Eilidh (pronounced I-Lee) is a Scots-Gaelic name meaning ‘ray of sunshine’. This Derry girl has been delighting audiences across the UK and the States for the last few years with her beautiful, captivating songs - truly a ray of sunshine to the soul.
Derry has often been called the Music City of Ireland and for Eilidh, there was no escape from music, particularly within her own family. Her first experience of singing in public was as a member of her family gospel music trio aptly called ‘The Patterson Family’. Here, she explored her love of harmony singing and became accustomed to performing on stage. When the family group disbanded in 2000, Eilidh started experimenting with songwriting and shortly afterwards joined The Foyle Folk Club, where her newly composed songs were received with great appreciation.
Fast forward to 2007 when Eilidh, having worked her way to becoming an accomplished singer/songwriter, released her first E.P. with the help of engineer and producer Alastair McMillan (Van Morrison, U2). ‘Still Learning’, the title track, is one of her most requested songs to date which describes her reaction to hearing the famous quote by Michaelangelo, “I am still learning.”
It wasn’t long before Eilidh was being offered opportunities to perform further afield and in March 2008, she was invited to sing in Nashville TN and at the SXSW Festival in Austin TX, to help promote the Sister City link between Belfast and Nashville. Two months later, she was invited back to the States, this time to Seattle WA, where she was the only non-American artist in attendance at an exclusive songwriting retreat in the North Cascade mountains. Since then, she has performed at SXSW twice more (2009, 2010) and in New York City.
In 2009, Eilidh released her debut album, When The Time Comes. These songs have received numerous airplays across the UK since its release, most notably the track ‘Do I Ever Cross Your Mind’ which was featured for 6 months+ on a radio advert for Tourism Ireland, encouraging people to visit Belfast for the wealth of music it has to offer. Produced and engineered by Alastair McMillan at Amberville Studio in N. Ireland, When The Time Comes is a body of work which was written over a period of 7 years. When asked about this in an interview, Eilidh said “This album was a long time coming, as the title suggests, but for me it was definitely worth the wait. I wouldn’t have been ready to release an album ‘til now.”
Eilidh is a regular visitor to Nashville (a.k.a. Music City, USA) where she co-writes, performs and meets with music industry professionals. Last year she recorded harmonies on Beth Nielsen Chapman’s Back To Love album in addition to playing in Beth’s band during her month-long UK tour in Autumn 2010. Eilidh has also made appearances with Beth at the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival and Celtic Connections Folk festival in the UK in addition to some festival dates in the US this past summer.
On Eilidh’s most recent trip to the States, she spent 12 days in a studio on Music Row, recording her second album with Nashville producer and multi-instrumentalist, Lee Holland.
“Getting to record an album of my own material in Nashville TN has been a dream of mine since I started singing professionally” says Eilidh. “I was so encouraged to meet a great team of people to work with including Lee Holland and Brad Hill (the engineer and owner of Hill Studio on Music Row). From the very first day of recording ‘til the last, I loved every minute. It was intense at times but I’m definitely one of those people who works best under pressure!” Featured on the album are some of Nashville’s finest musicians: Tim O’Brien, Julie Lee, Ron Block and Jeff Taylor to name a few.
THIS IS NOW is available to buy on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon and via Paypal from this website.