Seasonal Affections
Disorder, but only in the service of art
by Brett Campbell

The song says it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but that’s not the case for everyone, especially here in Oregon’s winter gloom. Those feeling a little blue this time of year might seek solace at Susan McKeown’s Nov. 26 concert at the WOW Hall. Inspired by a recent visit to a mental hospital and talks with the families of patients there, the Irish immigrant chanteuse has been exploring the history of bipolar disorder stretching back through generations in her own Irish family. It’s often claimed that there is a link between the condition and creativity, but it’s nothing to romanticize. McKeown enlisted friends to help her turn the poetry of famed victims of the disease (English composer John Dowland, Byron, Roethke, Leonard Cohen, Anne Sexton, Gwendolyn Brooks and more) into dark-tinged folk-rock songs that exquisitely suit her sumptuous, cello-like voice. Like the condition itself, the music isn’t all gloomy, ranging from haunting to upbeat and melancholy gradations in between.