Parenting a daughter as she heads toward springtide is the inspiration for “One Sunray At A Time”, the new single by the Grammy-winning Americana music duo Mark and Maggie O’Connor. Mark wrote the song’s melody line years before when his son Forrest was his sole devotion. The song’s lyric was never finished. His idea though sat around for 15 years when Mark’s 2nd child Autumn came along. His theme was repurposed while Mark took the pen himself and wrote about his daughter: Morning light awakes you, exciting plans today; Arm in arm we go to walkin’, finding our own way. In the final chorus a new crossroads takes hold as the once baby girl leaps towards her own future. You show your light and vision for our world now, you have found your own way. Mark calls upon his bluegrass roots for the musical setting as he asked his wife Maggie to sing the new song with him. After all, Maggie observed the very heartstrings of the song take place in actual time. It was the first original song created for their project Life After Life. It led to several more songs dealing with one’s inherent state in how you experience the world. In the song’s final refrain, the father remembers the sweet times laying the course for busy days of childhood activities, to nightfall and bedtime stories: Evening goes down one sunray at a time; There you go and then I follow ‘till the end of time.
Listen to “Wildflowers” here:
Released January 19th of streaming platforms everywhere!
“Wildflowers” is a song written by Dolly Parton about finding your own path in life and branching out. Mark and Maggie loved the song and recorded it for their upcoming Life After Life project. Dolly’s 1987 hit single of “Wildflowers” was featured on the Grammy-winning Trio album with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, a track on which one can also hear the fiddle of Mark O’Connor. Now 35 years later, Mark along with his wife, fiddler and vocalist Maggie offer their own rendition of the song, and it got the attention of Dolly Parton herself. She wrote to Mark on May 20th, 2022 after hearing an advanced copy of the track given to her by a mutual friend, singer-songwriter Jim Salestrom:
“Dear Mark, I got the wonderful cut of “Wildflowers”. I was very, very proud of both you and Maggie. It always touches my heart when somebody likes my songs well enough to do it, especially someone as great as you. I’ve always admired you and respected your talent. And Maggie, you sound awfully sweet. Just wanted you to know that I received it and love it. Love, Dolly”
“All We Will Be”
NEW SINGLE
“All We Will Be” embodies the artistic reach of Mark and Maggie O’Connor’s vocal music and in more than a few ways. The song, written by Mark and accomplished songwriter Joe Henry, speaks of our inherent worth beyond deeds,” as Henry speaks of his lyrical contributions, —“accomplishment, desire, struggle. And that the committed love that joins us transcends those things as well.” I asked how to play this––With both hands, you said, And the drum of your feet; And a sweep of your head. Musically, Mark creates a dramatic musical stage that takes the listener from quiet to loud, compositionally transitioning seamlessly from Americana roots to rock fusion tonalites and energy, showcased in a classical construction he obtains from his numerous string quartets and trio writing. The musical interludes make way for polyrhythmic transpositions of meter from the feel of the verses and choruses reflecting transcendence told to us by their story of testing faith and finding it again through music, love and sharing with each other. Maggie’s vocal performance takes on the role of storyteller, guiding the listener to her own pristine-sounding violin with a tone so rich with interpretive range, that the note choices displayed have the listener soaring together with Mark and Maggie by the song’s conclusion: in hopes that their traveling ways would lead us, would lead us.
Stream our new song!
Official Lyric Video
Recent Releases
“Spice of Life”
“Spice of Life” from Mark and Maggie O’Connor is a new song written by Mark and co-writer Jim Parker. Mark O’Connor’s Americana music captures the joyful nature of Parker’s lyrics in remembering days gone by, and how it’s the little things in life that can stand out and make the difference. This idea resonated with the O’Connors as they worked on the song during the pandemic. The early verses capture universal notions: The creek down below, singing songs I re-member; From child hood days, with my Momma and me… and things turn a little more autobiographical such as learning to play the fiddle and winning fiddle and guitar competitions as a youth. He can-not re-member, the dates or how many, Just some-thing he did; it was nothing at all… And for Maggie, a verse about her love of horses: It’s the gait of my horse, as I sway in the saddle; The power that I feel, when I give him the reins. The driving up-tempo track is accentuated by the duo’s powerful fiddle and guitar work backed by session greats Dennis Crouch and John Gardner on bass and drums.
Official Lyric Video
Stream our new song!
“We Just Happened to Fly”
“We Just Happened To Fly”, performed by Mark and Maggie O’Connor, is an Americana song written by Mark O’Connor and Joe Henry. The lyric deals with the idea of a couple taking a leap of faith together—holding hands, hearts entwined and believing they can fly. The acoustic guitar and violin along with a driving upright bass and drum set find the beating heart of these words with a certain inevitability—as if their meaning could’ve never gone any other way. A beautifully produced music video of the song shows Mark and Maggie alone on a wooden deck atop a forested mountain singing together and playing their instruments hand-in-hand as they take flight.
Listen to "We Just Happened To Fly"!
