All the Way Home

Cathy Jordan launches debut solo album with sounds from her childhood.

Musician and vocalist Cathy Jordan, long time member of multi-award winning traditional Irish band Dervish, will launch her debut solo album at the forthcoming Celtic Connections Festival. Her album, ‘All The Way Home', is the highly anticipated solo showcase of the musical and vocal talents of the Roscommon native. This seminal work, some twenty years in the making, features many of the most notable names in the folk world, both at home in Ireland and abroad. ‘All The Way Home', which was produced in Sweden by acclaimed producer, multi-instrumentalist and longtime collaborator Roger Tallroth, intimately communicates the rich cultural tapestry resulting from Cathy's unique musical and personal journey from early childhood through her professional success to date.

‘All The Way Home' allows the listener a glimpse into a more personal side of Ms Jordan's life. Among the twelve tracks are traditional ballads Cathy would have heard sung in the family home from the earliest age. Performing these songs with family & friends was a fundamental part of family life and became embedded in Cathy's musical psyche. They are songs that now represent the tradition of her childhood, a tradition that has experienced a renaissance of interest in recent times. For this reason Cathy wanted to reintroduce these songs to a new generation with a vibrant and contemporary energy, whilst retaining some of the traditional methods of how they were intended to be performed. To achieve this Cathy worked with acclaimed musicians such as Roger Tallroth (guitars), Gustaf Ljunggren (lap steel/banjo/piano) and Lars Andreas Haug (tuba) of Sweden, Ireland's Andy Irvine and the distinctive sounds of singer song-writer Eddi Reader with whom she duets on Eileen McMahon. Also featured are Michael McGoldrick: uileann pipes, Rick Epping: concertina, Seamie O'Dowd: fiddle, Liam Kelly: flute.

For Cathy there is special place in her heart for this album; "These singing sessions and songs provided the soundtrack to my life for many years. Every social occasion had a singing session to mark it; births, deaths marriages', christenings, house Stations, Easter, Christmas; you name it we sang our way through it."