Mary Coughlan - Repeat Rewind
Mary Coughlan, one of Ireland’s most revered and enduring performers, will celebrate her 40th year in music with the release of a new album, Repeat Rewind, on Friday 25th October 2024. The album will be available in vinyl, CD and digital formats via Strange Brew.
Today, Wednesday, September 11th, Coughlan shares new single ‘What If I Do’ from the upcoming album, which will be her fifteenth
‘What If I Do’ is a beautifully pared back love song that captures Coughlan’s trademark emotional honesty with a wry grin. Delivered with incredibly youthful, playful vocals that belie her 40 years as a recording artist, ‘What If I Do’ perfectly showcases the raw talent of Mary Coughlan – an artist who truly deserves her place amongst some of the world’s most iconic and emotive singers.
All of this comes ahead of a string of live dates that will see Mary Coughlan celebrate four decades in music on stages across Ireland, including a very special anniversary night at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre on Sunday, December 1st. Tickets from €40 + fees are on sale now from ticketmaster.ie. Full tour dates available on marycoughlan.ie.
Mary Coughlan says: “After 40 years in this business and having reached a point in my life where I do a lot of this, looking back and replaying scenes from my life... and wondering…I walk around Galway sometimes and remember absolutely everything about growing up there. All of those events made me who I am. I'm easy with that these days. The good and the bad times. All the learning. After 40 years in this crazy business I'm still here and still working. I still love going to a studio and making music, I love playing music live. I hope you enjoy this album”
Mary Coughlan’s career in music has been one hell-of-a-ride. Often described as the greatest female vocalist that Ireland has ever produced, Coughlan proudly stands alongside some of the world’s most iconic jazz singers. She is unique in blending whisky-blurred, smoke-seared, husky notes with the laconic wit of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee. She draws the line of deep, down and dirty blues singers back to Bessie Smith with the sardonic, bitter-sweet defiance and despair of Edith Piaf. Yet Mary Coughlan delivers it all in a delicious and unapologetic Irish drawl: sceptical, rueful, mournful and melting and ardent for love.
Mary Coughlan is one of our greatest singers because over 40 years she has made the most grown-up, uncompromising, wholly personal yet utterly universal music on either side of the Atlantic about what goes on between men and women. It's hard to believe that four decades have passed since Coughlan went into the studio to record her debut album, Tired and Emotional.
On new album Repeat Rewind, as the title might suggest, we see Mary at perhaps her most open, honest and introspective (‘Repeat Rewind’, ‘I Can Let Go Now’, ‘Really Gone’) – but not at the expense of her trademark humour and astute observations of everything from domesticity (‘Marital Bliss’) and relationships (‘Freefalling feat. Ultan Conlon’) to women’s traditional place in Irish society (‘More Like Brigid’). A cover of The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’ and a brand new seasonal offering, ‘Tinseltown’ will delight listeners and concert-goers alike, as Mary Coughlan celebrates four decades in music with this accomplished and heartfelt new album.