Chloë Agnew Discusses Her Latest Projects With Atlanta Artists And Why This City Is Her Second Home
Chloe Agnew will have several Atlanta performances this fall.
Eamonn McCrystal
Singer-songwriter Chloë Agnew was already famous at age 13 as one of the members of the vocal group Celtic Woman. Throughout the years, Agnew’s sound has explored areas of folk, traditional, and Christian music, as well as an acoustic singer-songwriter and even classical music. She’s performed for three consecutive U.S. presidents, and on stages alongside legends like Chaka Khan, Rita Wilson, and Italian tenor Alessandro Rinella. Agnew returns to Georgia stages this year, including the Atlanta Pops Christmas Concert in Roswell. She joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about her newest projects and appearances.
Among Agnew’s new explorations is a track for a cover album of the late ’80s, early 90’s glam rock band Slaughter. Versatile voice actor and producer Kari Wahlgren created the concept ‘SlaughtHER,’ and produced the tribute live show and album of Slaughter covers with an all-women team of musicians and vocalists.
“She had this idea, ‘Slaught-her,’ where the fantastic glam rock hair band were a huge influence on her teenage years growing up, so she was always just a massive fan of the band and their music,” Agnew said. “She came up with this fantastic concept to bring Slaughter’s music into 2021 … reimagined in a whole new way, reinvented, all these very unusual covers of all of their songs … She decided to take this project and record it and produce with an entirely female team.”
‘SlaughtHER’s’ album of covers comes out August 27th release of the cover album, with Agnew’s featured track, “On My Own.”
“I knew the original, obviously, and then Carrie had a wonderful idea of completely stripping it back, and leaving it all about the vocal, with just simple accompaniment of piano and cello, so that the lyrics could tell the fantastic story of ‘On My Own,’” Agnew said.
The song comes with a music video that Agnew described as a retrospective of clips from her life, touring, performing, and spending long stretches away from home. “What many people think of the life of a touring artist, it looks very glamorous, and it seems very exciting, but people don’t see the reality of long nights on the road, one hotel after the next, and feeling very disconnected from your family and from your loved ones.”
Next month, Agnew joins Grammy Award-winner David Phelps and the Atlanta Pops for a concert in Oxford, Alabama. “Our family, needless to say, are freaking out,” Agnew said.
The singer swears she was raised on Phelps’ music since she was a little girl, when her father used to put Phelps on the home hi-fi while she played with her Barbie dolls. “I’m not believing it’s real until I’m standing on the stage, singing with him.”
Agnew will soon be rejoining Celtic Woman as a guest artist for their 2022 PostcardsFrom Ireland tour. She had previously joined the group for a 2020 reunion tour which was sadly cut short, twelve shows in, due to the pandemic. “I felt like I really had some more life and music to explore with Celtic Woman, and I was thrilled when they asked me to be part of this new special.”
The Irish singer has visited countless American cities and performed on stages worldwide, but touchingly considers Atlanta her second home. “I love the way it’s welcomed me, and has made me feel like I’m a local here over the last few years,” Agnew said. “It’s been a very special place to me, and it’s somewhere that I always loved coming to visit with Celtic Woman. We always had a fantastic time here … I’m very thankful that the state has welcomed me, and has loved me as much as I’ve loved it.”
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