Catalogue #DROG-040

Released in December 1997,  Michael’s first record attests to the power of his live performance.   Often told that his style and power as a solo performer create the feeling that he is backed by a full band (horns included) O’Connell chose to record an album colored by the musicians he has always held in high esteem. With the help of violins (Sheila Gruner Black Cabbage),  full percussion ensembles (Jessie Stewart, Sam Cino, kinnie starr), trumpet (Brad Fauteux), electric and double bass (Jeff Bird cowboy junkies) accordion (Michael Barclay black cabbage), electric slide guitar (Nick Craine black cabbage) and the moonlight piano of Veda Hille (to name a few) the record flows with a sweet and ethereal aggression and pushes the mood that has come to embrace audiences wherever Michael takes the stage. O’Connell did not abandon his respect for diversity and the unpredictable. He achieved a great marriage of styles that needed to become more intimate with one another.

• Twister is a rock song with hints of Parisian Musette accordion and Hawaiian slide guitar
• Howling Dogs is a whispering testimony of a dirty old man refusing to let love sour his zest for being alive that turns into a feverish, Francophone, foot stomping reel
• Whiskey Fuel bleeds both tender and surreal images of human demise atop a furiously pounded acoustic guitar and djembe, with the colours of trumpet  and a tickling electric slide track;
• Rhinoceros finds its roots in jazz and through fiery trumpets calls the image of the well postured and passionate matador;
• Opera flows with tender beauty and brushed percussion and is haunted by the voice of Greek soprano, Maria Callas;
• Hille Butter has Veda Hille anchor a samba with a piercing trumpet that echoes the moonlight of Havana;
• Miss Molly tows the listener to an acoustic porch jam that celebrates the beauty of the fabled  Miss Molly and her need to love fully;
• Laverne Isert’s Grind is a poem sung about the desolation of homelessness and the vacancy of human greed set to seven pedal steel tracks, finger cymbals and a loop-like acoustic guitar.

Michael warns all those who purchase the record that it will become important to them after three listens.  Any less than three may find them wondering why each song is so pointedly different; why doesn’t there seem to be one predominant style (?) will be the inevitable question.  Upon the third experience one comes to an intimate understanding of the record’s cool, consistent theme and its unbending drive towards achieving new musical moments.