Lucy Foley

My Lagan Love at apexart, May 24th 2012

June 14, 2012

My Lagan Love, performed at apexart, May 24th, 2012. With Ross Bonadonna on guitar.
Video courtesy of apexart.

Photos from Songs For People I Will Never See Again

June 04, 2012

I’ve just put up a set of photos from our first performance of Songs For People I Will Never See Again at apexart on May 24th. Here are a few, and you can see the full set on Flickr. Photos courtesy of apexart.
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Songs For People I Will Never See Again

May 19, 2012

“Sometimes you have to breathe fire into the dreams that come to you for fire, whoever’s dreams they turn out to be. They might be yours and you don’t know it yet.”

– From Songs For People I Will Never See Again, by Lucy Foley

I’ve been working on a new show and we’re about to reveal it for the first time! It’s called Songs For People I Will Never See Again and my band and I will be performing it for the first time at apexart, an art space in Tribeca next Thursday, May 24th at 6.30 pm. It’s a multimedia show of live music performance with projected video and photographs, woven through a spoken word narrative. Refreshments will be served.

Ross and the band and I have been working like maniacs on this show. Accompanying me will be Ross Bonadonna (guitars, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, laptops, video), Gavin Smith (synthesizer, steel pan, clarinet, toy piano), Andrew Mattina (bass) and Tom Pope (drums and percussion). I have written the show and will be singing and telling it.

This is a very personal show, culled from encounters, stories and photographs I have been making for a long time, as well as all the songs from Copenhagen in new arrangements, and a couple of marvellous new ones. We are delighted to be performing it for the first time at apexart, a dynamic non-profit arts organisation doing very interesting work in New York city and worldwide.

Songs For People I Will Never See Again is a celebration of people who have moved through my life and disappeared again.

The performance will include stories and songs of the wood turner of Sunset Park who turns devastating loss into beautiful objects, a woman who discovers her beauty accidentally by the side of the street, the great courage of daisies, Philoctetes the Greek air traffic controller who returns nightly to a cave to mourn his lost youth, and an unexpected love affair with a French mosquito. We celebrate this night the moment freed from time into story and song, and hear of people I will never see again.

We’d love to see you there if you’re in New York, and if you’re not in NYC, the performance will be videoed and available on the apexart website from a couple of days after the event, so you can get a flavour of what the show is like. I’ll also be posting some photos and possibly videos from our rehearsals over the next few days on twitter and facebook, in the lead-up to the show.

Cheers,
Lucy

May 24th, 6.30 pm
Songs For People I Will Never See Again
apexart, 291 Church Street, New York NY 10013
A public program of apexart

DIRECTIONS:

apexart, 291 Church street, New York, NY 10013

SUBWAY: A,C,E, N, R, Q , J, Z and 6 trains to Canal street / 1 to Franklin st

GOOGLE MAP LINK: http://g.co/maps/suqfn
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My Lagan Love

March 20, 2012

The March news from Lucy

Hello folks

I’ll be performing with my band on Thursday in a club on the lower east side. If you are in the NYC area and free that night I would be greatly glad to see you there. It’s this Thursday, March 22nd at 10pm in Fat Baby, 112 Rivington street, NY NY 10002.

My first gig of this year was in fan/friend Ana’s house on a typical rainy night in Dublin. Her house was packed to the gills with lovely people and great listeners all. Ross and I performed as a duo to candlelight and we all had a blast together. We flew back to New York the very next morning.

Next gig back in NYC was in early February and New York Music Daily blog gave it a very enthusiastic review. We’re just raring to go, now.

So, since I wrote to you last, I got married (last September, in New York, to Ross), and my parents came to New York for the first time. While he was here, my dad Charles played piano on a version of a favourite Irish song of mine that we recorded together. It’s a folk melody called My Lagan Love, if you’re Irish you’ll probably know it well. I used to think about this song all the time when I lived in Dublin, I finally started to sing it when I lived in Copenhagen, probably in 2004. I’d go into the forest and sing it there, usually. My grandfather died in 2006 and I sang it at his funeral. This song has always had a strong resonance for me, and I’m surprised it has taken me this long to actually record it. We did this version very quickly, live in the studio. Ross contributed some lovely undertones to it and it’s now streaming on my bandcamp page, with a photo of me taken in Washington Square Park on my wedding day, when a cockatoo landed on my shoulder (I think there was a white on white love thing going on).

I sang it at my last gig at the Parkside Lounge, and I will probably sing it again on Thursday night (10 o’clock!), before my band and I kick into our set of raucously poetic love songs. Yet again, I will be joined by this thrilling band of gentlemen: Ross Bonadonna on guitar, Gavin Smith on keys and horn, Andy Mattina on bass and Tom Pope on drums.

See you soon (Thursday, I hope).

