Multi Grammy and CMA Award-winning fiddler and composer Mark O’Connor returns to progressive bluegrass and country music with the O’Connor Band and their debut album, Coming Home. O’Connor embarked on a prolific career as an American Classical music composer, hot swing violinist and legendary bluegrass fiddler collaborating with the likes of Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, James Taylor, Wynton Marsalis and Yo-Yo Ma. The New York Times has described O’Connor’s career as “one of the most spectacular journeys in recent American music.” In the O’Connor Band, Mark is joined by his wife Maggie (MA, Peabody Institute of Music) on violin and harmony vocals, his son Forrest (former Tennessee State Mandolin Champion) on mandolin and lead vocals, and Forrest’s fiancée, Kate Lee (frequent performer on the CMA Awards), on violin and lead vocals. Coming Home is a perfect balance of contemporary songcraft by Forrest and Kate and intricate instrumentals featuring the band’s triple fiddle lineup. The O’Connor Band is rounded out by national flatpick champion Joe Smart on guitar and University of Miami DMA candidate Geoff Saunders on bass and banjo. Co-producer and Grammy-winner Gregg Field says, “At the heart of any album is the songwriting. Kate and Forrest have seductively crafted alluring stories and colorful characters in their songs, some biographical and each one sounding like a new standard.”
O’Connor Band
Coming Home
Release Date: August 5, 2016
It’s 8:40 p.m. on a Friday evening, five minutes before the O’Connor Band is slated to make their Grand Ole Opry debut. Fiddle legend Mark O’Connor is standing just offstage, wearing his trademark Fedora hat, smiling at the sight of the crowd, the lights, and his old friends in the Opry house band.
“It’s amazing to come full circle and return here,” says O’Connor. “I first performed on this stage when I was 12. Even though it was more than 40 years ago, I’ll always vividly remember Roy Acuff introducing me to the crowd. But this performance might be even more special, because I get to have my family out there on stage with me.”
As if on cue, Mark’s son, Forrest, walks up in earnest.
“Dad, we may have a slight problem,” says the younger O’Connor, wielding a mandolin in his left hand and a pick in his right. “I just realized that both our songs are in [the key of] E. Is that okay, or do we need to swap one of them out?”
“Whoops,” says Mark. “Well, at this point, let’s stick with what we decided, because I think the songs are different enough. I bet the audience will love ‘em!”
Within minutes, the full six-piece O’Connor Band is out on stage, launching into a cover of the old Osborne Brothers hit, “Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man?” Forrest’s fiancée, Kate Lee (vocals, fiddle), is singing lead, and Mark’s wife, Maggie (vocals, fiddle), is chopping rhythm on the fiddle hard enough that, if you weren’t looking, you might think she was playing a snare drum. Joe Smart (guitar) and Geoff Saunders (bass) are also holding down a tight groove despite the breakneck pace. After a virtuosic vocal performance from Kate and blistering solos from father and son O’Connor, the song ends abruptly, and the audience erupts in what seems to be the loudest applause of the entire evening.
Next, the band plays “Coming Home,” a song penned by Forrest while out on the road with his dad during one of their “Appalachian Christmas” tours a couple years prior. It’s an uptempo, feel-good, almost anthemic tune about coming home to a loved one after months of travel. All the band members, including Mark, join in on harmony vocals for the last two choruses, and the audience eats it up.
And just like that, the set is over. The O’Connors exit stage right and shake hands with some of the other performers and staff before heading back to the dressing room.
“I think it’s bedtime,” says Maggie as she puts her fiddle in her case. “We need to be on the road at like 5 a.m. because we have two shows at Dollywood tomorrow afternoon!”
Family bands obviously have significant historical precedent, especially in bluegrass and country music (think The Carter Family, The Stonemans, The Whites, even The Band Perry), but it’s rare to find one this versatile, and with such a diverse background and story.
