Flo McSweeney records debut solo album of favourite songs

Singer and actress Flo McSweeney today releases her debut album, 'Picture in a Frame',  a collection of re-imagined songs that Flo chose for their diversity and personal meaning.

Flo McSweeney has enjoyed a career in the entertainment business in Ireland and abroad for over 35 years as a singer, TV presenter and actress.  ‘Picture in a Frame’ is her debut solo album.  Co-produced with Fiachra Trench and Rian Trench, the album came about following the death of her mother, in the spring of 2018.  

“We started recording two weeks after my mother’s death.  I sang ‘Picture in a Frame’ at her funeral.  It became, for me, her song and was the natural choice as the title track for the album.”
 
As a singer, Flo has toured extensively over the years with Moving Hearts, The Commitments, and Manchester band A Certain Ratio, with whom she recorded an album for Arista Records.  Highlights as a vocalist include playing to over 30,000 people at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Festival of Song in South America.  Flo is a regular guest vocalist with the 17-piece Hot House Big Band and has recently toured with Fiachra Trench and Carmel McCreagh in shows ‘Love and all that Jazz’ and ‘Two Diva’s and a Piano’. 
 
She came to prominence as a TV presenter on ‘TV Gaga’, ‘Megamix’ and ‘No Frontiers’ on RTE.
 
Theatre roles have taken her to stages across Ireland and recently off Broadway in New York as Eva Gore Booth in Brian Merriman’s play ‘Eirebrushed’, to wonderful reviews.  Other roles include ‘Titania’ in Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Gate, ‘Jacques Brel’ at the Gate and ‘Marie Claire’ at the Project Dublin. A longstanding association with composer Bill Whelan (Riverdance) has seen Flo perform for five years at the Yeats/Beckett Festival at the Abbey Theatre, at NCH in 2015 as part of ‘An Evening with W.B. Yeats’ and in concert at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 2018, where she performed one of Bill’s works with a 30-piece orchestra and a 120-strong choir. 

She has already released two singles from 'Picture in a Frame'.  ‘Moondance’ (Van Morrison) and the album’s title track  (Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan) give a tantalising glimpse of the album.

"It doesn't bother me that these songs cover a variety of genres," she says. "They are just stand out songs from some of my favourite song writers."