QUOTES CD REVIEWS RADIO NEWSPAPERS
“Blue is a wonderful and skillful musician who plays with a depth of feeling and passion that is beyond many of the other guitarists in the genre.”—Al Petteway
“Blue brings a unique and beautiful perspective to her songs with melodies that wind their way into your heart and lyrics that open doors to new worlds.”—Anne Hills
“Choose the Sky CD is among the most profoundly moving CD’s of modern singer-songwriters that I’ve ever experienced.”—El McMeen
"Great songs-- very inventive chords, melodies and musical ideas. You're doing something right when you make other people a little jealous-- and your CD made me want to get a nylon string guitar-- though I seldom waver in my own choice of steel strings." -- Harvey Reid
“Blue’s accomplishments in music are all the more remarkable considering the obstacles she’s had to address in pursuing her passion. For as long as I’ve known Blue she has been hard-of-hearing. She never let this deter her and, I believe, it has afforded her that opportunity to hear music in a truly unique and profound way. I do not mention this to solicit sympathy. Blue has never asked for any nor has she needed it. Rather, it is a measure of her dedication and resourcefulness.”—John McCutcheon
Creator of highly intelligent spiritual acoustic songs”-– Daily Progress
CD REVIEWS
Folk Roots/ Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif
February 5, 2012
If Blue O’Connell had just chosen to perform instrumentals on Choose the Sky – six of its 13 compositions are instrumentals – it would be easy to simply applaud an album of often haunting, creative classical guitar or guitar/flute pieces influenced by sounds of nature and by strains of classical, folk, new age and Native American music. The compositions and the way she plays them on guitar and, occasionally, on flute, is spacious, calming and lovely.
The vocal songs, too, are spacious, calming and lovely. But, when Blue sings, the timbre in her singing voice quickly tells us that she is an unusual singer-songwriter. Hers is a voice obviously affected by a hearing disability – a disability she has not allowed to stop her from appreciating, making and sharing music.
[read the whole review here]
FATEA Magazine in UK
January 28, 2012
This may not exactly be politically correct, but, actually so what, I think it's going to be the best way to get across my thoughts on Blue O'Connell's "Choose The Sky" after it had made its way across the pond to land on my door mat.
Dame Evelyn Glennie, despite how she was often portrayed in the media, was not a deaf percussionist, she was a world class percussionist that also happened to be deaf. Similarly Blue O'Connell is not a heard of hearing singer/songwriter operating in the country/blues idom, Blue O'Connell is a pretty sharp singer/songwriter/guitarist/flautist that happens to have profound hearing issues.
[read the whole review here]
Victory Review Acoustic Music Magazine:
January 1, 2012
Blue O’Connell has released an album of gorgeous melodies, with clear, thoughtful classical guitar backing. Other instruments are the cello played by Peter Markush; Native American Flute and tambourine played by Blue; and harmonies by Mary Gordon Hall. The title song ‘Choose the Sky’ is poetic and revealing, “Sometimes I get lost, Inside a thought, Nowhere to go, My story that only I know…”
[read the whole review here.]
Northern Sky Music Magazine in UK:
December 12, 2011
Upon first hearing Charlottesville-based singer/guitarist Blue O'Connell's album CHOOSE THE SKY, with its complex guitar instrumentals and well-crafted self-probing songs, the standard of musicianship should come as no surprise, bearing in mind that Blue has experienced no less than 36 years of musical exploration, studying with the likes of Robert Fripp, Ralph Towner and Dusan Bogdonvic along the way. What will be a startling revelation to some is that Blue O'Connell has been cheated of the very thing all musicians depend upon, her hearing. Having undergone cochlear implant surgery, basically being fitted with electronic hearing devices, Blue has managed to complete and release this beautiful record.
[read the whole review here.]
The Basement Rug
March 3, 2012
"Choose the Sky is a small miracle and a testament to the potential of human achievement." - Chris Davenport
[read the whole review here]
RADIO INTERVIEWS:
Feb. 19, 2012 Song of the Soul on Northern Spirit RadioJan. 27, 2012 The Spark on WMRA with Martha Woodruff
Jan. 4, 2011, WVPT with Sandra Hausman