O Sleep

Album: Passenger (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist Lisa Hannigan linked up with the producer/singer-songwriter Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Ani DiFranco) for her second album, Passengers. The pair met at a 2010 tribute concert in London in honour of Kate McGarrigle where she was performing "Tell My Sister."
  • Hannigan began writing for the album in late 2009 and only completed it in March 2011. However, she and Henry spent a mere week laying down the tracks in Wales. Passengers was released in the US and Canada on September 20, 2011 and in the Republic of Ireland on October 7, 2011.
  • This song is a duet with Ray LaMontagne - the collaboration came out about after Hannigan emailed the American singer-songwriter's management. "I really wanted to have a proper duet on the record," she told Jam! Music. "He was at the top of my list. I absolutely adore his voice, such an incredible singer, and I thought it was worth an ask and OK, he said yes. But he's so wonderful, he's such a wonderful musician, and it was such a treat to get to sing with him."
  • Hannigan recorded the music and her vocals in Wales then went down to the London studio to be with LaMontagne when he recorded his part.

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