They call her a singer of passionate voice of both traditional music and that of a hard-edged rocker.
She is Grammy Award winner Susan McKeown, and she returns to the Whidbey Institute for a special concert at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 28 at Thomas Berry Hall.
Once heard, it’s hard to compare this vocalist to anyone else. Her most recent release, “Singing in the Dark,” is a work that explores creativity, suffering and the pursuit of happiness.
It is an album she has been developing over the past seven years, and one in which she explores the relationship between mental illness and unbridled creativity.
The concert will feature songs from the new album.
“I’m thrilled to be touring this album, because it was many years in the making,” McKeown said.
“I’m already finding that many people are writing to me or approaching me after performances to talk about personal stories and how much this album means to them.”
Depression hits home with a lot of people, and McKeown delves into its deep mire with abandon, as if to lend her voice as a balm to comrades amid the wreckage of its effects.
Originally from Ireland, and having lived in New York City for some 20 years, she uses the words of some of the greatest poets from both Britain and America, shaping these mostly dark and intricate poems to music with the help of her band, the excellent Frank London and Lisa Gutkin of The Klezmatics.
McKeown talks about the journey to make the album.
“I sensed great shame and secrecy around the subject of depression and mania, and I knew it wasn’t right,” she said. I started to read all I could about it: I read some scientific writing on the subject, but very soon turned to writing from those who had lived it.”
The lyrics come from poets such as Mad Sweeney, (the Gaelic poet of the ninth century), Lord Byron, James Clarence Mangan, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Gwendolyn Brooks, Gwyneth Lewis and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. There are also songs from John Dowland, Chilean activist songwriter Violeta Parra and Leonard Cohen. McKeown and her band make them all soar.
Recording her music and sending an album out into the world, she said, gives her happiness, and she looks forward to singing for Whidbey Islanders.
“I love traveling, being on the road. When I’m performing or recording, I feel very alive, because it’s tapping into a creative force I’ve always felt. If I didn’t follow this path, I’d be very unhappy,” McKeown said.
“I also feel very connected to some old Irish traditions when I’m performing; there’s the singing tradition, of course, but there were also traditions where women expressed certain emotions in ritual, often in a theatrical way, and it was a way for the whole community to share in the experience and find healing through it,” she said.
At the Whidbey performance, Cinda and Linea Johnson will say a few words as the area representatives for Glenn Close’s nonprofit mental health organization, Bring Change 2 Mind, with which McKeown has partnered for the release of “Singing in the Dark.”
To find out more about the album, visit McKeown’s website — click here.
Tickets will be sold on a sliding scale from $20-$25.
Buy tickets online — click here.
Call 341-1884, e-mail info@whidbeyinstitute.org or click here
for more information. The Whidbey Institute at Chinook is at 6449 Old Pietila Road in Clinton.
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