Eleanor Mc Evoy - Other Projects

Other Projects

OXFAM

In October 2008 at the invitation of Oxfam Ireland, McEvoy visited Uganda. Travelling throughout the Kitgum region of Northern Uganda, she experienced first hand the benefits of Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped, an initiative that sends meaningful presents like clean drinking water, school books and vegetable gardens to developing countries throughout Africa. This visit provided the inspiration for a new song "Oh Uganda".

Midge Ure

Midge Ure’s top-twenty album Breathe features McEvoy on three tracks, "Fallen Angel", "Fields of Fire" and "Lay My Body Down". McEvoy contributed the Gaelic lyrics on "Fallen Angel". The album was produced by Richard Feldman.

RTÉ Concert Orchestra

In 2005, the RTE Concert Orchestra commissioned arrangements for 16 of McEvoy’s compositions to be performed at a concert in August 2005 at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. The 60-piece orchestra was conducted by David Brophy and featured, in addition McEvoy herself, other leading Irish arrangers, Johnny Tate, David Brophy, Brian Byrne, and Fergus O’Carroll.

The sell-out performance formed part of the annual BEO Festival, hosted by the National Concert Hall and sponsored by the ESB.

The songs, with their new arrangements, were drawn from McEvoy’s first five albums, incorporating music from Yola and Early Hours, along with many others, including "Whisper a Prayer to the Moon" (from Pierce Brosnan’s The Nephew), "Famine" (from The Gathering the Commemoration of the Irish Famine), and of course her contribution to the canon of Irish music standards, "Only a Woman’s Heart".

Homespun and Dave Rotheray

In January 2006, McEvoy supported the band Homespun on a British tour in support of their second album, Effortless Cool. During this tour she also began writing with Dave Rotheray.

Three Rotheray/McEvoy compositions appear on McEvoy's albums: "Quote I Love You Unquote" on Out There and "The Night May Still Be Young But I Am Not" and "Old New Borrowed and Blue" on 2008 album Love Must Be Tough.

Homespun's third album, Short Stories From East Yorkshire, features two Rotheray/McEvoy compositions which are also produced by Dave Rotheray and Eleanor McEvoy; "Lover’s Chapel" and "The Driver". "The Driver" was sung by well-known Irish singer Mary Coughlan.

The Brewster Brothers

John and Rick Brewster are founding members and major songwriters of the legendary Angels, one of Australia’s most successful rock bands. After three decades, The Angels remain one of Australia’s most loved and respected bands. A few years ago Rick and John started a new breakaway project, performing acoustically as The Brewster Brothers.

Performing at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia 2007, the band were joined on stage by Anne Kirkpatrick and McEvoy (violin) for standout spontaneous renditions of several of their songs. The concert was recorded by the ABC Australia. The show was broadcast on ABC Radio National on 18 May and then again on Sunday 20 May. Due to demand from ABC Australia listeners Brewster Brothers in Concert Live at the Port Fairy Folk Festival was released shortly afterwards.

Paul Brady at Vicar Street

In October 2001 Paul Brady took over Vicar Street (one of the most popular music venues in Dublin) for twenty three nights to revisit his entire career. It was a bold move and a great success. Over the course of the month more than 16,000 people saw the shows.

As well as a chance to revisit past material Paul availed of the opportunity to invite many of the artists he has worked or written with over the last thirty years to come and play. Among them were Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Van Morrison, Sinéad O'Connor, Curtis Stigers, Maura O'Connell, Mary Black, Ronan Keating, Brian Kennedy, Gavin Friday, Tim O'Brien, Arty McGlynn, The Hothouse Flowers. and many more.

McEvoy joined him for Thursday 12 October. Highlights of the night were Paul and McEvoy singing a duet on “You and I” an antiracism song of Paul’s and Paul’s rendition of McEvoy’s song “Last Seen October 9th”.

The Great Irish Famine Event - The National Concert Hall'

McEvoy was commissioned by the Irish Government to write a piece about The Irish Famine for a concert held in the National Concert Hall in Dublin in 1997. The song was “Famine 1848”. It is an orchestral piece with vocal part sung by McEvoy.