Cheers,
Lucy
x

Nice review of my last gig

February 17, 2012

I love it when somebody notices exactly what I hope I’m doing and writes about it. The New York Music Daily blog has just reviewed my last gig at the Parkside a couple of weeks ago:

As many bands as there are here in New York, you’d think that finding good new ones would be like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s not – but isn’t it fun when you do? Two new acts who’re already good and seem like they’ll get even more interesting are Lucy Foley and Llama. Foley is a newcomer from Ireland, a confident, dynamic and often dramatic singer who’s equally at home with retro new wave pop and stagy noir cabaret. At a gig a couple of weeks ago at the Parkside opening for the perennially brilliant, inscrutably charismatic Tom Warnick, she was backed by a great band: her new husband Ross Bonadonna on guitar, Tom Pope on drums, Andy Mattina on bass and a guy who doubled on synth and tenor sax. Anytime a musician can get a supporting cast of that caliber, it’s an auspicious sign. Fans of Blondie and the Dresden Dolls should check her out; she’s at Fat Baby on March 22.

We’ll be onstage at 10pm sharp at Fat Baby, on March 22nd. You should come.

January 24, 2012

Forthcoming gig, just booked: February 04, at the Parkside Lounge, opening for Tom Warnick and the World’s Fair. We’re on at 8pm, Tom takes the stage at 9. Tom was one of my first favourite New York songwriters when I started to spend more time here and he doesn’t perform live very much these days so it’ll be a bit of a special one. We’ll be playing the same set list we just played at a house gig in Dublin, which was a lot of fun. Looking forward to performing in this setup again. This gig will be pared down to the basic two: me on vocals and Ross Bonadonna on guitar. Playing with such bare bones is very different to the full band setting but I’m enjoying the performative possibilities it offers, right now. There’s a lot of space to fill.  I’d be delighted to see you there. No cover.

UPDATE: I’ll be playing this gig with my full band. 8pm, Saturday February 04, 2012. Parkside Lounge, 317 East Houston Street, New York.

Pianos, NYC January 21st 2011

February 02, 2011

Our gig in Pianos, NYC on the 21st was incredible. It rounded off one of the most fun and focussed weeks of my life. It has been incandescently fun, I LOVE MY BAND, I love you New York.

I love playing with this band, a fine bunch of rock n roll gentlemen, all. Our rehearsals are a blast, as was playing with them live on WFMU, knowing people were listening in live all over the world was a thrill and then we got to shake our thing loose at Pianos. Thank you to everyone who came down, or was there in spirit. I felt you there. It just rocked. I enjoyed every second of it. I can’t wait to get out and do it again.

Right now, this week, I’m writing.

We’re about to chop up the video that was shot at both wfmu and Pianos and I’ll be posting stuff soon but if you haven’t seen them, these photos – shot by the lovely Iamos – evoke some of the atmosphere of the gig.

Get in touch

January 19, 2011

So now I feel like making contact with people who have heard my music and would like to be in touch with me, let me know where they are, and if you’d like me to come play in your town and that kind of thing. I’m feeling the need to get out and tour this year and I’d love to come where I’m welcome.

I have my own favourite places of course, big and small, with very different energies in each place. That’s what I love about travelling, touring: the opportunity to meet these different textures, get out there in front of the people who want to be there, and rock and roll.

So there’s a number of ways you can get in touch. I am accepting friend requests on Facebook. If you are a complete nutter I reserve the right to not accept your friend request, but otherwise, come swing by, say hello, I’d love to meet you there.

I also recommend you join my mailing list. I send out about one a month and if you want to hear about where I’m playing and what I’m planning and what’s going down and what’s flying around, then sign up. You won’t be pestered endlessly by me and I’ll do my best to entertain you. I like writing my newsletters, it’s fun. You can sign up here.

And then there’s twitter, Flickr, an rss feed and tweet/facebook buttons I’m going to set up on this front page soon.

Come say hi, for Christ’s sake.

Live on the Irene Trudel show at WFMU, Jan 17th, 2011

January 18, 2011

Well that was a blast. My band and I stuffed ourselves into Andy’s car and wandered down to the WFMU building in Jersey city yesterday for the lovely Irene Trudel‘s show and played a LIVE set of five songs from Copenhagen, chatted and had a fun time for almost an hour. It was our first time out as a band after a number of intense rehearsals, and I just really enjoyed it. If you missed the show live, you can listen to it here on the WFMU archives.

Big thanks to Irene! She really made us feel at home, the vibe was casual and relaxed. And we had FUN! I can’t wait to get out with these guys again and on Friday we’ll be playing a very dramatic, fun version of Mister Bogeyman, aswell as a new song I’ve written recently which you’ll be hearing that for the first time at the gig on Friday.

Our friend Peter very kindly video’d the live WFMU set and he’s going to come down to Pianos on Friday night too, so we’ll have some stuff up on youtube to show you soon of us playing both in the studio and live. Can’t wait to see what he puts together.

And we’re already working on the next album and my crazy little working process is kicking back into action, and well, I’ll keep you posted. I’m also hoping to play live as much as possible this year with this lovely new kickarse band of mine…

Meanwhile, come see us at Pianos this Friday, the 21st January, at 8pm! Don’t be late kids, this show will be starting promptly at 8 and I don’t want you to miss a second of it.