Irish American singer Aoife O'Donovan will cover Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska at Philadelphia show

Irish American folk singer Aoife O'Donovan will cover Bruce Springsteen's famed album Nebraska in full in Philadelphia later this week. The Grammy award-winning songwriter will finish her US tour at the Annenberg Center on December 10 where she will perform The Boss' sixth studio album, released in 1982, from start to finish.

The 41-year-old, from Boston, Massachusetts, who spent her summers in Ireland singing songs with her extended family, is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still. She covered the classic on a live stream during the pandemic, inspired by her father, Brian O'Donovan who loved Springsteen and played him growing up.

Brian, who was the host of A Celtic Sojourn, a popular Boston public radio show, sadly died of cancer in October. He and Aoife's mother's favorites, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, became Aoife's go-to musical picks. After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2003, Aoife made her name with Crooked Still, who released four albums, before deciding to cover Nebraska during a residency at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York in 2011.

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"I always wanted to be a musician," Aoife told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I love the community of folk music, and just how much of a party it is. Musicians would come through town and stay at our house, and it just seemed like a really fun thing to do. I needed an album that was conceived as a solo thing, and Nebraska is just Bruce. It seemed like something I could tackle.. but finding my voice insight Springsteen songs was extremely difficult."

In May 2020, O’Donovan returned to Nebraska with a pandemic live stream, shot by her conductor and cellist, Eric Jacobsen. The performance was released on Bandcamp as Aoife Sings Nebraska in 2021 and came out on vinyl this year. With her Nebraska tour that culminates in Philly, she gets to bring her Springsteen take to a live audience.

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"When I’m singing songs like ‘Mansion on the Hill,’ it points to experiences people are having in the US now where there’s so much despair. Every night when I get to ‘My Father’s House,’ which is the second-to-last song, inevitably, people are crying. It’s devastating. It’s a whole collective experience."

Aoife won the Grammy for Best American Roots Song wit her tune Call My Name three years ago.

Aoife's next solo album is due early next year and she will perform at Tradfest 2024 in Dublin in January. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia in August 2024.

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