When I asked him to describe his music, Batt replied:
"I play a lot of music with great traditional Irish musicians, but I suppose at heart I'm a sort of a ballad singer. The first songs I heard were ballads. The term "ballad" has become somewhat devalued these days- too many bad pub singers gave it a bad name. I remember as a child, men and women coming around to the country houses selling ballad sheets for a penny a piece. I learned some songs from those sheets. One in particular I remember, Shall My Soul Pass through Old Ireland. My father had the air. He sang too and played the accordion. I remember him playing the accordion outside the door on Christmas Eve, just after dark. It was pure magic. My mother sang too. She was a fine traditional singer, like Sean Nos in the English language. One of her favourites was A Stor Mo Chroi."

When I suggested that he might be a folk singer, Batt shifted in his chair:
"To be honest, the word makes me a bit nervous. It has a preciousness about it that makes me uneasy. Maybe ballad has more street-cred. Anyway, I don't like putting music into categories, in so far as one can escape it."

When asked about other influences Batt continued:
"I love Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams and Jimmy Rogers and Doc Watson and Luke Kelly and Nioclas Toibin and Bob Dylan and Martin Carthy- where to stop is the problem! You never stop being influenced. I heard a young American singer the other day, Erin McKeown, and I was swept away. It's amazing stuff. I said to myself, 'I'd like to write something like that.'"

So, how does one describe Batt O' Connor's music?
Songs such as The Ballad of The Finglas River and America can be easily slotted into the folk/ballad genre, but others like There's a Room in My Heart for You or I Lost My Dear True Love Last Night are not so easily categorised. There's a contemporary element here. With their poetry and pain, these songs would not be out of place in the repertoire of many a contemporary/crossover singer. Others such as I have Been a Roamin' Soul (Brown Eyes) and Yellow Sombrero, almost defy categorisation, with their vividly original imagery and soul-searching lyrics. I decided to ask Batt a foolish question: why do you write yuour songs?
"This may sound, strange, or maybe it sounds completely natural, but I write songs because I love writing songs. There's a great thrill when a phrase come right, or a melody soars a bit in the right place. I'm not saying that I achieve that often, or even ever, but you know what I mean? There's also the emotional element, I know I'm on dangerous ground here, but sometimes a true emotion breaks through in a line or a word or a turn of the melody and then the song is worth something. I hope that doesn't sound too much like bull s***!"

I hope I have given you a flavour of Batt O' Connor's music. He is a songwriter who writes beautiful melodies and words and whose songs are rich in imagery, imagination and feeling. He delivers them in his own style, from the heart.
The words of the songs are included on the website and may be read as poems in themselves.

Batt O'Connor now lives in Limerick in the mid west of Ireland. When in Ireland he plays mainly in one of the country's premier pubs, Dolan's Pub and Warehouse on The Dock Road in Limerick and occasionally in the famed Droichead Beag in Dingle.
W. R.

WHERE VOICES STILL SING ON THE WIND is Batt O' Connor's first solo album. It consists of 10 original songs accompanied by a variety of instruments in various arrangements- guitar, bouzuki, fiddle, viola, accordion, uileann pipes, whistles, keyboards and percussion.

top