Culture
Coming Home: the Family Success Of the O’Connor Band
By: Emily Votaw
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Internationally lauded multi-genre violinist Mark O’Connor is one of those rare folks who can say that he has not only two, but three GRAMMY Awards under his belt.
O’Connor said the most recent one might mean the most to him.
“It was probably the sweetest of my Grammy wins – by far,” he said of the award, which was for Best Bluegrass Album 2016, for the O’Connor Band’s debut, Coming Home.
The group, consisting of O’Connor’s wife, Maggie, his son, Forrest, and his son’s fiancé, Kate Lee, has been together just over two and a half years — yet they’ve already performed all over the world, at world class concert halls and summertime music festivals alike, all to uproarious applause. Their debut soared to the top of Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums chart last year.
“Winning the Grammy was a really surreal experience,”said O’Connor. “When it got down to the day of the awards, I told everybody that we really ought to think about what to say on the microphone.”
The group crafted two music videos to for tunes on Coming Home: the album’s title track and the sweet ode to love “Always Do.”
“This band is very talented in a lot of ways, and my son in particular is very good with visual work,” said O’Connor, who said Forrest managed to both appear in the videos himself and manipulate the shots. “He is a wonderful videographer and photographer.”
O’Connor said the band will continue to play together full-time, tackling a more rigorous touring schedule in 2017 under new management, Velvet Stone, and a new booking agency, William Morris Entertainment. He also said that fans can soon expect another full-length album from the group, this one featuring O’Connor playing more guitar than he usually does.
The O’Connor Band is coming to the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts at Shawnee State University on Thursday, March 23 in Portsmouth, OH. Tickets are available for $15 to $25 online, and the show will kick off at 7:30 p.m.