Born on the south side of Chicago, and a Cork native since 1997, Karen Underwood has written and performed four of her own shows, which have toured across the country to critical and popular acclaim.
She has played all the major Irish venues including the Olympia, Vicar Street, the Gaiety, National Concert Hall, Cork Opera House and The Everyman, and is a regular at festivals including Oxegen, Electric Picnic, Body and Soul, Black Box Festival of Fools, and Cork Jazz Festival.
She has appeared live on TV3, TG4 and been guest on numerous radio shows including Pat Kenny, Derek Mooney, Marty Whelan, Miriam O’Callaghan and John Creedon. Her previous albums are Ban the Use of Jazz Music with Cartoon and her debut solo album Live at The Everyman with John O’Brien.
Her new album Lilith – a song cycle by John O’Brien and Éadaoin O’Donoghue – about Adam’s first wife, made of earth and clay… not rib – debuted in November 2020. It features songs with influences from the worlds of soul, blues, tango, pop and classical – a gleefully irreverent, sacred, sexy take on Creation.