Reviews
Singled out several years ago by The New York Times as "a man who bears watching," Robbie O'Connell has now fully come into his own as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist of exceptional skill. With his well-crafted songs and and powerful stage performances, he has established himself as a major presence on the Folk scene.
Index
Snippits - Quotes from Reviews"... O'Connell is also earning international acclaim as a singersongwriter. [He] brings all the experience and vision of his many careers to his writing." -The Boston Globe"... he made it quite clear ... that there's more to being Irish than filling stereotypes. And through his music, he's bringing an inspired new vision and new voice of Ireland to American audiences." -The Springfield Union-News"O'Connell's intimate, breathy tenor has long been a treat, but on this release, his song writing has achieved a new maturity." -The Washington Post"...he narrowed the scope of Irish history to its human component. And while alternating songs of heart-breaking tragedy, with those of side splitting hilarity, he defined the Irish condition, both for natives and American-born, in intriguing and enthralling ways." -The Post-Star"The beauty of these songs is in their deceptive simplicity, the way O'Connell's everyday language chisels out a universal truth, the way his silken voice weaves through the spare accompaniment of guitar, fiddle, whistle, accordian, and pipes."- The New Age Journal[ Top ]
Never Learned to Dance Reviews - Summaries"O'Connell is a songwriter of vision, awareness and maturity. He has the ability to take an everyday experience or thought and turn it into an effective structured song. All his material is melodic and accessible and his keen sense of humour is never far from the surface... Never Learned To Dance is a terrific album..."- Paul Dromey, The Evening Echo
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"O'Connell is... a songwriter of increasing international stature. On his delightful new Green Linnet album Never Learned To Dance, he displays an uncanny gift for telling the clearest anecdotes in song..." - Scott Alarik, New England Folk Almanac"...with Never Learned to Dance, O'Connell has given us his finest work to date... which if natural justice prevailed, would see him being mentioned in the same breath as Brady, Hanly, McCarthy and Coughlan... a man blessed with an enviable turn of phrase and a gift for melody bestowed only on the few. Let's hope that unlike the recently discovered Caravaggio masterpiece, it takes much less than 300 years to realise that for a few quid we too could be in touch with a national treasure. Yes, Never Learned to Dance really is that good! - Chris Donovan, Hot Press
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"... there's not a bad song in the bunch, and O'Connell approaches every aspect of his work with care and intelligence." - Daniel Gewertz, The Boston Phoenix"... O'Connell has a unique perspective on life from both sides of the Atlantic. His music spans a wide spectrum of emotion, balancing cynicism with light hearted discourse and moving sentimentality... Although he has obvious roots in traditional Irish music, O'Connell is never limited by its charm or range. Instead, he pushes his music further into the mainstream... - Chris Fisher, The Minuteman Chronicle" He may never have learned to dance, but Robbie O'Connell writes songs with soul, sensitivity, political and social awareness, and humour." - Steve Winick, Dirty Linen" This recording sports great songs, fine singing, superb accompanists, and first-rate production by Johnny Cunningham... Allowing for the grace of O'Connell's songs, the disc would sound great even if he was singing mouth music. The music just flows and flowers. You'll take pleasure in repeatedly playing this disc." - R. Warren, Sing Out Magazine"In O'Connell's third solo album, he captures the reality of the Irish diaspora with extraordinary wit and power... This is a mature, fully realised work. For those who haven't watched O'Connell arrive, it'll be a pleasurable discovery." - Aaron Howard, Public News[ Top ]
Interview by Jim Benson for The TimesThe Entertainer, The Providence, Journal, Providence, RI, Friday, February 3, 1995A Master of Irish MusicIf whiskey was as smooth and soothing as Robbie O'Connell's voice, a substantial part of the country's gross national product would have to be invested in research for hangover cures. And if all he had to offer was the voice, few would feel stinted.Fortunately, no ill effects have been discovered from indulging in Mr. O'Connell's offerings, and his talents are being exercised well before he steps up to the microphone. In fact, those talents are in demand in several different settings. He does several tours a year with his uncles, the Clancy Brothers; occasional work with the Greenfields of America; and collaborations with Jimmy Keane and Eileen Ivers. This is in addition to his solo work, the format in