Mark himself has the name that fans of many different musical styles will immediately recognize. A former child prodigy and national champion on the fiddle, guitar, and mandolin, Mark has won his share of Grammys and CMA Awards, and has collaborated with a dizzying array of iconic artists, including Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Randy Travis, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, and Yo-Yo Ma. He has also written numerous violin concertos, which he has performed with hundreds of major symphony orchestras around the world. In addition to performing, he has authored a groundbreaking and now best-selling instructional method for strings, The O’Connor Method. Hailed by The New York Times as having followed “one of the most spectacular journeys in recent American music,” O’Connor’s career has been unique and inspirational.
“I’ve recorded on at least 500 albums,” says O’Connor, “but I have to say, there are very few, if any, that I’ve been as proud of as this O’Connor Band album. With the help of Grammy winners Gregg Field [co-producer] and Neal Cappellino [chief engineer], we’re bridging the gap between progressive bluegrass, country, and indie folk and yet creating something that is also very commercially viable.”
Throughout the 12-song album, which will be released August 5, 2016 on Rounder Records (the first label Mark signed with at age 12), the O'Connor Band draws upon a deep well of talent and tradition to make music whose sonic and emotional appeal transcends time and genre, demonstrating an effortless rapport that underlines the group's family roots as well as its prestigious collective pedigree.
The title of the record apparently didn’t require much deliberation: Coming Home, named after Forrest’s song, was the obvious choice, as it reflects the arc of his dad’s career and the meaning of this album so aptly.
Forrest himself waited a long time before deciding to follow his father’s footsteps. Growing up in Nashville and Montana, he dabbled in guitar and mandolin until enrolling at Harvard University, where, despite the heavy academic workload, he managed to squeeze in time to practice mandolin late nights in the basement of his dorm building. After graduating summa cum laude and foregoing an invitation to attend Harvard Business School, Forrest co-founded and worked at a video tech startup, Concert Window, before deciding to pursue music as a career in early 2014. Within two months of moving from Boston back to his hometown of Nashville, he won the Tennessee State Mandolin Championship and began touring full-time with O’Connor Band co-lead singer and fiancée, Kate Lee.
“I’m what you might call a late bloomer,” Forrest says with a laugh. “But I was around so much music growing up that this way of life feels very natural to me. And our album has to be what, number 50 or something that my dad’s released as a featured artist? It’s my first full album, but I don’t think it will sound like it. This band is a natural extension of what I have always loved about music and music-making. It’s coming along at a time when we can combine our different sensibilities to create something that will hopefully resonate with the bluegrass and country audiences and beyond.”
Two of Forrest’s original songs on the album, “What Have I Been Saying?” and “I Haven’t Said I Love You In A While”, are probably not what one would consider straight-ahead bluegrass. Both are slow- to mid-tempo duets with Kate, and they feature winding, occasionally chromatic melodies, adventurous chord progressions, and lush string textures. Although very personal, both songs draw upon the songcraft of the top country writers of the ‘80s and ‘90s, which is refreshing in this acoustic context.
“It’s a pretty cool thing to contribute to the wonderful musical traditions of bluegrass and country while also trying to build on it,” Kate adds. “I grew up listening to Mark and being inspired by his music, long before I ever knew that he had a son that I’d be engaged to. It turns out that Forrest and I have similar writing sensibilities, which is one of the reasons we hit it off so well after we met.”
The chemistry Kate and Forrest have developed together over the last couple years as vocalists and writers is evident both onstage and on the new recording. Kate’s journey to this point, however, is perhaps more similar to Mark’s than Forrest’s. Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Kate became the leader of her own band, Kate Lee & No Strings Attached, at age 12, and she won several state and regional songwriting contests in the ensuing years. Soon after moving to Nashville to study commercial violin performance at Belmont University, she began performing behind a number of the biggest names in country music, including Martina McBride, Lady Antebellum, Vince Gill, Jennifer Nettles, and Rascal Flatts. She also formed an unlikely but highly productive songwriting partnership with Pat Alger (Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Nanci Griffith), and a couple of their songs appear on the O’Connor Band album.
