Grammy\u00ae-winning artist Aoife O’Donovan operates in a thrilling musical world beyond genre. Deemed “a vocalist of unerring instinct” by\u00a0<\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i>, she has released three critically-acclaimed and boundary-blurring solo albums including<\/span>\u00a0In the Magic Hour<\/span><\/i>, which\u00a0<\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>\u00a0hailed for its “Impressionistic, atmospheric songs [that] relay their narratives against gorgeous pastoral backdrops.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A savvy and generous collaborator, O’Donovan is one third of the group I’m With Her with bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. The trio’s debut album, <\/span>See You Around<\/span><\/i>, was hailed as “willfully open-hearted” by NPR Music and earned the group a Grammy\u00ae in 2020 for Best American Roots Song. O’Donovan spent the preceding decade as cofounder and frontwoman of the string band Crooked Still and is the featured vocalist on The Goat Rodeo Sessions<\/em> with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n O’Donovan spent the\u00a0winter and\u00a0spring of 2021 in the studio with acclaimed producer Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens) recording her third full-length solo album titled\u00a0<\/span>Age of Apathy<\/span><\/i>, just released in January 2022. This show will feature O’Donovan and her band playing selections from this new album.<\/span><\/p>\n Of the new album, Pitchfork<\/em> writes: \u201cOn Age of Apathy<\/em>, she taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell: a restless mind bouncing against the blur of one\u2019s surroundings. She has that same actor\u2019s sense\u2014when to go big, when to bring it backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n PopMatters<\/em> also reviewed Age of Apathy<\/em>, writing: \u201cThe final results are lushly layered and sophisticated. O\u2019Donovan is often considered a singer-songwriter and folkie, but this release finds her music hard to pigeonhole as its connections to contemporary jazz and even classical music are clearly evident.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Taylor Ashton<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Raised in Vancouver, Canada, Taylor Ashton now lives in Brooklyn, and recently released his\u00a0first solo album,\u00a0<\/span>The Romantic<\/span><\/i>\u2014an ode to the devastating, ecstatic, gritty, sexy decade of his 20s, woven together through his\u00a0five-string banjo with the help of 18 different musicians from the Brooklyn music scene and\u00a0all across\u00a0the United States\u00a0and Canada.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ashton\u2019s\u00a0career began in Vancouver as\u00a0frontman\u00a0and songwriter for\u00a0Fish & Bird. The Vancouver Folk Fest called the\u00a0group\u00a0\u201cCanada\u2019s most unique folk-rock ensemble,\u201d\u00a0with reviewers taking note of\u00a0Ashton\u2019s\u00a0\u201coff-kilter lyrical excursions\u201d (<\/span>The Georgia Straight<\/span><\/i>) and his \u201crich, compelling voice\u201d (<\/span>Exclaim!<\/span><\/i>). From 2006 to 2014,\u00a0Fish\u00a0& Bird\u00a0recorded\u00a0four\u00a0albums and exhaustively made the rounds of the festival and touring circuit of Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The 12 new songs on\u00a0Ashton\u2019s\u00a0solo debut chronicle leaving a relationship, a band, and Canada. He moved from Toronto to New York City, ready to take a break from the heavy touring schedule of\u00a0Fish & Bird and to\u00a0find himself in a new setting. He survived by singing and playing clawhammer banjo in the subway, turning heads with covers that leaned more Motown than hoedown. Over the years he also made a living as an illustrator, an audio book narrator,\u00a0a songwriting teacher,\u00a0and\u00a0an occasional sideman for British country-soul singer Yola. He\u00a0was even hired by\u00a0<\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i>\u00a0to write a song about the debt-ridden subway system. Fueled by $1 pizza slices and the intoxicating creative energy of his new hometown, he wrote\u00a0more than\u00a0400 songs. \u201cA lot of them were pretty dumb,\u201d he said. \u201cBut some that I thought were dumb turned out to be good.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While making\u00a0<\/span>The Romantic<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0Ashton\u00a0also\u00a0teamed up with fellow songwriter Courtney Hartman to record a spare duo album,\u00a02018\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Been\u00a0On\u00a0Your Side<\/span><\/i>, which\u00a0was nominated for an Independent Music Award and earned praise in\u00a0<\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0saying\u00a0it \u201cpacks a punch in today\u2019s mainstream.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recognized for her ethereal voice and substantive songwriting,\u00a0Aoife O\u2019Donovan has been called \u201ca vocalist of unerring instinct\u201d by\u00a0The New York Times<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[190],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Scottsdale Center For The Performing Arts","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/11258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/11258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11258"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=11258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}