Additional information
Personnel: Sinéad O'Connor (vocals); Dónal Lunny (acoustic guitar, bouzouki, keyboards, bodhran); Skip McDonald (electric guitar); Sharon Shannon (accordion); Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie (piano, drums); Bernard O'Neill (acoustic bass); Alan Branch (programming); Professor Stretch (bass programming, drum programming). Audio Mixer: Alan Branch . Recording information: Ashford, Co., Wicklow; On-U-Sound Studio, London. Photographer: Dave Sambrook. A long held-desire of Sinead O'Connor's was to record an album's worth of traditional Irish songs, many of which she learned growing up as a child in Ireland. SEAN-NOS NUA is that dream fulfilled and it features some of this firebrand's most stellar work. Employing a number of traditional Irish instruments (and musicians), O'Connor treats these songs with a delicate touch befitting her deep love of them. In addition to her reverential treatment of these songs, this native of The Emerald Isle provides detailed track-by-track annotations. Some songs double as prayers ("The Singing Bird") or children's skipping songs ("I'll Tell Me Ma'), while one evokes the heartbreak felt by the spouse of vanished explorer Sir John Franklin ("Lord Franklin"). Among the more familiar songs picked by O'Connor are the delicate "Molly Malone" and equally forlorn "Paddy's Lament." Furthering the Irish cause all the more, O'Connor enlists the legendary Christy Moore to duet on a nearly a capella reading of "Lord Baker." Rich and heartfelt, SEAN-NOS NUA is one of O'Connor's most personal outings since she broke onto the music scene in 1987.
