MARK O'CONNOR BAND RELEASES NEW ALBUM, A MUSICAL LEGACY

The Grammy-winning Mark O’Connor Band is excited to announce the release of their latest album, A Musical Legacy, featuring O'Connor's wife, Maggie; his son, Forrest; and daughter-in-law, Kate Lee. Celebrating 45 years as a recording artist with 45 feature releases, Mark O'Connor as bandleader and producer, focuses this release on mostly live recordings boasting sixteen tracks and 70 minutes of playing time. Songs include It’s In My Blood, co-written by Forrest and Casino, both of which O'Connor co-produced with multi-platinum selling singer Zac Brown, leader of the Zac Brown Band. In the category of bluegrass and country song classics, O'Connor brings us Blue Moon of Kentucky and Faded Love featuring the lead vocal of Kate Lee, offset by O'Connor's triple fiddle and string arranging turning the bluegrass band at times into a string quartet on stage. Those Memories of You, a song that O'Connor lent his fiddle to for the original #1 hit with Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in 1987, gives way to a rousing bluegrass version of Johnny B. Goode with Forrest taking the lead vocal. Maggie sings the lead on Shady Grove and Little Maggie bringing out the old-time music stylings of the ensemble, two songs that O'Connor played often with Doc and Merle Watson on the road in the early 1980s. O'Connor's instrumental compositions include some of his most iconic music, re-imagined here within his bluegrass/Americana band. Highlights include Emily's Reel and A Bowl of Bula from his Grammy-winning New Nashville Cats album from the early 90s. Switch-hitting to mandolin, O'Connor gives us his popular Butterfly's Day Out from his collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma in 1995 and Macedonia that he wrote with Sam Bush from their groundbreaking Strength In Numbers in 1989. All of this is music that his family members grew up listening to in their formative years and were greatly inspired by. A musical legacy with great music being passed down to family members and to the next generation.

"My family members in this band have really blossomed into wonderful musicians, both on their respective instruments and with their singing, sharing the lead and joining together in the trio harmony. The Zac Brown tracks were recorded in his top Nashville recording studio, but the majority of the album is live. It all happened on a single night in Sellersville, PA, without any overdub fixes or patches. I am grateful that both approaches to recording are featured on a A Musical Legacy. The fact that I have passed my love for music to Maggie, Forrest and Kate in terms of playing the instruments that I am known for, and through all of the Nashville recording I did as a top session player in the 1980s, goes to the heart of this recording and this group.