Spotlight Album Review: Aoife O’Donovan "All My Friends"

The first time I heard Aoife O’Donovan was in 2001 when violinist Matt Glazer brought the Wayfaring Strangers (a talented ensemble including Tony Trischka on banjo and Andy Statman on mandolin) into WFUV’s Studio A for a session spotlighting Shifting Sands of Time, an album of largely traditional Appalachian tunes played with a jazz feel. One of the vocalists was Aoife, then a student at the New England Conservatory. Even then she had the irresistible, velvety voice that’s animated songs for the progressive string band Crooked Still, sessions with Garrison Keillor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Chris Thile, the Grammy-winning folk trio I’m With Her (with Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins), and six full-length CDs.

Aoife’s new release, All My Friends, is an ambitious departure, centering on songs inspired by the women’s suffrage movement, including a five-song suite that was commissioned by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021 and four others that augment the theme. It’s the first album Aoife has produced, with her husband Eric Jacobsen (the music director of the Orlando Phil) as a co-producer.  I had the privilege of hearing Aoife in conversation with Rosanne Cash at the Greene Space – two eloquent women discussing a challenging topic – and as Rosanne commented, the album is rich and deep.

The first three tracks all come from the suite. The title song, “All My Friends,” starts acapella, then builds beautifully, with The Westerlies brass section, The Knights strings and woodwinds, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus – the kind of arrangement used by Jean Rohe’s “New National Anthem Arise! Arise!).” It’s written, as are most of the songs, from the point of view of Carrie Chapman Catt, the early 20th century suffragist leader. As her followers approach Tennessee, the last state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, she cheers them on:

Marching on, the Tennessee dawn is lifting o’er the fields

Steady on, America, you know it’s time to heal

If you open your arms you’ll feel us,

warm and ready for the change

all my friends..

The next track, “Crisis,” is also a call to action to the women whose resolve during the Great War has made a difference:

oh America look up at that north star- one day it’ll come down

the time has come to shout aloud

in every city and village and town

the woman’s hour has struck

the woman’s hour is now

Speaking of World War I, “War Measure” is adapted from a letter of support to Catt from President Woodrow Wilson (“We need you in our vision of affairs/ your skills are beyond all compare/You got sympathy and insight/your shoulders bear the weight of the world”).

The next two songs, which were commissioned by the Fresh Grass Foundation, were originally performed at the Fresh Grass|North Adams Festival. Less produced and not drawn directly from Catt’s writing, they do apply to the topic at hand. “Someone to Follow” is a vote of encouragement to Aoife’s seven-year-old daughter (“I know whichever way the wind blows you’re gonna face it/Stand tall you can be someone to follow- you’re gonna make it’). “The Right Time,” with a great melodic hook, is addressed to Carrie Chapman Catt herself (“I feel my power growing/Blood pulsing under thick skin/I’m gonna move a mountain baby/That’ll give them something to think about”).

“Daughters,” with choral backing, is a plea to the movement to keep the faith (“The enemies of our cause they try to stop us/But before the vote is won, we can’t leave the fighting to the daughters of our daughters”). The climax of the original suite, “America, Come,” uses the orchestra and chorus under a rock beat to uplift the listener with Catt’s actual words from her speeches:

What is the democracy for which the world is battling

for which we offer up our man power, woman power,

money power, our all?

The world does not wait for such as these

nor does liberty pause to heed the complaints of

man or woman.

This is followed by “Across the Finish Line,” a quiet contemporary song in which Aoife, with supporting vocals by Anais Mitchell, reflects on what lessons we might glean from history:

What is this democracy?

Carrie I fear that we’ve made our beds 

If I could change a mind, whose mind?  

If I could make something to get us o’er the finish line 

We’re living in hard times, feeling hard times, these are hard times

The album concludes with a cover of Dylan’s “The Lonesome Hattie Carroll,” with a brass intro of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It’s an unexpected coda, but with Dylan’s words of the 1963 incident serving as reportage, it can be seen as a response to many current events (“Oh, but you who philosophize, disgrace and criticize all fears/Bury the rag deep in your face for now's the time for your tears”).

Aoife has said, “Against the backdrop of a war, a pandemic, poverty, and lack of education, the movement never gave up the fight. We must continue to honor this legacy.” Consider that even now the ERA has never been ratified. During Rosanne’s conversation, she asked Aoife who is writing great concept albums. At the end she concluded, “I realize it’s you!” At a time when our democracy is threatened in so many ways, All My Friends is a stirring reminder of what we can do.

photo by Sasha Israel