Liam Lawton

Liam Lawton's path through music has traced an unusual arc from early promise as a composer, through ordination as a Catholic priest, into recognition as a leading figure in liturgical writing and ultimately as a prominent voice in world music. Raised in a household steeped in performance, he belonged to a lineage of musicians that included two professional parents and seven brothers who each built careers in the field. From childhood he gravitated first toward traditional Irish music and, almost as strongly, toward the act of composition itself. Already skilled at the piano, he began creating and presenting original pieces while still in his teens. Formal study followed at Maynooth, where competition wins in songwriting drew attention from labels throughout Ireland, yet he chose instead to pursue the priesthood. Ordained in 1984, he served as parish priest in Carlow, the modest town south of Dublin. Roughly seven years afterward, performance opportunities reemerged and the liturgical community rediscovered his work. A publishing and recording arrangement with GIA enabled wider circulation of his sacred compositions, leading to appearances before large international crowds, among them a 1997 headline slot at a Christian music festival in Anaheim, California, before an audience exceeding 20,000. Beginning in 2000 his profile broadened beyond liturgy to encompass Irish cultural life more generally; commissions arrived from Chicago’s mayor celebrating Irish Catholic heritage, and after the September 11 attacks his song “The Cloud’s Veil” gained widespread currency. In 2002 he formed the vocal and instrumental ensemble Lorica, which undertook extensive touring across the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and continental Europe. EMI signed the group in 2004, resulting in the debut album Another World and a subsequent sold-out Irish itinerary of more than fifty dates. The follow-up release Time appeared about a year later and met comparable demand, its accompanying tour yielding a live concert DVD. Lawton’s 2006 project Song of the Celtic Soul was captured outdoors before an audience of 5,000; the resulting CD/DVD package reached stores in 2007 and registered the strongest sales figures of his career.