Aoife O'Donovan

Aoife Maria O'Donovan ( ; born November 18, 1982) is an American singer and Grammy Award-winning songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still, as well as one-third of the supergroup folk trio I'm with Her alongside Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins. As a solo artist, O'Donovan has released four critically acclaimed studio albums: Fossils, In the Magic Hour (2016), Age of Apathy (2022, nominated for the Best Folk Album Grammy Award), and All My Friends (2024, nominated for the Best Folk Album and Best American Roots Song Grammy Awards). She has also released multiple noteworthy live recordings and EPs, including Blue Light (2010), Peachstone (2012), Man in a Neon Coat: Live From Cambridge (2016), In the Magic Hour: Solo Sessions (2019), and Bull Frog's Croon (and Other Songs) (2020). She also spent a decade contributing to the radio variety shows Live from Here and A Prairie Home Companion. Her first professional engagement was singing lead for the folk group The Wayfaring Strangers.

O'Donovan has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, she sang on most of the tracks on the album Be Still by the jazz group the Dave Douglas Quintet, featuring trumpeter Dave Douglas. During the summer of 2013, she toured with Garrison Keillor and his A Prairie Home Companion Radio Romance Tour. and is used in the film Get Low (2010 Sony Pictures). She has had solo songs placed on True Blood (HBO) and Private Practice (ABC), as well as Crooked Still songs featured in The Last of Us.

Life and career Early and personal life Aoife O'Donovan playing guitar at a concert in 2009O'Donovan grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. She spent her summers in Ireland, This combo came about after an impromptu performance at the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

The group covered John Hiatt's "Crossing Muddy Waters" in 2015, and released the single "Little Lies" in 2017, touring the US later that year. They recorded their debut album See You Around at Real World Studios in Bath, Somerset, England, three weeks after they had written it. The album was co-produced by Ethan Johns and released on February 16, 2018. American singer-songwriter Gillian Welch wrote the album's last track "Hundred Miles"; the trio is credited with writing all other songs on the album. The group toured in the U.S. and in Europe in the first half of 2018.

At the 62nd Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, I'm With Her won the award for Best American Roots Song for their recording of "Call My Name". The song was co-written by Jarosz, Watkins, and O'Donovan.

In 2021, she was a soloist with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series.

At the 68th Grammy Awards, I’m With Her won Best Folk Album for their 2025 album Wild and Clear and Blue. Additionally their song “Ancient Light” was awarded Best American Roots Song and nominated for Best American Roots Performance.

Solo career (2010–present)

In June 2010, O'Donovan released her first solo recording, Blue Light, in the form of a limited edition 7" vinyl.

O'Donovan is the guest vocalist on the 2013 Grammy winning The Goat Rodeo Sessions (2011 Sony Masterworks), an album recorded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolinist Chris Thile and fiddler Stuart Duncan. The album includes two vocal tracks featuring O'Donovan and Chris Thile. O'Donovan co-wrote one of those tracks, "Here And Heaven", with Meyer, Thile and Duncan.

In November 2012, Aoife signed a deal with Yep Roc Records. A single, "Red & White & Blue & Gold" was released April 2, 2013, and her full-length debut album, "Fossils", produced by Tucker Martine, was released on June 11, 2013.

On January 21, 2022, O'Donovan released Age of Apathy, a solo record produced by Joe Henry with guest performances by Allison Russell and Madison Cunningham. Later that year, it received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.

In 2024, O'Donovan released All My Friends, a solo album originally commissioned for the anniversary of the 19th amendment. All My Friends features collaboration with The Westerlies, the Knights, Anaïs Mitchell, and the San Francisco Girls' Chorus. O'Donovan received a Best Folk Album nomination for All My Friends at the 67th Grammys and a nomination for Best American Roots Song for her song "All My Friends".

Discography

Solo recordings

With Sometymes Why Year Album Record label 2005 Sometimes Why Self Released 2007 Sometimes Why (Silver Edition) Self Released 2009 Your Heart Is a Glorious Machine Signature Sounds

With Crooked Still Year Album Record label 2004 Hop High Footprint Records 2006 Shaken by a Low Sound Signature Sounds 2008 Still Crooked Signature Sounds 2009 Crooked Still Live Signature Sounds 2010 Some Strange Country Signature Sounds 2011 Friends of Fall (EP) Signature Sounds 2018 Live at Grey Fox July 16, 2006 Signature Sounds

With I'm With Her

Videos Year Title Producer 2010 "Half of What We Know" (with Crooked Still) Grey Sky Films 2013 "Red & White & Blue & Gold" Yep Roc Records 2013 "Beekeeper" Yep Roc Records

As guest artist Year Artist Title Record label 2003 The Wayfaring Strangers This Train Rounder 2004 The Wild Band of Snee Mystical 4-Track Recordings of Snee The Wild Band of Snee 2004 The Wild Band of Snee Rushad Eggleston and His Wild Band of Snee The Wild Band of Snee 2005 Richie Barshay Homework Barshay Music 2005 The Wild Band of Snee Music of Snee The Wild Band of Snee 2006 The Wild Band of Snee Playhouse of the Universe The Wild Band of Snee 2010 The American Beauty Project Page Auditorium, Duke University, Durham, NC 10/15/10 festivalink.net 2011 Noam Pikelny Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail Compass 2011 Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile The Goat Rodeo Sessions Sony Classical 2011 Alex Battles Goodbye Almira Alex Battles's Records 2012 Dave Douglas Be Still Greenleaf 2012 Mike + Ruthy The NYC EP Humble Abode 2012 Kate Rusby 20 Pure 2012 Annalivia The Same Way Down Annalivia 2013 Alastair Moock Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World's Bravest Kids Moockshake Music 2013 Transatlantic Sessions Transatlantic Sessions 6 - Volume Two Whirlie 2015 John Morris Russell American Originals Fanfare Cincinnati 2016 Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands The Hazel and Alice Sessions Spruce and Maple 2016 Infamous Stringdusters Ladies & Gentlemen Compass 2016 Jesse Harper One True Thing Jesse Harper 2017 Chris Thile Thanks for Listening Nonesuch 2018 Caitlin Canty Motel Bouquet 2020Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris ThileNot Our First Goat RodeoSony Classical 2020 Kronos Quartet Long Time Passing Smithsonian Folkways 2021 The Paper Kites "Climb on Your Tears" (Roses) Wonderlick/ Sony 2026 Renée Fleming, with Béla Fleck "The Fiddle and the Drum" Thirty Tigers

Awards and nominations