Bones is the debut studio album by Susan McKeown & The Chanting House, following two self-released mixtapes. The album was released through indie label 1-800-Prime-CD on September 17, 1996. Produced by McKeown and Jimi Zhivago, Bones features guest appearances from Johnny Cunningham and Jerry O'Sullivan.
The album was met with wide-spread critical acclaim from various media outlets, including AllMusic, Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Rhythm, The Boston Globe, and the New York Daily News. The song "Jericho" was subsequently included in the 1997 compilation album Women Of The World: Celtic II from Putumayo World Music. The track was later featured in the 1999 BBC documentary series The Irish Empire. The song "Westlin Winds" was covered by the band Fairport Convention on their 1999 album The Wood and the Wire. The song "Cé Leis E'?" was featured on The Midnight Special in 2020.
When commenting on the albums' genre in an interview with Billboard, McKeown noted âÂÂon Bones, I write songs using the rhythms of jigs and reels, but at the same time they are unmistakably rock songs. Traditional music is dear to me, but itâÂÂs up to the new generation to see how itâÂÂs carried down.âÂÂ
Bones was met with critical praise from various media outlets. Rick Anderson, in a review for AllMusic awarded the album 4 stars, writing:
British publication Rhythm named Bones "one of the best releases of 1996," observing âÂÂMcKeown comes on the scene like a force of nature: a tide of incantory verse and a voice that slays demons... thereâÂÂs a stateliness in her delivery that suggests sheâÂÂs in midnight communion with the long-departed spirit of Sandy Denny.âÂÂ
The Los Angeles Times was equally enthusiastic, noting âÂÂA soulful singing feminist, McKeown blends progressive Irish folk music with a harder-edged, pop-rock sensibility. Her album Bones is a stirring work of intense soul-searching.âÂÂ
The Boston Globe wrote âÂÂEqual parts folk-flavored songwriter and alternative rock chanteuse, Susan McKeownâÂÂs debut album âÂÂBonesâ is arrestingly original.â While Time Magazine asserted "this is the kind of music that will link IrelandâÂÂs musical past with its future."Additionally, Michael Paulson of the New York Daily News notedà"(Bones) intimate folk-rock songs, entwined with Irish instrumentation, have an earthy potency."