Links and Bio's
About Irish Music Forever
Recent Album: Wandering Home
Maura O'Connell embodies many paradoxes: lead singer for De Dannan, she was not a traditional Celtic singer; resident of Nashville, she is not American; collaborator with New Grass Revival, she is not a bluegrass performer. Nevertheless,
O'Connell has made a name for herself on two continents as a superb singer.
O'Connell was born and raised in County Clare, Ireland, where she began singing at an early age. Involvement in the folk club scene led to an invitation from celtic traditionalists, De Dannon, to join their ranks. Her involvement with De Dannon resulted in the recording of Star
Spangled Mollie, a clear indication of interest in trans-Atlantic culture. O'Connell then began to collabrate with members of New Grass Revival, and in particular with Bela Fleck who produced several of her tracks. Together with Fleck and others, she recorded Just in Time and made
the decision to settle in Nashville, Tennessee. Since then, she has released Helpless Heart, Blue is the Colour of Hope, and Real Life Story, each album registering a move toward a pop synthesis. Stories followed in 1995, with Wandering Home appearing two years later. ~ Leon
Jackson, All-Music Guide (From CD-NOW Biography)
CD NOW
Dirty Linen Article
Recent Album: Older But No Wiser
Robbie O'Connell was born in Waterford, Ireland and grew up in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, where his parents had a small hotel. He began to play guitar and sing at age thirteen and soon became a regular performer at the hotel's weekly folk concerts. He spent a year touring
the folk clubs in England before enrolling at University College Dublin where he studied Literature and Philosophy. During school vacations Robbie worked as an Irish entertainer in the U.S.A. In 1977, he joined the Clancy Brothers with
whom he has recorded 3 albums, and two years later he moved to Franklin, Massachusetts.
With the release, in 1982, of his first solo album, Close to the Bone, Robbie emerged as an artist of major stature. Soon after, he began touring extensively with Mick Moloney and Jimmy Keane, and also with Eileen Ivers and Seamus Egan in the Green Fields of America. In 1985, the trio's first album, There Were Roses, was released. Robbie also participated in The Festival of Mountain Music and Dance on a five nation
tour of Latin America. In 1987, the trio followed up their very successful first release with the album, Kilkelly, the title track of which was voted "Best Album Track of the Year" in Ireland. 1989 saw the release of a live concert recording of the Green Fields of America.
Robbie has taught songwriting at the Augusta Heritage Arts Workshop in Elkins, West Virginia, Gaelic Roots Week at Boston College and at the Summer Acoustic Music Week in Boston. His album of original compositions, Love of the Land, was voted the #1 acoustic album of 1989 by WUMB
in Boston. In 1991, he won a prestigious Boston Music Award as Outstanding Celtic Act and was also featured in the highly acclaimed TV series "Bringing It All Back Home." In 1992 he performed at Carnegie Hall with the Clancy Brothers and was also seen by an estimated 500 million
people worldwide on the telecast of a live tribute to Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden, a performance which Rolling Stone magazine described as "breathtaking."
Never Learned to Dance, his 1993 album of original songs, was critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1994 he headlined a celebration of Boston based Irish Music at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Older But No Wiser, his last CD with the Clancy Brothers
was released on Vanguard in 1995, followed in 1997 by the Clancy, O'Connell & Clancy CD and in 1998 by The Wild & Wasteful Ocean, with Liam and DĒnal Clancy. Robbie O'Connell Live, Humorous Songs and All On A Christmas Morning with the group
Aengus, were released in 1998. A retrospective collection album is due for release in 1999. (From the official Robby O'Connell web site)
CD NOW
Offical Web Site
I-music
Recent Album: So Far...The Best Of Sinead O'
BORN: December 8, 1966, Dublin, Ireland
Sinead O'Connor ranked among the most distinctive and controversial pop music stars of the 1990s, the first and in many ways the most influential of the numerous female performers whose music dominated airwaves throughout the decade. Brash and outspoken, with her shaven head,
angry visage and shapeless wardrobe a direct challenge to the popular culture's long-prevailing notions of femininity and sexuality, O'Connor irrevocably altered the image of women in rock; railing against long-standing stereotypes simply by asserting herself not as a sex object but
as a serious artist, she kick-started a revolt which led the way for performers ranging from Liz Phair to Courtney Love to Alanis Morissette.
