Aoife O'Donovan's new album All My Friends is based around a collection of songs she wrote, inspired by women’s suffrage and the passage of the 19th amendment. Guests include Anaïs Mitchell.
Inspired by the women’s suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th amendment, Aoife O'Donovan's All My Friends is a deep dive into the reimagining of the life of one of the leaders of that movement - Carrie Chapman Catt - juxtaposed with O'Donovan’s own experiences as a woman and mother.
The album is comprised of a five-song “piece” with brass, orchestra, girls choir, bass, drums, and more, interspersed with four other songs - all dealing with the passing of the 19th amendment and how the country has and has not evolved over the past 100 years.
O'Donovan used speeches/letters from Catt and reframed them in a more modern light. “War Measure,” for example, is a reimagining of an actual letter that Woodrow Wilson wrote to Catt about women voting. And you’ll likely recognize the album closer, an arrangement of the Bob Dylan penned protest song, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.”