Vinyl Record
Lisa O'Neill - Same Cloth Or Not
Lisa O'Neill - Same Cloth Or Not on LP vinyl. A 2014 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 2014
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 2014 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Same Cloth Or Not is Lisa O'Neill before the wider acclaim of Heard a Long Gone Song and All of This Is Chance, but already unmistakably herself. Released in 2014, it captures the Cavan songwriter in a raw, idiosyncratic folk mode where odd phrasing, dry humour, ache and rural imagination sit beside sharply observed modern life. The album follows her early 2010s emergence and shows an artist not trying to smooth the edges that make her voice so arresting. The songs move between intimacy and strangeness. England Has My Man turns absence into plainspoken lament, No Train to Cavan gives local geography a comic ache, Coward's Corner, Apiana, Come Sit Sing, Darkest Winter and the title track reveal a writer who can make everyday words feel ancient without pretending to be traditional. David Kitt's sympathetic production keeps the arrangements spare enough for the voice, guitar and narrative detail to stay in the foreground. Same Cloth Or Not matters within O'Neill's catalogue because it is the sound of a singular Irish folk artist finding her full shape: less polished than later work, but rich with the phrasing, character and stubborn emotional truth that would define her.
The album matters because it shows O'Neill's voice and writing before later international recognition made her a central figure in contemporary Irish folk. Its 2014 release placed eccentric local songcraft, personal storytelling and unvarnished vocal character in a period when Irish folk was being reimagined by artists who valued roughness as artistic truth.
For collectors, Same Cloth Or Not is an important early Lisa O'Neill title because it preserves the less formal, more homespun side of her catalogue. It is especially valuable beside Heard a Long Gone Song and All of This Is Chance, where the later gravity becomes easier to understand after hearing this earlier mixture of wit, hurt and local detail.
Raw contemporary Irish folk with spare acoustic arrangements, idiosyncratic phrasing, dry humour, rural imagery, intimate production and a voice that favours character over polish.
Recommended for: Collectors following the modern Irish folk revival; Listeners drawn to distinctive voices and unsanded songwriting; Fans of early-career records where a major artist's language is still forming.
Where does Same Cloth Or Not fall in Lisa O'Neill's catalogue? It is an early album from 2014, before the wider recognition that followed later releases such as Heard a Long Gone Song. Which songs are good entry points? England Has My Man, No Train to Cavan, Apiana and Same Cloth Or Not give a strong sense of the album's voice and humour. Does the album sound traditional? It draws on Irish folk feeling, but the writing is strongly personal and contemporary, with O'Neill's phrasing giving it a singular character.