MAURA O'CONNELL GOES NAKED WITH CELEBRITY PALS

Irish singer Maura O'Connell has pulled off a coup by persuading a bunch of her celebrity pals - including buxom country music legend Dolly Partin - to get naked with her. Well, sort of.
The County Clare-born artist has managed to get a number of top stars to record with her unaccompanied for her next album Naked With Friends – but they did actually keep their clothes on.
O'Connell, who swapped Ennis for a new life in Nashville 23 years ago, is delighted that stars such as Alison Krauss, fellow Irish songstresses Mary Black, Mairéad Ni Mhaonigh and Moya Brennan as well as several celebrated American artists agreed to take part in the ambitious project.
For the album, which is out on June 16, O'Connell had to talk them into the risky task of recording a cappella – just singing without instrumental music.
“I’ve gathered the consciousness that singing should be just fine, that it is a viable talent on its own,” said the Grammy-nominated star.
O'Connell, who is known for her contemporary interpretation of Irish folk songs, strongly influenced by American country music, went on: "I generally do an a cappella song at the end of a show if things work out the right way.
"Unaccompanied singing is very much part of the Irish phenomenon, I suppose. It's as much a part of the culture as the whole idea of people gathering together and having a sing. So this isn't new.
"What was nice, though, was getting to gather a group of songs that wouldn't necessarily be considered music you would sing unaccompanied.
“I mean, a good song can stand on its own. Still, some songs didn't translate as well as I thought they would, while others I wasn't sure about turned out to be just perfect."
Other musicians who agreed to take part in the ground-breaking project include Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott and newgrass and dobro master Jerry Douglas, who tackled the Irish-language song Mo Sheamuseen, and not one of them picked up an instrument.
The album simply matches their singing with 50-year-old O'Connell's steadfast vocals. Hence the project's title.
"I've gathered the consciousness that singing should be just fine, that it is a viable talent on its own," the veteran singer said of the 13-track collection.
O'Connell, who used to sing with the Celtic band De Dannan, has had the idea of doing such an album in mind for many years but has only now achieved her dream.
“Some of the Naked match-ups are beautifully unexpected. That Krauss's blissful vocal calm would provide such balance to the Rhonda Jo Fleming/Janis Ian song Some People's Lives probably isn't a shocker, said Walter Tunis, music writer for the Lexington Herald Leader newspaper in Kentucky, who has already heard the album.
“But how about Krauss' sidekick Douglas, who has produced several of O'Connell's previous albums, singing in Irish without his trademark dobro on the traditional Mo Sheamuseen?”
O'Connell said: "Jerry and I worked together on the road for a couple of years back in the '80s, and he always sang harmony with me.
"He's a great musician with ears that are finely tuned to singers anyway. I suppose it really wasn't as much of a stretch as some people might believe. It's just that he's so busy with that instrument of his. That's what people know him for. But he has a very fine voice."
The album includes O'Connell's interpretations of such songs as Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding, Joan Armatrading's The Weakness in Me and a slightly Anglicised version of renowned 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns' Ae Fond Kiss.
"I recorded all of the songs on my own first, with the exception of I Know My Love,” O'Connell said. “I did that together with Mary, Moya and Mairéad. The other ones I recorded first just to see how they sounded on their own. When anyone else came in on those songs, they added to that. I didn't sing any harmony.
"I can perform all these songs without anybody being around me, too. But I don't think that would be terribly interesting for a whole show. I'm still working out how I'm going to put this on the road.”
O'Connell admitted, however, that she is still "letting go" of Naked.
She said: "Of course, I'm ambitious and everything like that. Most people are. And I have an ego. While I would be delighted if everybody that got a chance to hear this album would love it, I don't expect that will be the case.
"But I've come to a place in my life where, if I can continue to get an odd gig so that my ego can be massaged, I'm quite happy."