…Takes NY from City Winery NYC to Tarrytown Music Theatre.
Insights and Highlights from Four Knock Out Performances, November 9-13, 2013
By Kathy Callahan
Sinead O’Connor walked onto the stage and stood her ground at a landmark full service dining and concert hall, City Winery NYC citywinery.com. There’s no mistaking Sinead O’Connor for anything less than a charismatic and triumphant -barefoot Irish Warrior. Radiating the conscience of Ireland in all her humanity through words that soar into incandescent songs. She took us along for a rollicking roller coaster of a ride that is much like life itself.
Before the artist hit the first pitch perfect note, and the band joined her on stage, ‘Hallowed Ground’ a track from her recent CD collection, 2013, ‘How About I Be Me (and you be you??) filled the air in my head. “Take Off Your Shoes You’re On Hallowed Ground. Even You Can’t Lie When I’m Around Take Off Your Shoes. You’re on Hallowed Ground.” From a ringside seat, I followed O’Connor’s eyes, down on the ground right before her feet and read a big and bold visual cue: Breathe. During the course of a 90 minute set packed to the brim with songs that span the entire course of her career through today; and delivered with a full range of transparent emotions. ‘How About I Be Me (and You Be You)??’ CD Collection, 2013
Pausing long enough to Breathe in a deeply felt song filled experience is good for BOTH the artist and her audience.
“The Wolf is Getting Married” is no grim fairy tale of a song. Each, and every show, Sinead O’Connor transforms the iconic big bad wolf into a larger than life buoyant presence to behold and learn a lot from. The artist spoke movingly about her four children, the youngest being nine years old. As she sings, “The Wolf is Getting Married”, you can hear the artist (and yourself) at home singing to and along with the kids that she (and you) love the most.
Lyric, “Even When Something Terrible is Happening -You Laugh and That’s the Thing I Love About You Most. Even When Something Terrible is Happening -You Laugh and That’s the Thing I Love About You Most. Your smile makes me smile. Your joy brings me joy. Your hope gives me hope. The sun is Beaming Out of the Sky Where There Use To Be Only Gray/ The Wolf is Getting Married and He’ll Never Cry Again. Never Cry Again…’
Lyric, “Even When Something Terrible is Happening -You Laugh and That’s the Thing I Love About You Most. Even When Something Terrible is Happening -You Laugh and That’s the Thing I Love About You Most. Your smile makes me smile. Your joy brings me joy. Your hope gives me hope. The sun is Beaming Out of the Sky Where There Use To Be Only Gray/ The Wolf is Getting Married and He’ll Never Cry Again. Never Cry Again…’
I can fall asleep to that tune.
The Rasta jamming intro to the masterpiece, “VIP” final track on, ‘How About I Be Me (and You Be You)?? Says it all and so much more about -ever mysterious Irish resilience,
(Preacher)
“Someone say, “Boldness”(Congregation)
“Boldness”(Preacher)
“Boldness”(Preacher)
“The Bible says in Proverbs 28 Verse 1 “The righteous shall be bold like a lion.” Bold like a lion. Bold like a lion. The righteous shall be bold like a lion.
Sinead O’Connor, kicks off the song with a question, “What is a real VIP?” and closes on a never ending note about the mystery of faith and intention, in a world without end. Amen.
Sinead O’Connor, kicks off the song with a question, “What is a real VIP?” and closes on a never ending note about the mystery of faith and intention, in a world without end. Amen.
On the fourth night in Tarrytown, I could see the songs in and through Sinead O’Connor’s eyes. She took off her sunglasses for the entire show. Previously, at show 1, 2 and 3, O’Connor, spoke disarmingly about feeling shy and overwhelmed by the entire experience. Alas, the sun glasses.
I carried a press pass into City Winery NYC and a photo pass into Tarrytown Theatre, happily. With the help of Robert L Fischer and Paul ‘Pablo’ C we captured telling photos of the show.
Sinead O’Connor is touring in full support of “How About i Be Me (and you be you)??” And that’s a very good thing. Don’t you think?
Available at Sinead O’Connor.Com and Amazon.Com. Rumor has it she’ll be back in the U.S. in 2014 for more shows.