“The songs Kate and Pat wrote – especially ‘Blacktop Boy’ – are so accessible,” says Maggie. “That one in particular sounds like a radio single to me, and Kate’s singing on it is so powerful. But honestly, it’s hard to choose favorites on this album. The music is diverse yet so cohesive. I think that’s because we have such a good camaraderie. Of course, having a band with two couples is unique, but in some ways our very different backgrounds contribute to the cohesion. It’s like we are each inspired by each other’s journeys to this point because, in spite of being a family, we all followed different paths to get here.”
Maggie, who sings both lead and background vocals in addition to playing violin for the O’Connor Band, is the only core member of the band with a higher academic degree, having earned a Master of Music in violin performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. After growing up playing and singing country, bluegrass, and jazz with her own family band in a small town outside Atlanta, GA, she underwent years of intense Russian School classical violin training, but she never lost her yearning to play American styles. In 2014, while still considering pursuing an orchestral career, she reached out to Mark – whom she had never met – about setting up a fiddle lesson during a trip to New York City, where Mark was living at the time.
“I’ll put it this way: That lesson changed a few things!” exclaims Maggie.
Within weeks, Maggie began performing with Mark both domestically and abroad, including with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and at the Leopold Auer Academia in Hungary and the Berlin Konzerthaus in Germany. But perhaps no performance meant as much as one they played November of that year – at their own wedding.
Maggie’s ability to blend tonally with her husband is startling; indeed, it literally sounds like they are one violinist sometimes. Fortunately, given Mark’s command as an arranger, the two are able to harness the beauty of their blend often, especially on Mark’s versions of the driving Bill Monroe classic, “Jerusalem Ridge” and the bouncing, energetic traditional tune, “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” as well as in his majestic original composition, “Fiddler Going Home.” All three of these songs appear on Coming Home.
“Playing with Maggie is so effortless and invigorating,” says Mark. “I’m not just saying this because she’s my wife – I’ve really never enjoyed playing with another violinist this much. But honestly, that’s how it is with Forrest and Kate as well. I’ve played with many of the top female singers in my time, and there are really none better than Kate – she is just that good. And Joe and Geoff have to be two of the best sidemen on the bluegrass scene today. Who knows? Maybe they’re related to us too somehow.”
Joe, a former National Flatpick Guitar Champion, and Geoff, a DMA candidate in Bass Performance from the University of Miami, grew up listening to Mark’s music, so perhaps the chemistry with them should come as no surprise.
“Joe’s playing on Coming Home has to be one of the best bluegrass guitar performances of the year,” Mark says. “And our co-producer, Gregg Field, praised Geoff as having the best bass sound he’d ever gotten on record. Pretty amazing stuff for players who haven’t been on the scene that long yet!”
The truth is that all six musicians possess impressive multi-instrumental abilities that allow the group to explore a wide range of musical configurations. The three-violin lineup is unique amongst contemporary ensembles. The virtuosic playing competes with any bluegrass band out there. The songs (described as “modern-day classics” by Field) hold their own with anything you’ll hear on a Friday or Saturday night at The Bluebird Café in Nashville. Coming Home may be one of the most impressive debut albums released by any bluegrass band in a long time.
Back at the Opry, Mark smiles and shakes his head after walking offstage.
“That might have been the fastest we’ve ever played Ruby,” he laughs. “Whew! I forgot how much I loved playing here. It definitely feels like I’m coming home.”
