Maura O'Connell.. virtually fantastic

Went to see the amazing Maura O'Connell on Sunday at our local, renovated, amazingly cool theatre (The State Theatre).

Was a gorgeously small, intimate setting for an amazingly talented performer. There was some guy that opened for her, but obviously didn't make an impression on me because I can't remember his name now.

Maura did a lot of songs from her 'Don't I Know' cd, which I will purchase as soon as I get home today because I can't get the songs out of my head. She also did some older songs like "Blue Train".

A lot of times performing on Second Life, if you're 'just a singer', you're almost treated like a second-class citizen - which kinda sucks. Listening to Maura on Sunday night, I was struck by how much her voice became just another instrument in this ensemble that was accompanying her. It truly was an amazing experience. It wasn't just a singer, singing the words, she was playing her voice, playing our emotions and for a brief time, we experienced something more than just the lyrics, a voice, and some instruments. I love her, and I love the songs she chooses. I actually dug through my bag halfway through a song, in the dark, just to write down some lyrics so I'd remember them later.

A lot of times, hearing a song on the radio, or iTunes, or your mp3 player.. or even at a larger concert, we miss the 'emotional' impact that a song and lyrics can have. I missed none of that at Maura's show. Being just a few feet away from her amazingly powerful voice, and inherently addictive, beautiful personality made the whole show something wonderful. A lot of the songs were emotional for me and I ended up wiping away a lot of tears, but her rendition of "Danny Boy", sung without a microphone, without accompaniment, just floored me. The complete beauty of this voice, the emotion that she was able to convey with nothing more than her soul was breathtaking.

Here are some lyrics from two of my favorite songs from her performance. I had another favorite "Love you in the Middle", but I can't find the lyrics for that yet:

Hold on

The words that I spoke
Came out crooked and broke
Before I could straighten them out
The curses I cried came out harsher this time
Than the last time I cried out

But I just want everything right
Rosebud lipped kisses in lullaby light
So when everything I say seems wrong
Hold on, hold on, hold on

All the things that you loved,
I emptied you of
Before I could put them all back
Whatever I did was again and again
It was something that I could not stop
Cause I'm losin' sleep

The pinafore's gone
Ain't no use holdin' on to the way that it was
But I promise I'll try to do better next time
I'll do better next time

When We Ran

Could have been the kiss of my life

Could have been the death of me

Could have been that I was just too scared

To wait around and see

You could have been a guardian angel

I could have been the wicked one

Besides the buttons on our shirts, girl,

What else did we leave undone?

When we ran

When we ran

When we ran

When we ran

Was it just the time slippin' through our hands?

Right through our hands

Maybe I was tryin' to tell ya

I'd never known a love so strong

Maybe in the shadows of the night

We just couldn't tell right from wrong

Maybe its a real-life story

Livin' with the sad regrets

Maybe it was just a sweet dream baby

Somethin' that I can't forget

When we ran

when we ran

when we ran

Was it just the time slippin' through our hands?

You only had to say the word

I would have turned around and heard

But as it is we can't turn back

The mind's just a trash can, baby

And the memories, rolling dice

We had something one time, girl,

But we thought about it twice

When we ran

when we ran

When we ran

When we ran

We ran

we ran

we ran

When we ran

When we ran

Maura O'Connell - love ya.