It was here, in NYC that Sinead O’Connor collected her first Grammy Awards. I was in the room at Pete Townsend’s public 50th Birthday Party concert at Carnegie Hall, 1994, when Sinead O’Connor joined the Chieftains on stage along with Roger Daltry, Irish National Orchestra, step dancers, Simon Townsend on drums for the ecstatic and extended version of ‘Baba O’Riley’. Roger Daltry, roared, ‘All Pete Townsend wants us to do tonight is sing “Baba O’Riley” to him on his 50th birthday, and so we will.” The song was written for and on behalf of his Irish family. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KX05v4dpss
It was also here, two years before, in 1992 when Sinead O’Connor ripped up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live. Some critics, said, and still say, Sinead O’Connor, committed career suicide that night. But I never believed that for a minute. It was a self sacrificing artistic act of sublime courage and resolve that immediately called attention to crimes against humanity on worldwide TV and it’s still playing on the internet.
A massive, far and wide, underground crime syndicate and Vatican cover up, on behalf of felonious pedophile priests, on the run, in and around the country and coming soon to a parish near you! Ongoing for decades, and never investigated or prosecuted by state and or federal law enforcement agencies, while enabling pedophile priests to serve mass, teach and counsel youth in the privacy of their office. What? Huh.
In that prescient, moment, Sinead O’Connor was transformed into a whistleblower in a state of justifiable rage, while feeling so much and being utterly fearless. But like all effective whistleblowers, she was vilified, scapegoated and demonized by the Vatican establishment, enforcers, far and wide, while children, teenagers and adults were experiencing and reliving in isolation, horrendous crimes against humanity. From Ireland to Boston to Jersey City to Minnesota to Los Angeles, in Ridgefield, NJ and back, on the alter, again.
Full disclosure: There was a thick file of decades long pedophile complaints about former Father Peter Cheplic of Ridgefield, NJ, tucked away in the Archdiocese of Newark NJ. The investigation of Father Cheplic a former Ridgefeld NJ priest, heated up and became increasingly public in the early 2, 000’s a.d. via North Jersey Newspapers, such as the Record. As late as, 2012, one of my all time favorite Record newspaper columnists, Mike Kelly, told another, ‘Cheplic fall out story’, That’s what I call them sometimes, ‘fall out redemption stories’ http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/171462021_Looking_for_laughs_in_a_tale_of_tragedy.html
Now onto
Back Stories: On the eve, of the church trial, prosecuting Monsignor Peter Cheplic, he resigned, took off his collar, gave up his pension and went into hiding, living on the run; and he hasn’t been seen or heard from, since. But I know where he is going. I never liked Father Peter Cheplic or the other ‘revolving door priests’ who came and went so quickly…and in such a flurry from the church and school formally called Saint Matthews. I wondered a lot about that as I stared out the window of my Catholic School classroom through the -third grade. I was outta there, too. As I grew older my convictions remained unshakable. “I don’t think this is what Jesus, Mary and all the Saints had in mind. And I said so, telling my artistic mother Helen, over and over, again, ‘Father Cheplic and or the other ‘Fathers’ are really giving me the creeps, again. Please come and take me home! Always patient, and loving nurse Lucille Walsh, a former, Sister of Charity, who believed in me, made seemingly never ending calls home to my mother from the sanctuary otherwise known as the nurses office. And so she did take me home and out in the third grade. To this day, I take immediate solace in Peter Gabriel’s (Roman Catholic by birth) song, ‘Solsbury Hill’, song and lyrics, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fF8wU4Nl9Y
Elevated, Monsignor Peter Cheplic served on the alter, at my mother Helen’s funeral mass, one month before my twelfth birthday and Confirmation, May 1970.
“Wasn’t it in History -The Artists Always Spoke Their Peoples Needs.” from the song, VIP, “How About I Be Me (and you be you)??” Somehow, O’Connor always manages to call to mind a triumphant Molly Bloom in the last Chapter and line in Ulysses by James Joyce.
The crowd at City Winery NYC and Tarrytown Music Theatre have not forgotten and will never forget why Sinead O’Connor, stood up, said and did what what so many could not or would never dare say or do. I interviewed many concert goers, in the decidedly chatty and friendly, ‘free associating crowd’ in between songs…As we paused, on all four nights, they said so. ‘Thank you, for being Sinead O’Connor.’
Please Link to My FB page and to ‘protective saint of the whistleblowers’. I need that.
Copyright, Kathy A Leddy Callahan, 2013