The event entitled “The Great Irish Famine Event” was held to commemorate the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1852.

The song Famine also features on a limited edition version of the album What's Following Me? (Columbia Records).

“Eleanor McEvoy Presents”, Wexford Arts Centre

“ELEANOR McEVOY PRESENTS” was a project which was instigated fo the reopening of the Wexford Arts Centre in October 2006.

For four weeks during the Wexford Festival Opera McEvoy featured some of her favourite performers of contemporary music.

The first show on Friday 27 October featured McEvoy herself. During the show she played a traditional set along with some local Wexford musicians: well-known Wexford Uilleann Piper Brendan Wickham, Pat Gough on accordion, and Niall Lacey on Bazouki.

The shows on the following Fridays featured various different artists much admired by her over the years. These included Andy Irvine, Luka Bloom, Caroline Moreau, and Oleg Ponomarev.

The Wexford Arts Centre places an emphasis on contemporary and emerging Irish and international art and a range of plays, concerts, film and lectures. The Centre is also resident in a preserved heritage site, built in 1760s, as a market place and assembly halls.

The Ballad of Ronnie Drew (2008)

"The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" was a song written by Bono, Edge, (U2) Simon Carmody and Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead). It was initially written to include Ronnie Drew, but as his health declined it was altered to be sung by the Irish music fraternity in his honour.

It was performed by a number of famous Irish musicians. With popular Irish band Kila as the backing band, other contributors included members of U2, The Dubliners, Christy Moore, Chris de Burgh, Sinéad O'Connor, The Chieftains, Mundy, Andrea Corr, Moya Brennan, Paul Brady, Christy Dignam, Duke Special, Ronan Keating, Gavin Friday, Bob Geldof, Glen Hansard, McEvoy, and Shane MacGowan.

The single was released on 19 February 2008 and entered the Irish Single Charts at #2. At the request of Ronnie, all proceeds went to the Irish Cancer Society.

Award winning director John Carney (director of the film Once) directed the video for "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew". It was filmed over two days at Dublin’s Windmill Lane Studios in January 2008.

Tuesday’s Child

Tuesday’s Child was spearheaded by Belfast woman Orla Sheehan. It consisted of a CD featuring tracks from a total of 31 performers including Snow Patrol, Westlife, Ronan Keating, Duke Special, and McEvoy. Each artist donated a track for the Tuesday’s Child self-titled double album which was first launched in Belfast on 8 November 2007 and in Dublin on 7 March 2008.

Proceeds of the album went towards helping children in need in 12 countries including: Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Grenada, Israel, Moldova, Palestine, and Zimbabwe.

IMRO

McEvoy is on the board of the Irish Music Rights Organisation. IMRO is a national organisation that administers the performing right in copyright music in Ireland on behalf of its members – songwriters, composers and music publishers – and on behalf of the members of the international overseas societies that are affiliated to it. IMRO’s function is to collect and distribute royalties arising from the public performance of copyright works. IMRO is a not-for-profit organisation.

Banana Boat featuring Eleanor McEvoy

McEvoy and renowned Polish a cappella group Banana Boat collaborated to re-record McEvoy's song "Little Look" from her album Out There. A music video was also made of the song. The debut went straight to the play list of famed Lista Przebojów Programu Trzeciego (Polskie Radio Three). The video went on to be named Video of the Week by the Contemporary A Cappella Society (of America). In 2009 the recording was awarded "Collaboration of the Year with an Artist from Outside Poland" in the 2009 Polish Friends of Music Awards.

Portrait by Robert Ballagh

On 20 January 2012 a portrait of McEvoy painted by internationally acclaimed artist Robert Ballagh was hung in the National Concert Hall Dublin, Ireland

Riverdance The Music of Bill Whelan

On 17 May 2012 McEvoy was the guest vocalist at the performance of Riverdance: The Music of Bill Whelan at the National Concert Hall Dublin, Ireland. The performance featured the world premier of the Riverdance Symphonic Suite.

Concert for Aung San Suu Kyi

On 18 June 2012 McEvoy was invited by Amnesty International Ireland to perform at the Concert for Aung San Suu Kyi in Dublin, Ireland.