Artist Bio:
Iarla Ó Lionáird is not only the lead singer of Afro-Celt Sound System, one of the most long-lived and successful crosscultural ensembles, he's also an honored exponent of Irish sean-nós (literally, "old style"), a demanding a cappella tradition previously associated only with rural Gaelic-speakers. Like a modern Janus, this extraordinary artist lives with one face gazing backward into his nation's history while the other looks forward, helping to bring his birthright intact yet transformed into a brave and inclusive future.
He was born in 1964 into a musical family in Cuil Aodha, Ireland, part of the West Cork Gaeltacht (Gaelic-speaking region). One of 12 children of a schoolmaster, he grew up steeped in traditional song and oral histories. While still a very small boy, he came under the direct influence of Celtic revivalist Seán Ó Ríada (1933–'71) who had moved nearby with his family and was a frequent visitor to the Ó Lionáird house. When the maestro founded his famous all-male church choir in the town, Ó Lionáird, who was already performing in public by age five and made his recording debut at seven, became a member. He remained with the ensemble, now under the leadership of Ó Ríada's son, Peader, until he was 20. Meanwhile, Ó Lionáird was also mastering love songs, tunes that employed nature as metaphor, dirges and nationalist odes, soaking up an array of ambient sounds that would later turn up in his own music. He also won just about every music competition he entered.
As adulthood loomed, Ó Lionáird relocated to Dublin to study literature and found employment as a teacher. He became renowned a singer and instructor and, by 1989, was hosting a music show called The Pure Drop on Irish TV. But while his flexible, achingly pure tenor drew considerable admiration, not everyone understood the meaning behind his repertoire. Offers came from the music industry but Ó Lionáird hung back, feeling that the people involved could not comprehend where he was coming from or what he wanted to do. To him, sean-nós was not merely a collection of quaint melodies but a source of living power, and an expression of his most intimate self. So he decided to wait until the opportunity arose to interpret it as the living, constantly mutating style he knew it was.
Ó Lionáird eventually joined accordion player Tony McMahon for a concert and felt his inspiration revived. Then Ó Lionáird heard Peter Gabriel's Passion for the first time and was overwhelmed. He wrote the composer a six-page letter care of Real World Records, enclosing a tape of his own work; astonishingly, he received an invitation to visit and discuss his future. It was then that he met guitarist Simon Emmerson, then in the process of assembling a pan-Celtic/African dance band. Ó Lionáird signed on and with what eventually became Afro-Celt Sound System played at clubs, concert halls and festivals around the world and participated in their many best-selling albums. ACSS's wildly adventurous yet culturally respectful combination of Irish, Breton and assorted African sources, augmented but not smothered by beats and electronica, exhilarated audiences everywhere they touched down. When it was time for Ó Lionáird to make a solo album, he was introduced to veteran producer Michael Brook. The result was The Seven Steps to Mercy (1997) where Ó Lionáird's sean-nós heritage was enveloped by modal drones out of prehistory plus manufactured and natural sounds.
Ó Lionáird embarked upon another facet of his career when he joined Sinéad O'Connor and the famed duo of guitarist Dennis Cahill and fiddler Martin Hayes for a series of concerts based upon a book about the experiences of a struggling Irish immigrant in England. When a film was made of the novel, called I Could Read the Sky, Ó Lionáird composed a soundtrack that attempted to precisely mirror the visuals with corresponding sonic images, as a country-bred man faced up to the jarring realities of urban life. Ó Lionáird 's "Stretched on Your Grave" was the harrowing highlight of this score. In 1996, Ó Lionáird met Emer Vize and they were married two years later. They now live with their children in County Kilkenny, where Ó Lionáird maintains his own recording studio; his second solo album, Invisible Fields (2006), was recorded there. —Christina Roden