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TECH COPY (CD Booklet) street date: 08/05/2016
ARTIST: O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor
TITLE: Coming Home
LABEL: Rounder
UPC: 888072000605
1166100003
Produced by Gregg Field, Mark O’Connor and Forrest O’Connor
Recording Engineer: Neal Cappellino assisted by Owen Lewis at House of Blues, Nashville
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 mixed by Gregg Field at G Studio Digital
Tracks 4, 6, 10, 12 mixed by Mark O’Connor at G Studio Digital
Assistant Engineers: Seth Presant and Jorge Velasko
Mastered by Paul Blakemore at CMG Mastering
Photography: John David Pittman
Package Design: Jimmy Hole
Mark O’Connor − violin, background vocals
Maggie O’Connor − violin, background vocals
Forrest O’Connor − mandolin, lead vocals, background vocals
Kate Lee – violin, lead vocals, background vocals
Joe Smart – guitar, background vocals
Geoff Saunders − bass, banjo, background vocals
Additional percussion added on select tracks by Gregg Field
The O'Connor Band thanks:
Joe Smart and Geoff Saunders for their incredible musicianship and dedication to our band; Gregg Field for his keen stewardship of this album and making us better each and every take; Neal Cappellino for creating such beautiful sounds on our instruments and voices; John Virant at Rounder Records for having more O’Connor music return to the label; Jim Shirey, Pat Alger, and Jon Weisberger for beautiful songwriting; John David Pittman for poetically capturing the family on camera.
Seth Presant, Owen Lewis, Jorge Velasko, Mary Hogan, Concord Music Group, D’Addario Strings, O’Connor Method and A New American School of String Playing, Shar Music, CAMI and Cadenza Artists and their work on “An Appalachian Christmas,” Shelly Berg and the Frost School of Music, David Wykoff, Wayne Halper, Kris Wilkinson. Forrest and Kate wish to thank Suzanne MacKillop, Bill and Debbie Gurnow, and Patrick Gurnow.
Dedicated to Autumn Rose O'Connor
Follow the O’Connor Band at
facebook.com/oconnorband
@oconnorband15
oconnorband.com
rounder.com
(P) & (C) 2016 Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc., 100 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the U.S.A. 1166100003
LABEL COPY (CD Booklet) street date: 08/05/2016
ARTIST: O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor
TITLE: Coming Home
LABEL: Rounder
UPC: 888072000605
1166100003
1. Always Do (3:13)
(Jim Shirey)
Near Occasions Music (BMI)
2. Coming Home (3:23)
(Forrest O’Connor)
Tall Tree Music Worldwide (BMI)
3. I Haven’t Said I Love You in A While (3:54)
(Forrest O’Connor)
Tall Tree Music Worldwide (BMI)
4. Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man? (3:03)
(Mae Carver)
Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group (ASCAP/BMI)
5. What Have I Been Saying? (3:03)
(Forrest O’Connor)
Tall Tree Music Worldwide (BMI)
6. Jerusalem Ridge (3:44)
(Bill Monroe, arranged by Mark O’Connor)
Unichappell Music, Inc (BMI)
7. The Sweet Ones (3:09)
(Kate Lee-Jon Weisberger)
Kate Lee Songs (ASCAP) / Use Your Words Music (ASCAP/BMI)
8. Blacktop Boy (3:41)
(Kate Lee-Pat Alger)
Kate Lee Songs (ASCAP) / Rosebriar Music (ASCAP)
9. You Too (3:45)
(Forrest O’Connor-Jim Shirey)
Tall Tree Music Worldwide (BMI) / Near Occasions Music (BMI)
10. Fishers Hornpipe (3:42)
(Traditional, arranged by Mark O’Connor)
Mark O’Connor Musik International (BMI)
11. Old Black Creek (3:36)
(Kate Lee-Pat Alger)
Kate Lee Songs (ASCAP) / Rosebriar Music (ASCAP)
12. Fiddler Going Home (5:03)
(Mark O’Connor)
Mark O’Connor Musik International (BMI)
OUTSIDE TRAY CREDITS street date: 08/05/2016
ARTIST: O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor
TITLE: Coming Home
LABEL: Rounder
UPC: 888072000605
1166100003
1. Always Do (3:13)
2. Coming Home (3:23)
3. I Haven’t Said I Love You in A While (3:54)
4. Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man? (3:03)
5. What Have I Been Saying? (3:03)
6. Jerusalem Ridge (3:44)
7. The Sweet Ones (3:09)
8. Blacktop Boy (3:41)
9. You Too (3:45)
10. Fishers Hornpipe (3:42)
11. Old Black Creek (3:36)
12. Fiddler Going Home (5:03)
Produced by Gregg Field, Mark O’Connor and Forrest O’Connor
oconnorband.com
rounder.com
(P) & (C) 2016 Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc., 100 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the U.S.A. 1166100003
