Celestials is available for listening and purchase digitally at:

www.celestials.me

 www.clarebyrnemusic.com

Clare Byrne’s latest song cycle wields folk rock, rhythm & blues and gospel in a acoustic/electric mixes, with incisive, introspective lyrics. Celestials has assembled a diverse and multi-talented group of Burlington, Brooklyn and Connecticut musicians for album release events in three states. 

The album spans five years of songwriting and a year of recording – a year of record change and loss for Byrne, and the decision to leave Burlington, VT for New Haven, CT. The twin albums Sister and Brother cross areas of relationship, gender, race, and geography from Vermont to Italy, to intimate landscapes of the heart. It contains fourteen original songs by Byrne, a song written for Byrne by Brooklyn songwriter Rodrigo Alonzo, and the traditional “The Water is Wide.”  Celestials gives voice to Byrne’s friendships and collaborations with musicians, dancers, and visual artists. It also includes the lament/protest “EG Blues” documenting the case of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man killed in 2014 by a white Staten Island police officer.

Thirteen musicians contributed to the making of the album. Grounding the project is Byrne’s collaboration with Burlington-based multi-guitarist Ted Looby; essential contributions are by Rodrigo Alonzo on vocals (NYC), Paul Besaw on vocals (VT), Selene Colburn on vocals (VT), Jom Hammack on mandolin and vocals (VT), Colin Henkel on congas, cajon, and drums (VT), Danielle Hill on cello (VT), Patricia Julien on flute (VT), Chong Ho Kim on vocals (VT), Amy Larimer on vocals (NYC), Nicholas Leichter on vocals and piano (NYC), Dan Strauss on guitar, synthesizer, and vocals (NYC), and Gus Ziesing on saxophone and drums. (VT).

The album was recorded, mixed, and digitally mastered by Gus Ziesing at Low Tech Studios at One Main Street in Burlington, VT. 

The vinyl album, pressed at Burlington Record Plant, VT (http://burlingtonrecordplant.com), with jacket photographs by New York Times music photographer Hiroyuki Ito (https://www.hiroitophoto.com), design by Burlington, VT graphic and font designer Alec Julien (https://www.alecjulien.com), and mastering for vinyl by Wes Garland in Nashville, TN, will be available for pre-purchase at the Burlington release party, and in hand at the New Haven CT release event. The vinyl album includes a digital download card. 

BIOGRAPHY:

Byrne is a dancer-and-choreographer-turned-musician who has performed and taught in New York City and environs, Burlington, and around the world. She began songwriting through guitar, harmonica and piano in 2011; her EP Seed (https://soundcloud.com/clarebyrne-1) was released in Vermont in 2017, after which she toured Ireland with Ink the Octopus (Dan Strauss and Remy de Laroque).