Synopsis
Drones abound, and a pensive atmosphere filled the office when Lisa O'Neill and her bandmates began one of my favorite songs of 2023, "Old Note." The deep, harmonic drones comprise a bowed hammer dulcimer, a shruti box, a harmonium and a bowed upright bass. Then the Irish singer's plaintive voice tells a tale she describes as "orality" and "how we communicated before we started writing stuff down. It's a song also about hearing the music in nature.