O’Connell in a transitional phase From page 25 and in her interpretations has found creatively-enriching ground in the marriage of Celtic and American country spiritual roots. She moved to Nashville in the mid-1980s aiter first touring the United States as a singer with a traditional Irish group called De Danaan. Music Now spoke with O’Con- nell on line from Philadelphia. Music Now: it is said that you come from a highly musica! family in County Clare. How did music come into your life? O'Connell: ‘‘There is a tradition in Ireland of getting together and playing music, and within that tradition people become known as singers or dancers or whatever. My mother and father were in- volved to some degree. My mother was involved in light opera and my father was involved in theatre. My family is known as a family of singers in Ennis, the town i come from.” Music Now: What attracted you to the new American country genre? O'Connell: “What most interest- ed me in Nashville at the time — and it still is there — are the peo- ple playing traditional instruments as musicians and not necessarily as banjo players or dobro players. They were being musicians who happened to own those instru- ments and they weren't being cur- tailed by what other people’s perceptions of that was and that's what | wanted to do with singing. | wanted to be a good singer. ! didn’t want to be a country singer ora folk singer. I tiked the attitude very much, it’s an approach to music free of everybody's idea of what things should be. There was a lot of experimentation going on.” Music Now: When listening to A Real Life Story I get the sense of hearing an artist in a transitional phase. Are you locking for new directions? O'Connell: “I think my job as a singer is to find the great songs. Hopefully as | get better known my choices will be greater so | can find better songs. Obviously my range as an artist has broadened and there’s a certain element of maturity involved. Also, too, the reason | wanted to work with Greg was that | loved the Absolute Torch and Twang album so much. \ had worked in Nashville since | had been a solo artist and ! really wanted to try something different. tn Nashville it was like here we ave all part of a gang. | was always surrounded by my buddies and | half-wanted to see if ! could do it without them. I’m looking forward to going back to Nashville again, though.”’ ‘ Music Now: What kind of lyric do you look for when you choose a song? O'Connell: ‘it is the combination of the lyric and the melody that makes the song. There are songs with incredible lyrics and the melody is just goofy and vice ver- sa. There are some songs I'd love to sing, but God | couldn’t say that stupid thing.’” Music Now: Have you recorded with your sisters prior to doing the song A Family Tie on your - latest? O'Connell: ‘Oh | don’t know how to tell fou this. They didn’t sing on that. | sang vocals and put their names on it. They thought it was cool. No one has ever noticed this but this time the review in the - Rolling Stone talked about the poignant singing from my backup singers and | thought, oh God, what am f going to do about this. They are fine singers and if they were around somewhere they would have sang on that song. But they weren‘t so ! put their names down. | was very homesick when | made the record in L.A. .” Music Now: How did the idea come about to back a song about Ireland with a Cajun rhythm on A Real Life Story? O'Connell: “I know this sounds strange but there’s a strong con- rection between Cajun music and Irish music. They came down from Acadia and the Acadians made great friends with the Irish up there.’ Music Now: How did the road oR more! We'll have super specials on the hour, hour from 7 to ever 10 P.M.! lead you to record part of the new album in Vancouver? O'Connell: ‘Well obviously through Greg who produced Ab- solute Torch and Twang. We re- corded the major portion of it in LA., but | really was concerned, being irs Nashviile for a number of years — it’s got the worst air type in the world. 1 was concerned that the air wouldn't be good in L.A. and I'd be suffering so we re- corded the vocals in Vancouver.” DIL SIO GI Gs CRAFT FAIR This Saturday, November 16 10 a.m. - 3 pm. ST. 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