O'Connor was born in Dublin, Ireland on December 8, 1966. Her childhood was often traumatic: her parents divorced when she was eight, and she later claimed that her mother, who was killed in a 1985 automobile accident, frequently abused her. After being expelled from Catholic
school, O'Connor was arrested for shoplifting and shuttled off to a reformatory; at the age of 15, while singing a cover of Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen" at a wedding, she was spotted by Paul Byrne, the drummer for the Irish band In Tua Nua (best known as proteges of U2). After co-writing the first In Tua Nua single, "Take My Hand," O'Connor left boarding school in order to focus on a career in music, and began performing in area coffeehouses; she later studied voice and piano at the Dublin College of Music, and
supported herself delivering singing telegrams.
Upon signing a contract with Ensign Records in 1985, O'Connor relocated to London; the following year she made her recorded debut on the soundtrack of the film The Captive, appearing with U2 guitarist the Edge. After scrapping the initial tapes for her debut LP on the grounds
that the production was too Celtic, she took the producer's seat herself and began re-recording the album, dubbed The Lion and the Cobra in reference to Psalm 91; the result was one of the most acclaimed debut records of 1987, with a pair of alternative radio hits in the singles
"Mandinka" and "Troy." Almost from the outset of her career, however, O'Connor was a controversial media figure; in interviews following the LP's release, she defended the actions of the IRA, resulting in widespread criticism from many corners, and even burned bridges by attacking
longtime supporters U2, whose music she declared "bombastic."
However, O'Connor remained a cult figure prior to the release of 1990's chart-topping I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, a harrowing masterpiece sparked by the recent dissolution of her marriage to drummer John Reynolds. Boosted by the single and video "Nothing Compares 2 U,"
originally penned by Prince, the album established her as a major star, but again controversy followed as tabloids took aim at her romance with Black singer Hugh Harris while continuing to attack her outspoken politics. On American shores, O'Connor also became the target of derision
for refusing to perform in New Jersey if "The Star Spangled Banner" was played prior to her appearance, a move which brought public criticism from no less than Frank Sinatra, who threatened to "kick her ass; " she also made headlines for pulling out of an appearance on the NBC
program Saturday Night Live in response to the misogynist persona of guest host Andrew Dice Clay, and even withdrew her name from competition in the annual Grammy Awards despite four nominations. O'Connor also continued to confound expectations with her third album, 1992's Am I
Not Your Girl? a collection of pop standards and torch songs which failed to live up to either the commercial or critical success of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. However, any discussion of the record's creative merits quickly became moot in the wake of her most controversial
and damaging action yet: after finally appearing on Saturday Night Live, O'Connor ended her performance by ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II, resulting in a wave of condmemnation unlike any she'd previously encountered. Two weeks after the SNL performance, she appeared at a
Bob Dylan tribute concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, and was promptly booed off the stage.
Now a virtual pariah, O'Connor's retirement from the music business was subsequently reported, although it was later claimed that she had merely returned to Dublin with the intent of studying opera. She kept a low profile for the next several years, starring as Ophelia in a
theatrical production of Hamlet and later touring with Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival. She also reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown, and even made a half-hearted attempt at suicide. In 1994, however, O'Connor returned to pop music with the LP Univeral Mother, which, despite good
reviews, failed to relaunch her to superstar status; the following year she announced that she would no longer speak to the press. The Gospel Oak EP followed in 1997. ~ Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide (From CD-NOW Biography)
CD NOW
Offical Web Site
Jeff's Cool Music Page 1997/a>
Recent Album: Piper's Call
An uillean piper from Co. Kildare, O'Flynn was a founding member of Planxty. An innovative performer, he has recorded with pop, folk, and classical musicians and on film soundtracks in a variety of styles. ~ Steve Winick, All-Music Guide (From
CD-NOW Biography)
This site
© 2002
Name of Performer/Group Page 32
De Dannan
Maura O'Connell Back to Artist List
Robby O'Connell Back to Artist List
Sinead O'Connor Back to Artist List
Liam O'Flynn Back to Artist List
Planxty
This site hosted by FASTQ
Arizona Irish Music Society
