The first time I heard Orla Fallon’s hauntingly beautiful voice was when I was in a sixth grade choir class, when our Irish choir director played us a video of a newly formed group called Celtic Woman, exposing me for the first time to the rich tradition of Celtic music and culture. As I heard Fallon sing and play the harp to the song “Isle Of Innisfree”, my heart was captured. Since that day, I have delved deeply into Celtic history, tradition, and culture, and have been an avid fan of Fallon.
In a time where so many in the world are walking away from organized religion and rediscovering the spiritual traditions of our ancient ancestors, Celtic artists have continued to grow in popularity around North America, helping many with Celtic heritage in our new nations reconnect to our roots on the other side of the Atlantic. Celtic musicians like Fallon have become like spiritual sages and wisdom keepers, carrying forward the light of days past and reminding us of a deep beauty and light that is embedded in our souls.
I was delighted to sit down for a conversation with Orla about the release of her new album Sweet By And By which takes a unique turn from her traditional Celtic music styling’s and embraces a much more American “folk-sy” sound. I caught up with Orla by phone from Dublin just after she performed a sold-out benefit concert at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin featuring many songs from her new album. I asked Orla what her favorite moment of the concert was, and she enthusiastically told me about her performance of the traditional hymn, “How Great Thou Art”:
“When I sing this hymn, it’s like singing a prayer. The song really resonates with people and is profoundly powerful every time it’s performed.”
As noted before, her latest album takes a bit of a turn away from Orlas traditional Celtic style and embraces a much more modern, country-feel. I wondered what led her to make this choice.
“I steered away from Celtic music with this collection because I’ve spent so much time in Nashville. The band that I toured with was from Nashville, and they are a very spiritual bunch of people, and every night before we went on stage we would pray together. My band knew those traditional spiritual songs like “In The Sweet By and By”, and I knew that I would love to do them.”
There is a deep connection between traditional Irish music and traditional American folk music, the latter of which was greatly impacted by Irish immigrants to the Southern United States. I asked Orla about this connection, and why she seemed to resonate so deeply with both traditional Irish and American folk music.
“I believe that there is such a deep connection between the old American spiritual songs and Irish music because both have the capacity to get down into your soul and speak to you. All of the tracks that we chose for the album have real spiritual significance and real meaning to me personally. I lost my dad three years ago and I didn’t want to sing anymore after that because of the deep heartbreak I experienced. I actually found more solace in music during that time. Me and my little boy would go out into the garden and dig around, singing songs, and that gave me great hope. But when I sing, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and so there were many songs that were just too hard to sing initially. So we had a hard time recording the album because it was too emotionally raw. But when we did finally compile the album, we made sure that all of the songs had deep integrity, and if they didn’t we just cut them out.”
I was intrigued to learn how Orla she entered into a career as a Celtic musician, as opposed to all of the other genres that she could have focused on. Orla described to me her life, growing up in County Wicklow, in a world devoid of technology and filled with delightful simplicity.
“ I had a very idyllic childhood. We were outside all the time. My parents would say goodbye in the morning and we’d come back in the evening, and it was truly carefree. My mother had a great love of Irish culture and folklore, and her mother had a great love for the Irish language and songs, and it’s really from that where I developed such a deep love for the Irish culture and music. Me and my grandmother would sit singing songs, and she’d become so emotional as I would sing. It was amazing.”
One thing that I noticed on a recent trip to Ireland was that there seems to be a lack of interest in the millennial generation of the Irish in their Celtic culture and heritage. As I traveled around on a book tour, most of the young people that I interacted with had very little interest or knowledge of their Celtic tradition or heritage. I wondered if Orla had sensed a similar reality in her culture.
“I think you’re right, Brandan. At my concert the other night, there was a man in the audience who had just turned 91 and I dedicated a song to him, and I always say that the older generation has so much integrity, they have souls. I see the younger generations, effected by all of the turmoil in Ireland over the past fifty years, and people really did loose their sense of soul. Now in this time of prosperity in Ireland, people are so focused on accumulating rubbish. It’s all commercialism, and they’ve forgotten about what’s really important. The older generation used to be characters, and I think many younger Irish have forgotten and lost that. Now, clearly, not everything about the old Ireland was good, don’t get me wrong, but I think we’ve become to “sophisticated” to remain connected to our landscape and our culture.”
