It’s rare I get sent a CD for review that literally doesn’t
\nleave my CD player for weeks. When it happens, I know it’s
\nsomething special, and the latest CD from Irish-born song stylist
\nMaura O’Connell.<\/p>\n
O’Connell’s genre is almost impossible to pin down — at times
\nshe ranges from folk to country to traditional to pop — but her
\nvoice is powerful, expressive, and an absolute joy to listen to.
\nWalls And Windows<\/i> (I will resist the temptation to make a
\nDan Fogleberg double-shot reference) is one of the single best CDs
\nI have ever heard for pure singing power, intensity, and delicacy
\nof interpretation. This is great stuff.<\/p>\n
O’Connell, the former lead singer of Irish pop band De Danaan
\n(who had considerable chart success in Europe in the mid-eighties
\nwith their CD
\nStar-Spangled Molly<\/i>), walked away from that success in 1987,
\nemigrated to Nashville, and immersed herself in the American
\ntraditional and acoustic music scene, eventually recording with
\nsuch luminaries as Mark O’Connor, Bela Fleck, and other members of
\nthe ‘new acoustic’ scene — bluegrass and country accented with
\njazz, rock, and ethnic notes.<\/p>\n
Her ‘second’ recording career took off in 1988 with the release
\nof her debut album
\nJust In Time<\/i>, and she’s been recording ever since in an
\neclectic, unique style. The influences of Celtic, pop, and American
\nacoustic result, not in a raucous blend like Canada’s Great Big Sea
\nor America’s Tempest, but in a more expressive, passionate vocal
\nstyle that at various times reminds me of Bonnie Raitt, Patsy
\nCline, and K.T. Oslin (remember her?). Yet none of these are really
\nfair comparisons, because Maura O’Connell has her own voice.<\/p>\n
Most amazing for me, it took me three weeks of listening to this
\nCD before I realized it’s about half covers. (Whoops.) O’Connell is
\nthat good at taking a song and making it hers, regardless of whose
\nname might be on the copyright. Her version of Eric Clapton’s “I
\nGet Lost” and Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” give me chills, they’re
\nso good.<\/p>\n
Other tracks worth note: “Long Ride Home” with its twists of
\nphrase and odd subject matter; “The Blessing”, a jazz-tinged
\nversion of the traditional Irish blessing; the sheer power of
\n“Walls”; and the funny, thought-provoking “Don’t Ask Why”. There
\nisn’t a bad track on the CD, and as a bonus the musicianship and
\nproduction are impeccable. (Sugar Hill Records continues to impress
\nme by turning out the best sounding recordings out there.)<\/p>\n
\nWalls And Windows<\/i> will definitely be on this year’s Top Ten
\nlist. Don’t waste time; grab it today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6672],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37266","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-maura-oconnell","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37266"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37266"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}