Nonesuch Releases English Singer, Songwriter, and Multi-Instrumentalist Olivia Chaney’s Shelter, produced by Thomas Bartlett, on June 15

Grammy-nominated Chaney to perform at London’s Hoxton Hall on Tuesday, June 19 and
NYC’s National Sawdust on Tuesday, July 31

“Whether she’s singing old songs or her own, Ms. Chaney destabilizes them, turning them into rhapsodic, immediate dramas, giving listeners a reason to hang on every phrase and inflection … Her voice holds the purity, tension, dignity and sorrow of a heritage full of songs about lost love and cruel fate. But in her quiet way, she’s radical.”
—New York Times

“The crystalline beauty and sleek agility of her voice and the immaculate clarity of her phrasing transcend any one tradition. Chaney’s got so many tools and so much potential it’s almost frightening.” —Chicago Reader

“Chaney is a home-grown poet whose lyrics, dense and allusive, blend pastoral tradition with singer-songwriter sophistication.” —Sunday Times (UK)

London-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney follows up her 2015 Nonesuch debut, The Longest River, with Shelter on June 15, 2018. The album was produced by Thomas Bartlett (David Byrne, the Magnetic Fields, Sufjan Stevens, The National, St. Vincent, Florence Welch, Father John Misty, et al.) and features eight original songs, along with Chaney’s interpretations of Henry Purcell’s “O Solitude” and Frank Harford and Tex Ritter’s “Long Time Gone,” first recorded by the Everly Brothers; the full track list is below.

Shelter is available to pre-order at iTunes and the Nonesuch Store, where the album track “IOU” may be downloaded instantly; Nonesuch Store pre-orders come with a limited-edition autographed print. “IOU” also may be streamed via Spotify and Apple Music, and a video of “IOU” may be seen on YouTube. Chaney—who was nominated for a 2018 Grammy along with her Offa Rex bandmates, the Decemberists—performs album launch shows at both New York’s National Sawdust on July 31, and at London’s Hoxton Hall on June 19. Further tour dates will be announced shortly.

Chaney describes her time writing songs for Shelter: “I had been on the road a lot and was struggling with the grit and loneliness of urban life. I think I’d been questioning what home, belonging, a sense of purpose, and my own culture even meant. I’d been craving wilderness and a return to essentials for a long time. Then, while touring in the US, I realized the place I needed was already in my life. It was ancient, barely habitable, and remote.

“Thus a crumbling eighteenth-century cottage in the austere but magical hills of the North Yorkshire Moors—a family retreat since my teens, with no electricity or plumbing, where the only water comes from a spring—became the home for my work on Shelter,” she continues. “We brought out an Arts and Crafts Bechstein piano and an old wood burner to the house; and as summer’s end turned to autumn’s shorter, colder days, the room with the upright and stove fueled my stay.”

Chaney says of working with Thomas Bartlett, “His close affiliation with such a varied and acclaimed group of artists was of enormous importance. His taste and sphere of understanding were as diverse as mine. He prioritized my compositions’ meaning and lyricism, rather than jumping on the bandwagon of noisy popularity. I wanted a recording as intimate as the songs and their form. The only other musicians are Thomas and Jordan Hunt, my longtime collaborator who adds strings and background vocals on select songs. It’s just the three of us playing every sound you hear, using our instrumental and compositional craft, and Thomas’ musician-producer’s ear extraordinaire.”

Born in Florence, Italy, Chaney grew up in Oxford, England, in a household whose intellectual and artistic engagement was complemented by an expansive musical soundscape. This included Billie Holiday, Mozart operas, Sandy Denny, Prince, Tracy Chapman, Bert Jansch, Michael Jackson, and Joni Mitchell. She studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she took in everything the conservatory had to offer. Her curiosity led her further afield, from Ligeti to West African pop, Edith Piaf to Laurie Anderson, Mary Margaret O’Hara to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Sonic Youth to Sappho, Kate Bush to old-time country music—all while finding her own voice.

The range of artists she’s shared a stage with includes Robert Plant, Zero 7, the Labeque Sisters, Martin and Eliza Carthy, and Kronos Quartet, with whom she also recorded two songs for the 2017 Nonesuch album Folk Songs.

Most recently she fronted a Grammy-nominated album, The Queen of Hearts, forming a new outfit, Offa Rex, with the Decemberists. The Guardian’s review of that album said that “Chaney has a magical voice, full of heft, soul and sunlight” and fRoots said, “Chaney has never sounded better,” while the Arts Desk said it was her “voice, with its clarity, power and emotional weight, that carries Offa Rex to the heights.” The Financial Times added that “Chaney’s singing makes ‘Willie O’ Winsbury’ one of the best versions ever.”

Olivia Chaney Tour Dates

Tuesday, June 19
London, UK
Hoxton Hall

Tuesday, July 31
New York, USA
National Sawdust

More to come

Olivia Chaney
Shelter

1. Shelter
2. Dragonfly
3. Arches
4. IOU
5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
6. Colin & Clem
7. O Solitude
8. Long Time Gone
9. Roman Holiday
10. House on a Hill

For more information, please visit publicity.nonesuch.com or contact:
Melissa Cusick, melissa.cusick@nonesuch.com

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