which he'll be appearing at Stone Soup in providence this Saturday."In this business, it's so easy to get into a rut if you don't have lots of variety in what you're doing. And that's the worst things that can happen to any musician. If you keep having different aspects to your music, it keeps you fresh, keeps you on your toes, on the edge all the time," he explains.The singer/songwriter got his first taste of the stage at the hotel his parents ran in Ireland. "they used to have hat they called ballad sessions in those days. It was like a folk club on the weekends and I kind of got roped in real early as an opening act." he never expected music to be more than a hobby, though until circumstances intervened."It was fairly common for students in the University of Ireland to go abroad (to America) to work for the summer, to make enough money to put themselves through the next year. The second summer I came out, I couldn't get a regular job, and a cousin of mine in New York told me there was an Irish Pub in Lowell that was looking for an Irish singer for the summer. I gave them a call, and they were delighted to book me. They gave me an apartment, and paid me far more money than I would have made at a regular job, so I was ruined at that point."He began releasing albums on the Green Linnet label in the early '80's, all of which have been well received. The title track of a 1987 album,Kilkelly, was voted best LP track of the year in Ireland. The song, which is distilled from letters written to an immigrant son who never made it back to the old country will be used in his current show, which focuses on the Irish experience in America.O'Connell currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife and four teen-age children. It would almost seem that fate was going to settle him there one way or another. "My grandmother came out here the year before the Titanic sank, which was 1911. She lived in Lexington for about a year. My grandfather was supposed to come out and they were to get married here. Then the Titanic sank, and he refused to come out, so she went back to Ireland. But it just makes you wonder what might have been."Perhaps, but what is will do quite nicely. The man can sing more sweetly than you'd expect to hear this side of the mortal divide, he can write songs to live up to the voice, and he can put them across in a way that gives a glimpse into the very meaning of beauty. Anybody with an ear in their head, a yearning in their soul, and a sawbuck in their wallet would be well advised to stop by Stone Soup tomorrow evening. - Jim Benson[ Top ]
Evening Echo, Cork Ireland - Album ReviewEvening Echo, Cork, Ireland - Monday, April 26, 1993Never Learned To Dance... is the title of a superb offering from the Waterford-born, American-based singer/songwriter Robbie O'Connell. I have to admit that I was almost complete unaware of Robbie's songs up to now, so this, his third album, is a really pleasant surprise. It contains a dozen of his own co positions, reflecting his experiences both here and in America. O'Connell is a songwriter of vision, awareness and maturity. he has the ability to take an everyday experience or thought and turn it into an effective structured song. All his matieral is melodic and accessible and his keen sense of humour is never far from the surface. It was almost inevitable that he would follow a career in folk music, being a nephew of the Clancy Brothers.The first thing that strikes one about Robbie O'Connell is his voice, which has a gentle, almost effortless quality and the opening cut, Love Knows No Bounds, a sensitive love song, is the perfect introduction to it. In American Lives, he explores America's preoccupation with its own perception of its place in the world, as opposed to hard reality. The third track, Galileo, takes the form of a letter from the Church to the famous astronomer, revoking his excommunication, apologising for any misunderstanding and inconvenience caused and wishing him all the best in the future, all of which must come as a great relief to the man himself. In fairness, they're only a few centuries out and sure, anyway, isn't the thought that counts. The song is inspired by the fact that the Church really did withdraw the excommunication recently.The Winning Side was written for Joe Doherty who became something of a folk hero in the States during his long fight against extradition. It originally appeared on the album The Rights of Man (The Concert for Joe Doherty), also on Green Linnet. Robbie paints haunting evocative portraits in The Man From Connemara, The Turning of the Tide, and The Old Man of the Mountain. Hard To Say Goodbye relates the difficulty of tearing himself away from friends on his last night home on holiday before returning to America, not to mention the journey back following a night of drink and no sleep. In When the Moon Is Full he looks into the human psyche and man's innermost thoughts. The Mistress takes a whimsical look into one middle-aged man's more familiar fantasies and this one has a nice twist in the tail. So Near, a poignant love song, precedes the final track, The Singer, a humorous but all too true tale about the infliction of the worst elements of pop and country into Irish life. Never Learned To Dance is a terrific album, produced by Johnny Cunningham and featuring Irish-American musicians like Seamus Egan and Jimmy Keane, both of whom have played in Cork in the last year or so. - Paul Dromey[ Top ]