I then took a moment to thank Orla, letting her know how her music has guided me through some of the roughest and darkest seasons of my childhood, acting as a healing balm and a source of inspiration for me to continue to push forward on my journey.
“Oh, Brandan, thank you so much for saying that. I feel so humbled and honored when you say something like that. Through music, I have met so many people who have shared their stories. I feel so blessed by it. I really do view my music as a gift from God and I knew that I had to start signing again, because people like yourself were saying lovely things like that. I used to be a religion teacher in a past life, and I used to teach children about the parable of the talents, and how we should never hide our light under a basket. That’s truly what I feel when I create and perform this music.”
Compelled by her background in religion, I inquired as to what Orla’s religious background and current practice looks like.
“I grew up a Catholic, but I am sort of like an a la carte Catholic in that I don’t go to mass every Sunday, but I go into the church and say my prayers. In fact, that’s the first thing I do every morning before I get up out of bed. I pray a prayer called The Deer’s Cry, which says:
I arise today through the strength of heaven
Light of sun, radiance of moon
Splendor of fire, speed of lightning
Swiftness of wind, depth of the sea
Stability of earth, firmness of rock
I arise today through God's strength to pilot me
This is kind of like my mantra, and I learned this from my mother when I was tiny, and I say it every morning. So, my God and my spirituality are very important to me. But sometimes I’ve been so annoyed with the Catholic Church because they preach at people so much rather than living as they should be, because you know, Jesus lived his message. For me, that’s how Christianity should be expressed. So I don’t go to regular church, but me and my husband and little boy go into the church, say a prayer, and light a candle, and I feel that is so important to me.”
As someone who has been trained in theology and religion, I deeply resonated with Orlas angst with religion. As my own spiritual journey has unfolded, I have become far more spiritual than religious, and have sought to connect to my most foundational spiritual roots beyond organized religion, which has led me to rediscover the beauty of the Celtic spiritual tradition. This, according to many studies, is the journey of many people in the world today and this, I believe, has contributed greatly to the popularity of Celtic music in American culture.
“Exactly. Do you know the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh? He says that we find God “in the bit’s and pieces of Everyday”, I see this everyday, whether in the garden, or in music, or in other people. For me, that sums up the whole thing.”
Much of Orlas’ success has come from a large fan base here in the United States, many of whom trace their ancestral roots back to Ireland. I wondered what Orla thought about the deep connection her music has had in the States, even beyond the ancestral connection, and has touched so many people on this side of the ocean.
“I think it’s the choice of songs that we’ve done. They all touch on this sense of longing for home, and I think everyone yearns for this place called “home”. When people hear these songs, they’re called back to these ancient stories and yearnings for the homeland.”
In this moment of world history where we are plagued by so much upheaval and turmoil, I wondered how Orla saw her role as a musician, and if she had any sense of calling in the midst of these fearful times.
“I think music and the arts are even more important now than they’ve ever been. The world is in a state of turmoil, and how we’re reading in our newspapers about the cruelty of human beings towards one another. It’s frightening. And we need music and the arts to help foster connectivity. We’re all already interconnected as people and as a planet, but people are forgetting all of that. I believe that while no one person can change the world, if everybody does their part to promote justice and goodwill, the world would become a better place. But people have become so self-absorbed and it drives me crazy.”
As I ended my conversation with Orla, I asked what she hoped her fans would get from her new album.
“I really hope this album gets inside their soul and speaks to them. There is a lovely message in many of the songs. I hope it comforts people and I hope it moves people emotionally and spiritually. This is what music should do- stir us up a little bit.”
And indeed, that has been my experience, not only with Orla Fallon’s new album The Sweet By and By” but with all of her music. I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of Orla’s new album here and to check out her work and upcoming performance schedule on her website here. I am confident that if you do, you will be uplifted and inspired by what you hear.