[Rounder logo]
[Bar Code]
CD LABEL COPY street date: 08/05/2016
ARTIST: O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor
TITLE: Coming Home
LABEL: Rounder
UPC: 888072000605
1166100003
(P) & (C) 2016 Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc., 100 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the U.S.A. 1166100003
[Rounder logo]
LYRICS street date: 08/05/2016
ARTIST: O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor
TITLE: Coming Home
LABEL: Rounder
UPC: 888072000605
1166100003
Always Do
Away, I’m bound away
Following taillights
Okay, I’ll be okay
Until sometime tonight
When I turn off my radio and your voice comes singing through
And I fall in love again – I always do
Away, while I’m away
They’ll welcome me inside
And say that I can stay
If I need somewhere to hide
But it isn’t what I’m running from, it’s what I’m running to
To fall in love again – I always do
Away, I’ll make my way
Back to your front door
I’ll pray, till then I’ll pray
That just like every time before
When I’m lying in your arms and feeling like brand new
That we’ll fall in love again – we always do
Coming Home
Well I’m still driving my daddy’s van
My soul in the sky and my head in the sand
Chasing a dream that withered long ago
Got aches in my back and aches in my heart
And when the music ends the hurting starts
‘Cause there ain’t no freedom on an endless road
And I say oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord I’m running low
So I’m coming home to you
I’m coming home with the next sweet sunrise
Up on high, ‘cause I’ll be dead before I die
If I’m on my own, so I’m coming home
Well didn’t you tell me all along
That sticking around’s what makes you strong
‘Cause love is more than just a new romance
Now I ain’t the boy you knew before
So when I end up standing at your door
I’m hoping you’ll give me a second chance
And I say oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord I’m coming home
I’m coming home to you
I’m coming home with the next sweet sunrise
Up on high, ‘cause I’ll be dead before I die
If I’m on my own, so I’m coming home
I’m coming home to you
I’m coming home with the next sweet sunrise
Up on high, ‘cause I’ll be dead before I die
If I’m on my own, so I’m coming home
I’m coming home to you
I’m coming home with the next sweet sunrise
‘Cause I’ll be dead before I die
If I’m on my own, so I’m coming home
I Haven’t Said I Love You in A While
The first time I laid eyes on you
I couldn’t look away
Now I watch the cars go by
Wondering why I stay
The man who fell in love with you
I don’t know where he’s gone
But the man who’s sitting here right now
Ain’t good at moving on
Oh I’ve walked with you a thousand miles
Held you when you cried like a lonely child
I’ve made you laugh so hard that it hurt to smile
But I haven’t said I love you in a while
It never feels like you are here
Whenever you’re around
Your head is flying through the clouds
My heart is on the ground
You say you don’t know what to say
I know that isn’t true
But the world has spun so many times
You’re a different you
Oh I’ve walked with you a thousand miles
Held you when you cried like a lonely child
I’ve made you laugh so hard that it hurt to smile
But you haven’t said you love me in a while
The first time I laid eyes on you
I couldn’t look away
Now I watch the time go by
Wondering what to say
Oh I’ve walked with you a thousand miles
Held you when you cried like a lonely child
I’ve made you laugh so hard that it hurt to smile
But I haven’t said I love you in a while
What Have I Been Saying?
Listen young boys
And you young girls
I’m an old man not long for the world
I have served kings
And convicts as well
I have been witness to heaven and
Hell if you think you’re improving
The fortunes of children by sitting around
You talk when you all should be moving
So open your ears and go hit the ground, oh
What have I been saying?
Don’t just sit there praying
You’ll only start, you’ll only start
If you shut off your mind and you follow your heart
Listen young boys
And you young girls
I am a mother who’s lived in this world
Longer than you
You don’t have a clue
What it is like to survive
You should know that conventional wisdom
May dim the light I’ve seen inside you
A light that will give you the vision
To do everything you dreamed you could do
What have I been saying?
