Jack Charlton may be our most famous honorary Irishman but the famale equivalent of that accolade may soon go to Welsh-Breton singer/songwriter, Katell Keineg, if her bid for stardom proves successul. Last October Ms Keineg signed a worldwide deal with Elektra Records, which means that the rest of the planet may now learn what Irish gig-goers have known for a long time: the Dublin-based singer with the silky voice is touched by that old Celtic magic.
Since she put pen to contract, Katell has been back and forth between Dublin's Windmill Lane studios and New York's AXIS studios, preparing and recording her debut album, poetically titled O Seasons O Castles . The "street date" of the album is September 9th and it will feature many of Katell's live favourites, including Hestia, Destiny's Darling, and the first single from the album, Partisans. Anyone who has been to more than one Katell concert will know that she has the knack of changing around the arrangements of her songs without losing their essence and here, with the help of producer Fred Maher (who worked on Lou Reed's New York), she playes the chameleon once again to excellent effect.
Although the New World beckons, Katell hasn't forgotten her old musical cohorts and featured players on the album include Paul Tiernan, Garvan Gallagher and Maurice Seezer. She hasn't let herself get sucked into the mainstream either and the album honestly reflects both her Celtic roots and her interest in everything from the folk of Joni Mitchell to the rock of Led Zeppelin. In a music industry awash with new women singers who are ploughing the same pop furrow, Katell stands apart in a fertile patch of her own. Time will tell if her singularity will translate into celebrity. On Tuesday, Katell plays her first official gig in Dublin since last autumn, playing Whelans on Wexford street, after which she jets off around America and Europe to launch the album. With a firm footing in the folk and rock cultures of both continents, there's no reason why Katell Keineg's appeal shouldn't straddle both sides of the Atlantic.