This is the official RU-vid page for Mark O'Connor: violinist/guitarist/composer/bandleader/producer. "Thanks for coming to check out the channel and subscribing...over 400 videos both new and older - jammin' and fiddling here by the boat loads."
I've loved this beautiful piece of music ever since the album came out, and I still treasure every listening moment. Played with such care, emotion, and exquisite technique by every musician involved. It hasn't lost one note of appreciation from me over time, and every listen still reduces me to (joyous) tears. I have it up there with Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto, and Luiza by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
I was there! well this deserved a great big yeehaw! Michele and I drove up from Tucson for this one… Peter Rowan was my highlight, got to meet him… got a really cool Free Mexican Air Force T-shirt from Pete, and he did a ReggaBilly set! Jah-Bob!!! On Thursday, the first thing I did was go to city hall to buy a peddlers license, I had not signed up to be a vendor… The clerk of Telluride was so cool, at no charge they gave me a free peddler license for the week! Sold a bunch of batiks… we stayed in Ouray… hot springs! Coffee at Baked in Telluride! Just a great time! On the way back to Tucson, we camped at Mesa Verde!! Awesomeness…. Stopped by our favorite coffee shop in Flagstaff, Macy’s Coffee… then back to the Old Pueblo…
Just heard Michael Cleveland do this tune at the Cowichan Bluegrass Festival. I’ll bet he could add yet another amazing addition to this incredible collection of fiddlers!
Mark, I currently take bluegrass lessons from a man named Gerald Jones. He tells me stories from long ago about you and everybody he played with. What an amazing list, I am blessed to have such a teacher.
I remember when mom told me she was raped by dad at knife point. This would have been back in 1963. She quoted to me Deuteronomy 22 28 29 as a justification -- If a man comes upon a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, the man who lay with her shall give the young woman's father fifty silver shekels and she will be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her as long as he lives.
Mark- you’ll probably never read this; but I found you after listening to you play the fiddle solo in “Most Unoriginal Sin” for Willie Nelson. To this day-my favorite fiddle solo of all time. You are absolutely amazing.
I love your interview ---very natural and almost spontaneous. Can hardly wait til you come west one of these years. I'm 74 and have played the fiddle for two years now. Im in your book 3---probably will be for seberal more years. Thanks very much for all you do. God bless you. -- rich latta. Reedley ca
You should come to our string camp. We do have 70-year-olds attending who are intermediates! Thank you so much, and glad you love this conversation between Maggie and I. We just sat down and turned the video camera on! And 45 min later, we had this.
I’ve been following you Mark since 1986. I’ve so enjoyed watching you grow through the years and now with Maggie. And I love that you’re singing now 🎶. Really appreciate and enjoy all the new songs. Can’t wait to see what the future holds. Also, will the o’Connor band do anything in the future?
Thank you so much, and so grateful that we were able to conceive this album, record it the way that I imagined it in my mind... and that it is being received so well! I loved writing these songs and pouring my own creativity into them as if they were an instrumental composition. But at the same time, wanting them to be just a normal song, too. And I do love singing harmony to Maggie on the songs! We got into singing with the family band, which disbanded at the outset of the pandemic.
Wonderful to hear and thank you! We are having a great time with the music as you can see, and have so much to talk about. We hoped people would find it interesting so we just turned the camera on for 45 minutes to capture it!
Mark, will you be teaching guitar as well or is the O’Connor method essentially an ear training method good for any instrument? In other words, I would be bringing my guitar. I saw you and Maggie back in 2019 when Bill and Linda put on the small show in Hickory. I remember hearing you warming up on guitar behind the curtain before the show, it was like listening to Bryan Sutton on growth hormone! Phenomenal!
Haha! Well I'm glad you are liking my guitar playing! I play a lot of my best stuff on the new album by they way, Life After Life. I will have my guitar there at the string camp (July 29-Aug 2) for jam session period, but not actually holding any class on it. But yes, any instrument can learn the tunes in the class by ear or by sheet music and there are chords in each book as well. Learning the chord I have for the tunes are also instructive. Makes a better guitar player to think about the harmony that goes with melody. And we could always use another guitar player around for that jam session each afternoon!
@@markoconnor Ha! You're right, Mark. I was singing a very up tempo version while I posted that, so my shorter notes needed their spelling clipped, too! I loved all the work you did with Dawg, and have since seen you in solo concert format. Still "Bravo"!
@@markoconnor dude, youre the best...ever...sadly everyone knows youve been juicing with fiddle steroids your whole career...all of your accomplishments and accolades should be stricken from the record frankly, nobody's that good natural ;)
@@gregdavis531 Haha, well thank you. The truth is that I have less drugs and alcohol in my system since I was about 15! Running on a natural high these days!
