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The idea to tackle this kind of project had been in Maura O’Connell’s mind for years. Still, when plans for her newest album began to take shape, one voice prevailed: her own.
We’re not saying merely that the veteran Irish singer’s figurative vision would be the first and last word on the upcoming recording. That has essentially been the case from the days O’Connell sang with the great Irish band De Dannan right up through her migration to Nashville, where she formed a lasting musical alliance with progressive string stylists Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck.
No, in this case, we mean, quite literally, her voice. For O’Connell’s newest album, her confident, regal and emotive singing is the star attraction. She has made an a cappella record.
There are numerous pals helping O’Connell, from such Nashville royalty as Alison Krauss and Dolly Parton to fellow Irish songstresses Mary Black, Mairead Ni Mhaonigh and Moya Brennan and celebrated Americana artists Douglas, Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott.
But not one of them picks up an instrument. The album simply matches their singing with O’Connell’s steadfast vocals. Hence the project’s title: “Naked With Friends.”
“I generally do an a cappella song at the end of a show if things work out the right way,” said O’Connell.
“Unaccompanied singing is very much part of the Irish phenomenon, I suppose. It’s as much a part of the culture as the whole idea of people gathering together and having a sing. So this isn’t new.
“What was nice, though, was getting to gather a group of songs that wouldn’t necessarily be considered music you would sing unaccompanied. I mean, a good song can stand on its own. Still, some songs didn’t translate as well as I thought they would, while others I wasn’t sure about turned out to be just perfect.”
Some of the “Naked” match-ups are beautifully unexpected. That Krauss’ blissful vocal calm would provide such balance to the Rhonda Jo Fleming/Janis Ian song “Some People’s Lives” probably isn’t a shocker. But how about Krauss’ sidekick Douglas, who has produced several of O’Connell’s previous albums, singing in Irish without his trademark dobro on the traditional “Mo Sheamuseen”?
“Jerry and I worked together on the road for a couple of years back in the ‘80s, and he always sang harmony with me,” O’Connell said. “He’s a great musician with ears that are finely tuned to singers anyway. I suppose it really wasn’t as much of a stretch as some people might believe. It’s just that he’s so busy with that instrument of his. That’s what people know him for. But he has a very fine voice.”
On the slightly more contemporary side is “Shipbuilding,” a late-‘80s composition credited on “Naked” to Declan Patrick MacManus — known to the pop world at large as the very un-Irish Elvis Costello. For that, O’Connell enlisted the choir singing of The Settles Connection. Added to that was the fearless vocals of songsmith Darrell Scott. Later in the album, Scott’s “This Beggar’s Heart” is covered by O’Connell and a pair of young Irish artists, Liam Bradley and Declan O’Rourke.
And then there are the times when the music on “Naked” is exactly that. O’Connell interprets Joan Armatrading’s “The Weakness in Me” and a slightly Anglicized version of renowned 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns’ “Ae Fond Kiss” without any help at all.
“I recorded all of the songs on my own first, with the exception of ‘I Know My Love.’ I did that together with Mary, Moya and Mairead. The other ones I recorded first just to see how they sounded on their own. When anyone else came in on those songs, they added to that. I didn’t sing any harmony.
“I can perform all these songs without anybody being around me, too. But I don’t think that would be terribly interesting for a whole show. I’m still working out how I’m going to put this on the road.”
O’Connell admitted, however, that she is still “letting go” of “Naked,” which won’t be in stores until June 16.
“Of course, I’m ambitious and everything like that. Most people are. And I have an ego. Don’t you worry about that. While I would be delighted if everybody that got a chance to hear this album would love it, I don’t expect that will be the case.
“But I’ve come to a place in my life where, if I can continue to get an odd gig so that my ego can be massaged, I’m quite happy.”
