Biography
Welcome to the John O’Connell website. You may be visiting this site for many different reasons (to find out gig dates, listen to audio tracks, etc). Whatever the reason, thank you for being here and allow me to outline briefly who John O’Connell is and what he does.
Born in 1959, John was raised in the Everton area of Liverpool. At the age of 22 he began to play music full time and was one half of the duo Groundpig. John’s musical influences are routed in acoustic, folk and classical guitar. His major influences are Stefan Grossman (ragtime guitar), Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy and anything that presents itself in acoustic fingerstyle guitar. However in order for John to continue making a living he had to stray from this path and play what would be considered a more popular style of acoustic music, i.e. Paul Simon, Lindisfarne, James Taylor, Neil Young and Bob Dylan.
John plays many styles of music and if you were to see John play live, you would be pleasantly surprised to hear music from the likes of the Poques, David Gray, Cat Stevens, U2 and Oasis. John also plays a wide range of instruments such as Nylon String Guitar, Steel String, Mandolin, Five String Banjo and Harmonica. He also mixes into his live sets, a number of his own original songs from his two latest albums which have also been featured many times on Radio.
All songs from John's CD’s can be previewed and purchased individually
here. Anyone who would like to hear John play live can view his gig schedule
here. I hope it will provide you with all the information you need, if not
email John.