Lucia Comnes
San Francisco, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2008 | SELF
Music
Press
“Lucia is a songwriter and violinist with a singular voice releasing acoustic music set in an atmospheric, captivating landscape. People have commented that her recordings are a hip, Americana version of Fleetwood Mac.” – Jeffrey Wood, Producer
“When your ancestral soul reaches with outstretched hand across an endless ocean while your American feet sit on firm soil, listen to Lucia Comnes.” – Christine Carina, fan - Producer, Jeffrey Wood
The Lucia Comnes Combo is a musical melting pot ... that creates a great, big, sweet and spicy euro-roots stew. Formerly of the Bulgarian vocal ensemble Kitka, Marin-raised Comnes holds a B.A. in ethnomusicology from Long Island University. - Pacific Sun
Comnes, a Marin native who sings and plays violin with her own band, comes to the gig with songs from her debut album, "On the Way," a world fusion CD that's a kind of musical U.N. plenary session, melding Irish melodies, Turkish rhythms, Indian tabla, Bulgarian vocals, Motown grooves, gypsy tunes, West African vibes and American jazz.
"The mission of this album is to bring forth some of my favorite songs, ones that I've picked up traveling and studying abroad, and presenting them in new ways that are accessible to modern young audiences while still being true to the traditions they come from," Comnes explains. "I'm 25, and I have quite a few peers who are interested in this music. But some of the sounds are very different from what you hear in pop music. It's kind of an acquired taste." - Marin Independent Journal
As a perfect compliment to these two outward looking Irish musicians, San Francisco native gem, Lucia Comnes uses her exquisite voice and lilting fiddle to interpret songs from not only Ireland but also Turkey, Bulgaria and Macedonia to name a few. - Irish Herald
In addition to the Black Brothers… the San Francisco Irish Festival presents the luminous vocalist Lucia Comnes at Maggie McGarry’s Irish Pub in San Francisco on Sunday… - San Jose Mercury News
Solas and other musical groups have done the traditional Irish folk song "Calling Home the Calves" (Aililiu Na Gamhna), but Lucia Comnes has taken it to a higher level, using her singular voice and two instruments from the Indian subcontinent - bansuri flute and shruti box - to create a goose-bumpy tableau of nature and memory. "Calling Home the Calves" is one of numerous delights on Comnes' new album, "On the Way" which takes songs from across borders - including from Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria - and interprets them anew while retaining the original language. The result: a cascade of tunes (plus a jazzy Comnes original) that are otherworldly and embedded with soul and spirit. On many songs, violin merges with accordion, electric bass and other instruments, then is capped by Comnes' vocalizations, which cross musical chasms. Comnes lives in the Bay Area, but her home is really the world at large. - Datebook - San Francisco Chronicle
Discography
Love, Hope & Tyranny (full length album) - releases February 2015
How The Moon Made Me (single) - 2013
Through The Dark (EP) - 2012
Cable Car (single) - 2011
Potpourri (single) - 2010
Across The Wide Ocean (full album) - 2009
On the way (full album) - 2008
Violets & Roses with Lily Storm (full album) - 2007
Photos
Bio
Award-winning songwriter, Lucia Comnes, celebrates the diversity of musical cultures from around the world through her singing, songwriting, fiddling, and guitar playing. She’s known for her contemporary interpretations of Irish, Balkan, and American folk music, and for her original songs, which reflect her many influences. Her song 'No Hiding Place' was recently awarded First Place in the Americana genre and Grand Prize for Best Song Overall by the Dallas Songwriters Association at their Annual Song Contest.
Her ability to seamlessly blend different styles results in music that draws from the past but is refreshingly contemporary. Lucia’s fiddling is a powerful and emotional expression of her musical vision – a vision that demonstrates that she isn’t afraid to take chances. Her voice, crystal clear but with a hint of mystery, was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “singular… embedded with soul and spirit.”
Perhaps her most valuable talent is her powerful imagination. An imagination that breathes vivid imagery into the lyrics of her songs and infuses her fiddling with the spirit of the ancient tones, be they from Kilkenny, Kentucky, or Kosovo.
Lucia has recorded three full-length albums, and a fourth is slated for release in early 2015. Love, Hope & Tyranny was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley and produced with Gawain Mathews and Jeffrey Wood (Luka Bloom, Penelope Houston). It features 11 of Lucia’s original songs and an impressive list of contributors including background vocals from the delightful T Sisters.
She also finds time to front Lucia and Her Rockin’ Irish Band, delivering new takes on the Irish sound, with hair-raising vocal harmonies, soul-shaking harmonica solos, fierce melodies on the fiddle and songs in Irish Gaelic. Driven by a powerhouse rhythm section of drums and bass, jigs and reels have never been so danceable.
As a solo performer Lucia recently accompanied Joan Baez in concert, was selected to perform ‘America The Beautiful’ on solo violin at the Oakland Coliseum to open the Raiders/Steelers Football game, opened for Paul Brady (an Irish legend whose songs are hits for Bonnie Raitt, Tina Turner & Cher), collaborates with Irish artist, Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers) and modern dance pioneer, Anna Halprin.
Born in San Francisco, Lucia Comnes started her professional career in 2002 as a vocalist with Kitka – the Oakland-based women’s a cappella vocal ensemble specializing in Balkan/Eastern European folk music. At the same time, she began delving deep into Irish music and studied with many fiddle masters (Martin Hayes, Kevin Burke, Oisín MacDiarmada) in the U.S. and Ireland. She also attended the Traditional Irish Music Program at University College, Cork, to study spoken Gaelic and sean-nos, or “old-style,” singing.
Lucia attended UC Berkeley and graduated from Long Island University’s Global Studies program in 2006 with a self-designed interdisciplinary degree called Music, Culture and Nature, following her research in Ireland, Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria. An avid traveler throughout her life, Lucia has studied, visited, and performed in more than 20 countries, including remote parts of Siberia.
Along with her passion for music, Lucia has made lifelong commitment to meeting the environmental challenges of our time. In her compositions, Lucia strives to bring people back in connection with nature and with their own roots.
- Artist Biography written by Chuck Poling, California Bluegrass Association, 2014
Band Members
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