DESCRIPTION:
Mark O'Connor Band - #1 Billboard bluegrass album "Coming Home"
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/OConnorAmz
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/OConnoriT

“Coming Home” (by Forrest O’Connor) and performed by the Mark O'Connor Band

Forrest O’Connor – mandolin, lead vocal
Mark O'Connor – fiddle, harmony vocal
Maggie O'Connor – fiddle, harmony vocal
Kate Lee – fiddle, harmony vocal
Joe Smart – guitar, harmony vocal
Geoff Saunders – bass, harmony vocal

Mark O'Connor Band's debut album, Coming Home released on Rounder Records August 5, 2016 debuted at #1 in Billboard bluegrass album chart.


MOC Enterprises, LLC
Michael Hogue – mhogue@unuphilly.com (717) 304-9823
Fiona Zwieb – fiona@fionazwieb.com (917) 683-2750
Maggie O’Connor – maggieoconnorviolin@gmail.com
Mark O’Connor – mark@markoconnor.com
P.O. Box 39470 Charlotte, NC 28278

“Coming Home” is a song written and sung by Forrest O’Connor of the O’Connor Band as it is the title track to their album released on Rounder Records in 2016. Both a mandolin player and singer-songwriter, after growing up in Nashville and Montana, Forrest went to Harvard University then moved back to Nashville to write songs with this one already in his back pocket. The 1st stanza; “Well I’m still driving my daddy’s van / My soul in the sky and my head in the sand / Chasing a dream that withered long ago” sets up the father-son relationship as dad is also in the band - the iconic fiddler Mark O’Connor.

For the visual treatment of “Coming Home”, a metaphor for the song has Forrest’s dad, Mark coming home to his neighborhood and elementary school on the north side of Seattle where he grew up in the 1960s. Filmed on location, the viewer can see the original 400 square ft. blockhouse where Mark was raised. “Nothing much had changed, even the streets had not been repaved dating back 40 or 50 years” Mark says. “It was the actual pavement I skateboarded on as a kid!”

Some of the footage contains Mark riding his 1976 vintage “Jay Adams” skateboard he had kept all of these years. “It still has the same wheels and bearings, even the same oil in the bearings! You can detect a few wheel squeaks there at the end of the video!” Mark said. In his youth, Mark developed the skill to ride his skateboard and play the fiddle at the same time - to his mother’s chagrin! Without attempting the feat in decades, he asked Forrest to get him riding and playing on film. He opened his case, took his good violin out (the only one he had with him) and jumped on the board and slalomed down the same street he skated on everyday as a teen. “It was wild, I didn’t tell anybody I was going to do that… and I certainly didn’t want to practice it with my good violin when I got the idea that I was going to try it. I just jumped on and started playing, didn’t even think about it. For me it was like riding a bike I guess.” During the taping, an old neighbor came out of their house across the street who recognized the former child fiddle champion and spontaneously asked Mark for a hug. The unexpected moment was captured on film.

Similarly, Mark’s old elementary school a couple of blocks down the road is still in its original state. Once named Forest Crest Elementary, a Korean church group acquired the buildings from the city about 45 years ago. Interestingly, most of the school had never been updated or remodeled since the 1960s and appears exactly the same as it was. A pastime for the kids in 3rd grade was to play marbles on the mysterious circles carved into the paved sidewalks outside the classrooms. A young Mark became pretty adept at marbles and won a couple hundred of them that year. Those very marbles including several “steelies” have been a beloved keepsake ever since, and were brought back to Seattle and used for the music video shoot. Mark proceeded to “take on” each band member in a game of marbles, playing in the very circle where he had won them as 7 and 8 year-old boy. He was surprised at the lengths that his bandmates would go to impress him with their own newly found marble skills!

One of the school buildings that can be seen on film was the original gym where Mark performed publicly for the first time. As an 8 year-old, he played classical guitar, flamenco guitar and sang a few Johnny Cash songs for his classmates and teachers there. The footage of Forrest and Mark playing off each other in the section of the song containing their instrumental solos, was taken in the school field where Mark first played as a youngster. Additional footage was shot at Kerry Park overlooking the Seattle skyline and the world famous Space Needle.

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