), Joe Doyle and Colm Mac Con Iomaire (The Frames), Karl Odlum (The Mary Janes) and Declan O’Rourke.
Her new album is something of a homecoming both musically and physically as Tyrrell returned to the places and the people that made her including her father, Seán Tyrrell, one of Ireland’s most revered and enduring folk singers.
‘The ethos of the album was coming back to find the source. My first album was very personal and it was cathartic for me to be able to pick up the pieces after a destructive relationship. This album is about my being who you I am; It’s about embracing all the stories who create who we are. When I left Ireland years ago I had stopped playing. Australia gave me the space to pick up my instrument and the courage to sing my stories. Bringing them home has been incredible. I found my voice 15,000 kilometres over the sea and I was heard and embraced by my country when I returned.’
Where It All Began
Tyrell’s own story in itself is the stuff of quiet cinematic inspiration.Three years ago, after a traumatic relationship break-up, the singer left home in Victoria with her three young children to travel across Australia in a 1966 Bedford bus. The coach not only became home and carried the singer to shows and festivals all over the country and to the various locations where she and Stanley recorded her first album ‘Queen of Swords’, including an underground cave in the South Australian mining town of Coober Pedy, it became her passage to freedom.
Tyrrell’s passionate music draws from a number of styles and influences. Certainly traditional Irish folk is in her blood, but so too are elements of country, soul and rock ‘n’ roll. Her upbringing in County Clare and in the United States (her mother is American) and her new-found love of Australia also means she is drawing from many cultures in her writing.
The last two years have been huge for Tyrrell. In addition to her own massive touring schedule, she joined Paul Kelly, Shane Howard, Pauline Scanlon, Declan O’Rourke, John Spillane and her father on the national concert tour Exile, a line-up of outstanding Irish and Australian artists who came together for a celebration of Irish influence in Australia, creating a rich tapestry of stories, imagery and music. 2016/17 saw Tyrrell perform successful headline tours around Australia, Europe and Ireland as well as performing at Woodford Folk Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Mullum Music Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival, many others and Electric Picnic in Ireland. She has earned the reputation of being an unmissable live act.
This year the ‘Queen of Swords’ stakes her claim and invites you to share the stories of her journey, and her soundtrack to salvation. Her second album is a call to arms, a siren’s wisdoms and warnings, and most importantly the soundtrack of a woman who walks her own beat.
Quotes
“She has music in her DNA. She has that rare ability to connect people through words and music.” -Liam O’Maonlaí
Tyrrell’s irrepressible personality and indefatigable nature pervades Queen of Swords. -Rhythms Magazine
Áine connects deeply with her music…emotionally stirring and uplifting. -National Celtic Festival
“Soul, intelligence, wit and wisdom, history and mystery and a voice that brings it all together. Don’t miss her, for fear that you might miss the very thing you need.” -Shane Howard
Tyrrell’s songwriting talent is evident in the crafting of the lyrics in this vigorous, barely tamed LP (Queen of Swords). -BMA Magazine
Her voice is unmistakably Irish, in a way few singers are any more. -Irish Echo