“Verbovaya Doschechka (A Ukrainian Folk Song)”
Verbovaya Doschechka is a well-known old Ukrainian folk song. At the outset of the war one year ago, Mark and Maggie O'Connor participated in an online-performance of this song with members of the Kiev Symphony recording their violin parts from basements turned bunkers attempting to shield themselves from Russian missiles. Mark and Maggie were so moved by this musical experience and the beauty of this piece of music that Mark arranged it for two violins to honor the hopes and safety of the Ukrainian people at this time. @ViolinistsSupportUkraine
Mark and Maggie have been existing in an uninterrupted musical collaboration since the day they met eight years ago in 2014. As they were perfecting the finer points of Mark’s American Classical violin duos, it got so good that they decided to get married. The next stage of their musical journey turned into a larger family collaboration for which they each took home a Grammy for playing bluegrass in the O’Connor Band. Now, they have turned yet another musical corner. With a year-and-a-half of isolation from touring during the world-wide pandemic, they dedicated their days and nights towards further musical growth together. The couple workshopped new songs during seventy weekly online concerts from home; Mondays with Mark and Maggie. A group of dedicated viewers watched as they made their musical experiments, some fans tuning in for all of them. What came out of this exploration is an Americana album project of mostly original vocal songs they sing together, other popular songs reimagined, and all of them supported by a small universe of acoustic instruments they’ve brushed up on in the time off the road.The upcoming album reveals the pair’s most sincere and deeply personal work yet.
EBM
ESSENTIAL BROADCAST MEDIA
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
GRAMMY-WINNING AMERICANA ARTISTS
MARK AND MAGGIE O’CONNOR RELEASE NEW ALBUM VIA ONErpm
Life After Life Set for Release April 26
Joins Musician Spotlight Series at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Ford Theater on April 28 Followed by New Music Showcase at The Vinyl Lounge on April 29
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Global music company ONErpm is proud to announce the release of Life After Life, the latest album from GRAMMY Award-winning Americana and bluegrass artists Mark and Maggie O’Connor, which will be distributed on all platforms next Friday, April 26.
A seven-time CMA Award winner, Mark O’Connor is a legendary multi-instrumentalist famous for his work on fiddle, guitar and mandolin. On Life After Life, Mark not only brings these talents to bear but is also the principal songwriter and harmony singer, in addition to producing the album. Maggie, a talented artist in her own right who won a GRAMMY for playing and singing bluegrass with her husband Mark in the O’Connor Band, debuts as the lead singer as well as an instrumentalist.
The compelling theme flowing throughout Life After Life is the idea that while our common experiences can turn into challenges—even hardships—we still seek optimism and hope. As Mark explains, “Our new songs are about learning to fall in love with life again after being utterly frightened by it,” as this collection took shape during the pandemic.
The title track, written by Mark and folk singer/wordsmith Joe Henry, references poet Denise Levertov, who writes of a particular woman whose “life after life after life goes by without poetry, without seemliness, without love.” The songwriters wanted to build on the idea but with some surety.
As Henry explains, “For me, it speaks quite simply to the way life continues to tumble toward us: not in neat, compartmentalized chapters but in overlapping, cross-fading––confounding, misleading, wondrous and glorious––concurrently racing episodes we are nonetheless invited to embrace…even when they mystify us. Maybe even especially when they do.” Mark agrees, saying, “Joe’s words truly embody why this song is the perfect title track as the lyrics so genuinely describe the lives Maggie and I lead together.”
Mark’s original songs on Life After Life range from taking a leap of faith together in “We Just Happened to Fly” to testing faith in “All We Will Be,” both of which he co-wrote with Henry. “Ride Towards Home,” a song Mark wrote with Maggie, talks about horses and what they have meant to mankind, while “Spice of Life,” written with Jim Parker, is about remembering to enjoy the little things. Mark wrote the current single being offered to Americana radio stations, “One Sunray At A Time,” about raising his daughter, Autumn.
Each of the album’s songs showcase intricate interludes featuring a wide range of acoustic instruments. Mark says he “drew upon years of experience interpreting vocal songs instrumentally, while also reflecting on my work with some of the great popular songwriters of our time, such as James Taylor, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.” O’Connor adds that after sitting in a recording studio next to Dylan as he noodled on his guitar between takes, “It raised my curiosity about him purely as a musician. So I designed the solo sections for these songs by imagining what it would sound like if Dylan fully articulated his own music as a guitar soloist.”
Along this same vein, Mark’s arranging skills and Maggie’s storytelling vocals offer new interpretations of three covers for the album: “Love’s in Need of Love Today” by Stevie Wonder; “Something to Love” by Jason Isbell; and the timeless “Wildflowers” by Dolly Parton.
“Dear Mark, I got the wonderful cut of “Wildflowers.” I was very, very proud of both you and Maggie. It always touches my heart when somebody likes one of my songs well enough to do it, especially someone as great as you. I’ve always admired you and respected your talent. And Maggie, you sound awfully sweet. Just wanted you to know that I received it and I love it.
