Maura O'Connell   -  Biography

Born Sept. 16, 1958, and raised in County Clare, Ireland, Maura O'Connell was the third of four singing sisters. However, it wasn't ancient Celt folk tunes in which that household was drenched but their singing mother's collection of light opera, opera and parlor song records. As a young woman, she joined the tradition-oriented Celtic band DeDannan but grew intrigued by the experimental roots music of America's New Grass Revival when the bands' paths crossed.

In 1986, she followed that sound to America -- and to Nashville. Newgrass masters such as banjoist Bela Fleck and Dobro stylist Jerry Douglas (who has appeared on all of O'Connell's discs but one) and a floating contingent of adventurous Nashville hands have provided backup and production for most of her recorded work -- including the Grammy-nominated Helpless Heart and Blue Is the Color of Hope for Warner Bros., Stories and the Irish-oriented Wandering Home for Hannibal/Rykodisc, Walls and Windows and Don't I Know for Sugar Hill.

Regarded as one of Nashville's finest musical interpreters and one who prefers songs that other people haven't recorded yet, O'Connell has gathered material from acclaimed writers such as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, John Gorka, Patty Griffin, Jim Lauderdale, Kim Richey, Leslie Satcher, Ron Sexsmith, Mindy Smith and Cheryl Wheeler, to name a few.

Aside from the music world, Martin Scorsese cast O'Connell, scruffed up for the role, as an Irish migr street singer in his 19th century epic The Gangs of New York, released in 2002. She has also sung background vocals for a number of artists, including Van Morrison's 1988 project with the Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat.