Orla Fallon -

By: Lindsey Weedston

Orla Fallon was born in Knockananna, Ireland. She released her debut album 'The Water is Wide' in 2000, and her traditional Irish singing soon gained popularity. In 2004, she was asked to join a group of singers to form Celtic Woman, which saw immense success on the world music market. In 2008, she left Celtic Woman to restart her solo career. Her newest solo album 'Distant Shore' is to be released on Sept. 22.

Lindsey Weedston: I read that your grandmother inspired you to get into music. How did you get started as a singer?

Orla Fallon: I've always loved singing, Lindsey. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but I actually don't ever remember a time in my life when I didn't sing. I'd say I started singing nearly before I could talk. My grandparents lived in the southwest of Ireland in County Kerry, and it was a five hour car journey away from our home and we used to spend a lot of time down there with them, and I can remember as a kid singing non-stop the whole way there in the back of the car. When I went to school I was always encouraged to sing. My grandmother loved songs and stories, and she really loved and really, really encouraged me and nurtured my love of singing, as did my parents. I was a very shy child but I never felt shy singing. On some days during the summer they used to bring me to sing at Banna Beach. I used to get up on stage and sing with these two guys, and I've always just loved, loved singing.

LW: I've heard you've performed all over the world. Can you tell me your favorite place?

OF: Well, there's two places that I absolutely loved. It was a life long dream of mine to play Carnegie Hall, and back 40 years ago I had the pleasure of playing there, and it was a fantastic occasion because when I was a child growing up my mother always spoke about this theater in New York and how you could see the ghosts in the walls there, and it was such a place to sing and perform, and I said 'Someday I'll sing there.' It was like a dream come true to sing there, and my husband and all my family came over and it was a huge occasion so I loved that. The other place that I absolutely loved singing in was at Red Rock Theater in Colorado. I did a few concerts there, and I just think it's the most heavenly place on Earth in which to sing. It's an Indian place of prayer, a Native American place of prayer, and there's something very spiritual about the place. It's like a natural amphitheater carved out of these amazing rocks and to look out at the stars at night time and sing there on that stage and see the sea of people in front of you and the trees blowing in the wind, I just love the place. It's an amazing, amazing place. A glorious place.

LW: Which did you like better, performing for the White House or performing for the pope?

OF: Both were very, very different, and both were a huge honor and privilege. It was near 2000 that I performed in the Vatican. I remember walking up the steps and it was like 'Wow, is this really real?' and singing for the pope in his private chapel, it was a huge, huge honor. I couldn't believe it. It was lovely to sing and play my harp and sing a Gaelic song. It was very, very special. But then, to go to the White House, again, it's the same kind of feeling when you're walking up the steps up to the White House, I was like 'Wow, am I really here?' I've always felt that I've been very privileged, and I say it a lot, but I genuinely feel it, that music had brought me to places I only ever have dreamed of being. But for my voice and my harp I would never have walked up the steps to either the White House or the Vatican, so I've been very, very privileged and blessed in this. Everywhere you sing and every different occasion, it's always special and it brings some bit of magic. You never take any of those experiences for granted.

LW: Well, you've had a lot of success. I heard that you broke the record for most consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard World Music Charts with Celtic Woman.

OF: That was with Celtic Woman, yes. We were a huge success. When we did our first show, when we recorded it back, gosh, when was it? 2004-2005, we never thought that it would break all the records that it did, or go on to have the success that it did have. It was a fantastic experience. It was a real roller coaster. Every day brought something new, and it was a great thing to be part of.

LW: What made you decide to start up your solo career again?

OF: Well, you know, I loved my time with Celtic Woman. I had four glorious years, and a fabulous time traveling the world and playing at amazing venues, and everything was done to the highest of standards. But I always longed to do the album that I've done now where I would perform some of my heroes in music. I had a very good friend who died a few years ago and she always stressed the relevance of everything in its own time. Towards the end of my debut, before I made up my mind with Celtic Woman I'd been kind of saying 'Oh, I think it's time for me to go it alone, and to do this album,' because I had written some songs, and Eoghan O'Neill was on the road with me in Celtic Woman. He produced us here in Ireland, I also worked with an American producer called Don Shea when I was doing all this stuff initially, and I was getting really excited about giving it another chance. It would have been easier to stay in Celtic Woman because they didn't want me to go, and I loved the show, and I loved the people that were associated with it and the fans, but I really felt my time had come. I wanted to try other things and new things, and it was time to do something for myself. It's scary to walk away from something that you really love and that's usually successful. I'm either very brave or mad. I just wanted to give it a go because I really believe you have to 'carpe diem' as they say, and to try the things you want to try, so I'm really glad. I've had a great adventure recording the album. Worked with some amazing people, and I'm really excited about it now that it's coming out on September 22nd.

LW: Can you tell us anything about your new album 'Distant Shore?'

OF: I recorded a lot of the tracks in Dublin in Windmill Lane Studios and of all our new producers, he's a bass player actually, he plays with Celtic Woman, so he's basically in a hugely influential Irish music group called 'Moving Hearts' and in that band you've got the who's who of Irish music. I was really blown away, and privileged, that all these guys came along like Donald O'Neill, Davy Spillane and Eoghan and Mairtin O'Connor and played on my record. We recorded some of my own songs and some songs that I've always, always loved in Dublin, and we had a really fantastic time and there were very many special moments. I wanted to record the album like an old-fashioned album. I recorded it singing live with the band so it has a very intimate, live feeling. I wanted to do that because a lot of people don't do that anymore. Then I started working with people in America, and they introduced me to a great producer called Shea, and he had worked with people like Mariah Cary and J-Lo, people who were very different to my style of music, but he brought something fantastic to the songs, and he was very sensitive to the music because for me it was very important that the musical integrity be upheld. I think between Owen and Don, I think the two guys did a fantastic job. I really wear my heart on my sleeve in the album. Some of the songs are quite emotional. I'm really proud of this. It's quite different to a Celtic Woman album. Celtic Woman albums are fantastic and they're brilliant productions, but I wanted to do something that's a bit different, to carve my own niche, and it's quite an intimate-sounding album, and I'm really proud of it.

LW: You also worked with Jim Brickman. How was that?

OF: That was a fantastic experience. I couldn't believe it when I was asked by Jim to perform on the Beautiful World show. I hadn't performed in America since I had left Celtic Woman, so we recorded the show actually up in Niagara Falls in Canada and it was a fantastic experience. He's a great talent and he's actually playing on one of the tracks in my album, a track called 'My Land.' He's a great, great talent. I love trying new things and I love pushing at the boundaries, so it was a privilege to work with someone like Jim, and then all the different artists who were singing on that special. I met Melinda Doolittle for the first time. She was fantastic, and a great character and a brilliant voice. I really loved the experience, and I'm actually going to do some Christmas shows with Jim now in November and December, and I really look forward to that.

LW: Can you tell us anything about the future, what you have planned?

OF: I really would like to do a tour with this album, myself, a solo tour. Hopefully after Christmas I will do that. I'd like to do intimate venues because it's quite an intimate-sounding record so I'd like to do venues where I can really see and be close to the audience, and I really look forward to that. I've met so many lovely people through the music of Celtic Woman over the years, so I'm looking forward to meeting all of those people when I go back out on tour again, and I'm meeting new people through Jim. I hope that this record will bring my music to a wider audience and to people who might not be familiar with Celtic Woman, and I hope that this will widen the audience a little bit. I just want to keep making records, and I love collaborating with people actually, it's really been fantastic, like working with Jim, and so I hope I get to do a few more collaborations with people, and just keep doing what I love, because I love the music and I'm really passionate about it.

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