Welcome to the Official Web Site of Honor Heffernan
New Release!
In the early 70's, I started out singing Folk and then went on to sing Rock, Blues, and Contemporary music. In 1983 I began singing Jazz and have done that almost exclusively since then, recording two albums along the way.
However over the last few years I have had this little voice in my head reminding me that there is another side to me. So last April I spoke to Dick Farrelly and asked him to help me find a studio and musicians so that I could record an album.
He suggested we record it in France where a friend of his, from the early eighties had a cool little studio. The friend turned out to be drummer Neil Conti of 'Prefab Sprout' fame, and he owned the studio, which is called ' Magic Circle Studio'. Next was the Hammond organ player Gavin Povey. The bass player was Paul Moore. Dick was to play guitars and produce the album. I was happy!
We set off to Montpellier in the South of France with all worries of rain and parking metres left behind. The album was a joy to record from beginning to end, and I think you will agree the results speak for themselves. The musicians were perfect and so enthusiastic it was a happy crew and company and we had many great laughs as well as making some great music!
The material was very important and luckily I found ten tunes that I was very happy with and really meant something to me.
I really hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I enjoyed recording it. Like a dream come true it is finally, a perfect reflection of 'The Other Side', of me. . The album was mastered by Daniel Lazerus in 'Chace' in L.A.
Thank you for all your support in 2006 and here's to a great '07
Honor
Reviews of "The Other Side"
Jackie Hayden - Hot Press
Tony Clayton-Lea
Irish singer Honor Heffernan has been around the block so many times she has virtually transcended the most dangerous perception anyone can have about a talented and, dare one say, established artist: familiarity breeds indifference. There should be no such attitudes about Heffernan’s latest album, which manages to up the ante, while still maintaining high standards.
Through a selection of carefully chosen cover versions (including John Martyn’s Some People, Joni Mitchell’s All I Want, Janis Joplin’s Move Over and Leonard Cohen’s Here It Is), Heffernan sidesteps the oft abused notion that covering other people’s songs is a thankless task. The overall mood here is indigo blue, while the voice remains instinctively subtle, sultry and svelte.
Cormac Larkin - Sunday TribuneSOBRIQUETS like “the first lady of Irish jazz” can be a bit of a millstone for a singer like Heffernan. There are certainly few to touch her as a jazz vocalist- but her proclivities range further. Here, she explores her roots in blues and folk with a thoughtful set of tunes (JJ.Cale, Joni Mitchell, etc) produced by guitarist Dick Farrelly with a first rate band. There is all the craft and depth you would expect from the singer, as well as a feel for this more rootsy material that suggests Heffernan could be the first lady of anything she fancies.
Released October 2005Fire and Ice Sleeve Note – Neil Jordan
‘One needs certain qualities to interpret the classic standards on this album, besides a superlative voice, that is. A sense of drama, certainly, a sense of empathy with the emotions the songs evoke – loss, the transient nature of pleasure, love, attachment, most of all perhaps a sense of fidelity to the emotions themselves. Honor Heffernan has all of these in spades, but brings to these songs a beautiful, classical sense of detachment. Witness her interpretat ions of Jonie Mitchel's Blue, or of Carlos Jobim's How Insensitive. The latter, I can never hear without thinking of Astrud Gilberto's original version. Honor makes the song her own, adds a layer of dreamy, dramatic colour, does justice to that original while somehow making it new again. The tone in the album overall is calm, almost grave, the arrangements spare and the end result sublime.'
Neil Jordan
Click here for reviews of "Fire and Ice"