Don’t just sit there praying
You’ll only start, you’ll only start
If you shut off your mind and you follow your heart
What have I been saying?
Live the words you’re praying
You’ll only start, you’ll only start
If you shut off your mind and you follow your heart
The Sweet Ones
Remember all the songs we used to sing
Don’t you want to hear them once again
Let’s close our eyes and try hard not to see
Things that came between us way back when
And so we’ll use the soundtrack of old times
To separate the good ones from the bad
If music be the food of love play on
Let melodies remind us what we had
From those old records, we can pick and choose
And just replay the songs that made us smile
Forget about those B-sides and the blues
Oh the sweet ones never go out of style
Well if only Father Time can heal our wounds
Then Mama’s chicken soup can put things right
And maybe all the music that we shared
Can sing us back in love again tonight
From those old records, we can pick and choose
And just replay the songs that made us smile
Forget about those B-sides and the blues
Oh the sweet ones never go out of style
From those old records, we can pick and choose
And just replay the songs that made us smile
Forget about those B-sides and the blues
Oh the sweet ones never go out of style
The sweet ones never go out of style
Blacktop Boy
Dressed to kill with a black shirt on and a cool guitar
Like Johnny Cash had crashed to earth from a fallen star
He came on strong, singing his songs and fooling around
I can’t recall seeing his kind this side of town
He was a blacktop boy tearing through the heart of a dirt road girl
Kicking up dust and breaking apart my dirt road world
The summer air grows cold at night, you can feel the fading joy
Of a dirt road girl falling for a blacktop boy
Mama warned me of hotshot city boys like him
They’re sharper than broken glass on tender skin
Those fancy clothes will hide a ragged soul from you
Clever words and pretty tunes cover up the truth
He was a blacktop boy tearing through the heart of a dirt road girl
Kicking up dust and breaking apart my dirt road world
The summer air grows cold at night, you can feel the fading joy
Of a dirt road girl falling for a blacktop boy
I guess sometimes shiny things just catch my eye
And he was like a full moon in a black-filled sky
Before I could even catch him he packed his things to go
I don’t think he meant to hurt me but I’ll never know
He was a blacktop boy tearing through the heart of a dirt road girl
Kicking up dust and breaking apart my dirt road world
The summer air grows cold at night, you can feel the fading joy
Of a dirt road girl falling for a blacktop boy
You Too
Tumble downhill to the railroad track
It’s a long way down ain’t no turning back
Heart on the platform, foot on the train
Nowhere to go but away from this pain
And it’s hard to be without you
But it’s hard to be with you too
Stare at the TV stare at the wall
Spend the day waiting for a telephone call
Meeting the mailman in the front yard
Never did think you’d take it so hard
And it’s hard to be without you
And it’s hard to be with you too
Well all around me broken bits of happy ends
All around me circles made of so-called friends
It’s hard to keep my silence but to speak is harder yet
It’s hard to think about you but it’s harder to forget
Would it just be easier if we’d never met?
Tumble downhill to the railroad track
It’s a long way down ain’t no going back
Bag on the platform, foot on the train
Nowhere to go but away
Old Black Creek
Old black creek don’t run fast by my door
Old black creek don’t run fast by my door
Just outside my bedroom and north of the kitchen floor
Old black creek don’t run fast by my door
Old black creek don’t know me by name
Rises up and sure don’t take no blame
Ignores me every morning, evening’s just the same
Old black creek never know my name
Old black creek you roll through my mind
Through the rocky bottom of my troubled times
Old black creek you roll old black creek you roll
Old black creek you roll through my mind
Old black creek, love you till I’m gone
Taking your time and all my cares along
Down the lazy river to the ocean floor
Old black creek don’t run fast by my door
Old black creek you roll through my mind
Through the rocky bottom of my troubled times
Old black creek you roll old black creek you roll
Old black creek you roll right through my mind
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