19 May 2023 - 0 Comments

Southern Cross is a beautiful and powerful folk-rock ballad in three “acts”, written in response to the death of Sean’s late wife Amanda O’Connor. Sean says the song came to him at the WOMAD festival a few months after her death. He was dancing alone to Blackbird by the Sharon Shannon band, one of Amanda’s favourite tunes to play on the flute and ocarina. He looked up and saw the Southern Cross and asked her, in spirit, to dance with him until the band finished at midnight. He went back to his tent in the light rain and wrote the song. The first “act” is a slow-burning guitar, piano and strings arrangement to the beautiful lyrics and melodies of the first two verses and choruses. The song explodes into the bridge and final choruses with the rhythm section arriving and the vocals jumping up an octave. The finale segues into an at first gentle but then rich and celebratory slow jig, an original instrumental with a bright key change, reminiscent of Blackbird, affirming and uplifting.

This is the first single of the second solo album by singer-songwriter Sean O’Connor. The lyric-driven and direct subject matter includes emotionally raw yet optimistic and redemptive responses to the death of his late wife, depression, anxiety, overthinking, neo-Nazism and the human shadow, a friend’s garden, climate change and relationship struggles. These often serious sounding themes are sometimes conveyed by tender ballads, and sometimes offset by upbeat rhythms and bright melodies. The album is acoustic folk-rock, with occasional Irish flavours, evident in the melodic instrumentals, and in the sometimes dense rhythmic lyrics. However, the songs are diverse, ranging from simple guitar and piano arrangements to rock, Latin, reggae and calypso, with steel drums, marimbas, cajons and an improvised triple flute solo by Rennie Pearson featuring in one song. Look out for the following singles and the full album release in the months ahead.

The gig at Meow on Thursday May 25th from 7pm will feature Steve Swanson on Drums, Mike Brown on guitar, James Martin on Bass, Rosie O’Connor on backing vocals, Joanna Dann on cello, and Regina and Yahvi Nispel on flute and violin.

Sean released his first solo album The Real Me in 2008 and toured NZ, America and Europe in 2011 with his family band Lava. He and his late wife Amanda released and toured three duo albums around New Zealand early in their careers.

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Album launch gig FB event link: MEOW, Wellington

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