Hot Press - Album ReviewHighly regarded in America and elsewhere for the quality of his writing and performance, Carrick-on-Suir born, Robbie O'Connell has yet to achieve even the most cursory recognition here.In the grand tradition of things Irish, this situation may be rather slow to change, and more's the pity, for with "Never Learned to Dance", O'Connell has given us his finest work to date, an album which, if natural justice prevailed, would see him being mentioned in the same breath as Brady, Hanly, McCarthy and Coughlan.His lyrical concerns are broadly based, with a strong contemporary relevance, though their melodic structures owe much to the native tradition, an impression enhanced by the intelligent use of instruments such as fiddles, banjos, flutes and pipes.O'Connell has much to say, and says it well. In "American Lives" he clinically dissects the xenophobia of the average colonial, while "The Winning Side" is an extraordinarily moving view of Joe Doherty's incarceration in a Manhattan correctional facility.His Observations of character are acute and accurate; the central figure in "The Man From Connemara" is one of those anonymous weather-beaten land bowed figures seen at crossroads and turfbank, whose very ordinariness is a mark of distinction. And in "The Singer", the album's closing cut, his chance encounter with a time-warped Waterford karaoke freak is bloody hilarious -- conclusive proof that we're rearing them yet!Robbie O'Connell is rather special, a man blessed with an enviable turn of phrase and a gift for melody bestowed only on the few. Let's hope that unlike the recently discovered Caravaggio masterpiece, it takes much less than 300 years to realise that for a few quid we too could be in regular touch with a national treasure.Yes, "Never Learned to Dance" really is that good! - Chris Donovan[ Top ]
Concert ReviewApril 15, 1996, Club Passim, Cambridge MAFriday night, Robbie O'connell gave the kind of performance that keeps you up all night buzzing with pleasure. As I lay in bed thinking about the evening, I realized he'd hit just about every point in the on-going debate over "what's folk music?"All us unreconstructed 60s types want political content. O'Connell specialized in the small story that illuminates great issues. Anyone who's lived in Boston and been to the west of Ireland will find life in both places illuminated by "Two Nations". "Full Moon Over Managua" is now, thank God, a bit dated but remains both funny and harrowing.Nowadays, it's the era of the singer-songwriter, and we expect some original work. O'Connell has to be in the top tier of any list of contemporary songwriters. I'll leave the criticism of his musicianship to others, but his lyrics stay in the mind for a long time. "The Love of the Land", about a farmer facing foreclosure, blew me away seven years ago; hearing it for the thousandth-odd time Friday night, I found myself on the edge of tears.Folksingers should enjoy what they're doing and share their pleasure with their audience. O'Connell has a wonderful sense of pace, moving his listeners from profound sadness to riotous laughter -- but always with a purpose. In "Galileo", we hear the letter sent Galileo in Hell after the Church decided a few years ago that he'd been wrongly excommunicated. This form letter to Hell is delivered in a light, malicious tone that balanced his keening delivery of the sad story of a hermit fleeing WW II, "Old Man of the Mountain."Utah Phillips has always urged singers to include at least one song from the tradition. O'Connell obliged with two, one of which was a salacious hymn to the Irish national drink, poteen.Finally, folk concerts should have something for the young. The music will die if we don't attract children. On this score, my 11 and 13 year olds gave O'Connell top marks. "You're Not Irish", the experience of an Irishman who doesn't know "MacNamara's Band" singing in American bars, had them both laughing hard, as did "Early Riser", a song with which every adolescent will identify.But what pleased their old man most was how they reacted to O'Connell's rendition of Peter Jones' "Kilkelly." No one sings these excerpts from letters to an Irish emigrant son better than O'Connell. And no song better illustrates the strengths of Robbie O'Connell: the moving story of a particular separation and loss that illuminates the love of parent for children across cultures. In all a marvelous two hours of music. - Peter Kinder[ Top ]
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