Love, Dolly.”
Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” likewise offers a message as relevant now as it was in the 1970s, notes Maggie, adding further that “Isbell’s song has great advice on finding something you enjoy to get you through the tough times. We picked these three songs to cover,” she explains, “because they gave voice to our own feelings, given how recent history has changed our landscape.”
The recording of Life After Life is an all-acoustic Americana sound garden, with the authoritative upright bass of Dennis Crouch, an old-fashioned drum set masterfully played by veteran John Gardner and the O’Connors using practically every acoustic instrument in their collection. You will hear a Civil War–era Martin guitar, a hundred-year-old Gibson mandocello and a string quartet consisting of two violins, a viola and cello commissioned by Daniel Pearl’s family (for the Wall Street Journal writer killed in Pakistan at the outset of the Iraq War). The Pearl family loans these beautiful instruments to students of the O’Connor Method String Camp each year as a message of fighting hatred.
Life After Life concludes with a heartaching piece. Mark and Maggie return to the violin duo setting their musical relationship began with 10 years ago, but this time in a way even more deeply felt. Mark composed a violin duo reminiscent of his own “Appalachia Waltz” that he recorded with internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma but based on the old Ukrainian folk song “Verbovaya Doschechka” (the willow board). The couple learned the traditional melody line while performing with string players from the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in an online violin choir recorded in March 2022 while orchestra members were in basements-turned-bunkers taking shelter from Russian missiles.
“It is an honor to team up with the O’Connors to showcase their many talents and musical creativity,” says Tim Wipperman, managing director of ONErpm’s Nashville office.
Life After Life track listing
(Songwriters in parenthesis)
Spice of Life (Jim Parker and Mark O’Connor)
One Sunray at a Time (Mark O’Connor)
Something to Love (Jason Isbell)
We Just Happened to Fly (Joe Henry and Mark O’Connor)
Life After Life (Joe Henry and Mark O’Connor)
Wildflowers (Dolly Parton)
All We Will Be (Joe Henry and Mark O’Connor)
Ride Towards Home (Maggie O’Connor and Mark O’Connor)
Love’s in Need of Love Today (Stevie Wonder)
Verbovaya Doschechka (P.D. Arr. Mark O’Connor)
In addition to the album, you can catch the O’Connors on tour this spring for a series of album-release showcases, including performances in Nashville at Ford Theater at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on April 28 at 1pm CT and The Vinyl Lounge at 6pm CT.
Mark & Maggie O’Connor Tour Dates
April 28 // Nashville, TN // Ford Theater, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
April 29 // Nashville, TN // The Vinyl Lounge
May 3 // Charlotte, NC // Cain Center for the Arts (Cornelius)
May 9 // Minneapolis, MN // Hopkins Center for the Arts
May 15 // Boston, MA // Club Passim
May 17 // New York, NY // The Iridium
May 24 // Richmond, VA // The Tin Pan
May 26 // Floyd, VA // The Floyd Country Store
May 28 // Annapolis, MD // Rams Head on Stage
May 30 // Sellersville, PA // Sellersville Theater
June 1 // Chicago, IL // Old Town School of Folk Music
June 2 // Madison, WI // The Bur Oak
For more information on the shows, visit MarkAndMaggieOConnor.com. For more on Mark O’Connor’s illustrious career, check out his recently released memoir, Crossing Bridges: My Journey from Child Prodigy to Fiddler Who Dared the World, available now on Amazon and featured on NPR’s Morning Edition.
About ONErpm
ONErpm is a leading next-generation music company and record label operating globally in 43 locations powered by a staff of 600. At its core, ONErpm offers label services to artists seeking to elevate their careers and operates one of the world’s largest music distribution platforms and YouTube Multi-Channel Networks. Offering a full suite of services that includes marketing support, supply chain tools, SAAS, business intelligence, publishing, accounting and global payment solutions, ONErpm provides the infrastructure needed to help creators and content owners succeed. As a trusted partner, ONErpm emphasizes transparency in everything it does, from executing a marketing campaign to making payments.
About Mark and Maggie O’Connor
Mark O’Connor, a three-time Grammy winner and seven-time CMA Musician of the Year, is a legendary multi-instrumentalist famous for his work on fiddle, guitar and mandolin. He is also a ground-breaking American classical composer known for pieces like “Appalachia Waltz” and “The Fiddle Concerto.” Georgia native Maggie O’Connor, also a Grammy winner, earned a master’s degree in classical violin performance from the famed Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore before returning to her own Americana music roots and joining the O’Connor Band.
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Media Contacts
Ebie McFarland | Melissa Mathews
Essential Broadcast Media
ebie@ebmediapr.com | melissa@ebmediapr.com
Letter from Dolly Parton
Nashville Recording Session at Sound Emporium - Studio A:
with Neal Cappellino, Maggie & Mark O’Connor, John Gardner, & Dennis Crouch
