SongLives
Casey Neill and Penny O’Brien

Admission:
$15 member /
$18 non-member

Please note this event is General Admission. Our box office opens one hour before each performance. Please arrive on time to pick your seat.

SongLives

Curated by Grammy Award-winner Susan McKeown

SongLives brings the rich tradition of busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street to the wonderful intimacy and acoustics of the Donaghy Theatre

Casey Neill and Penny O’Brien
Friday, May 30 | 8 pm

“Remarkably good songwriting.” – No Depression

"Portland’s strongest brand of unfettered, contemporary roots rock.” – Mark Stock, Willamette Week

Casey Neill is an acclaimed songwriter and bandleader from Portland, Oregon with a sound that explores haunting ballads, high octane indie-folk, and Scots/Irish melody. For over a decade he has performed live shows throughout the world solo and as a member of the Norway Rats, as well as sharing stages with Jello Biafra, Pete Seeger, Sunny Day Real Estate, Martin Hayes, Johnny Cunningham, Kevin Burke, Camper Van Beethoven, & countless more. Whether it is his weather beaten stories of romance, his observations celebrating society's miscreants, or his travels from the rural West to New York City street life, Casey’s songs possess a lyrical song craft “with stories well told.” (Steve Earle). Irish supergroup Solas recorded Casey's original song "Lowground" on their CD's Waiting for an Echo and Reunion.

Rough, rugged and always honest, Casey’s performances are a soul-searing good time for all— “be it through raucous rockers, fragile acoustic ballads, ragged country, passionate bursts of punk fury or soulful touches of Irish folk.” (Splendid Magazine)

Penny O'Brien is a spirited singer-songwriter from County Wicklow who has been based in New York for the past 5 years. With a harrowing voice leading her stripped-down, strayed and moody guitar sound, she's been compared to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling and a female Jeff Buckley. Penny has opened for Luka Bloom, Cathy Davey and The Minutes and collaborated with fellow female singer-songwriter, Sorcha Richardson, and funk artist, Ian Bakerman of Phony Ppl, here in New York. Look out for her debut EP in the next year.

Past performers include Susan McKeown, Declan O’Rourke, Michael Brunnock, Brendan O’Shea, Mark Geary, Ann Scott, Niall Connolly, Wallis Bird, Anthony Mulcahy, Mundy, The Guggenheim Grotto, Jenna Nichols, Heathers, Gerry Leonard, Eleanor McEvoy, Warren Malone, John Spillane, Eamon O'Tuama, Mick Flannery, Casey Black.