Rounder Records has announced August 5 as the release date for Coming Home, the debut album from the O’Connor Band featuring Mark O’Connor.
For Mark, who dominated US fiddle competitions as a teen in the 1970s, he’s coming home to the music that launched his career, which in recent years has been focused on modern classical music and violin instruction. He returns to a sound based on traditional music forms with his wife, Maggie, herself an outstanding violinist, and his son Forrest, a mandolin champion, singer and songwriter. The band is completed by Kate Lee, Forrest’s fiancée and yet another accomplished violinist. Kate and Forrest also handle the primary vocal duties for the O’Connor Band, supported by Joe Smart on guitar and Geoff Saunders on bass and banjo.
Since making his return to the bluegrass scene last year, Mark and his family band band have been warmly received by folk and acoustic music audiences who recall his brilliant recordings with The David Grisman Quintet (on both fiddle and guitar), and his many stellar solo projects in the ’70s and ’80s.
For Coming Home, the group has assembled songs written by Forrest and Kate, along with some of their Nashville writing partners, giving the music a fresh, young appeal, along with several fiddle pieces to showcase dear old dad. Mark covers Bill Monroe’s iconic Jerusalem Ridge, the old favorite Fisher’s Hornpipe, and a new composition of his own, Fiddler Going Home.
Rounder has prepared this video preview to offer a brief taste of what is to come from Coming Home.
Look for Coming Home August 5.
