Brigid Mae Power

Brigid Mae Power streaming 'The Two Worlds,' playing NYC with Ed Askew

Ireland-based folk singer Brigid Mae Power followed her gorgeous 2016 self-titled album last year with the The Ones You Keep Close EP, and today she’s back with a new full length album, The Two Worlds, on the Tompkins Square Label. Like her self-titled album, it was produced by her husband Peter Broderick (Efterklang, Horse Feathers), and it finds a brilliant middle ground between ’60s/’70s style psychedelic folk and more modern sounds. Brigid’s soaring voice is the main appeal, but the tasteful arrangements are a big sell too. Some songs have dark electric guitars and pounding drums, others have airy, jazzy pianos, and others sound more like traditional folk. Here’s some of what Brigid said about the album:

Most of these songs were written in the last year in Ireland and they’re all about the different feelings I had at the time. Last year I moved back to Galway, Ireland where I mostly grew up and I was feeling and noticing again the repressive and oppressive environment. So I revisited a song I had half written a few years previous called ‘Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely)’ and I found that moving home, I had the ammunition to finish it. I had actually tried to record this song in Portland, Oregon the previous year but at the time it just did not work. It was the wrong atmosphere, it was summer and a sunny day and just was not repressive enough in the way that it can be here! So I didn’t really feel real singing it as I didn’t feel held back at all! It felt like singing to a brick wall and it wasn’t going anywhere… So when I moved back I had the idea to go up to an analogue studio in the North of Ireland and specifically record that song there, so we booked in some time at the studio and I hurried to finish some other scraps of songs I had lying around with the idea of recording them live and just seeing what happened.

Listen and watch the video for “Don’t Shut me Up (Politely),” below.

UPDATE: Brigid added a NYC show with psych-folk legend Ed Askew (a well-matched double bill) for July 5 at Wonders of Nature, the new Brooklyn venue booked by former Cake Shop co-owner Andy Bodor. It’s her only US show at the moment but she has a few in Europe. All dates are listed below.

Brigid Mae Power — 2018 Tour Dates
FRIDAY 23 MARCH Eagle Inn Salford, UK
SUNDAY 25 MARCH Asylum Studios Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK
TUESDAY 27 MARCH Servant Jazz Quarters London, UK
WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH Colston Hall Bristol, UK
THURSDAY 29 MARCH Bello Bar Dublin, Ireland
THURSDAY 05 JULY Wonders of Nature Brooklyn, NY, USA w/ Ed Askew