I had neither seen nor heard Margaret Mary O'Hara before yesterday's concert at the Edmonton Folk Fest. I didn't even know that Maureen O'Hara had a sister.
After the concert, I wanted to tell Mary Margaret about the ethnic restaurants in my neighbourhood.--African food for Africans, Chinese food for Chinese people, Vietnamese for Vietnamese: she would like gastronomic authenticity, or so I think. Sure, there have been few murders around here lately, and you wouldn't want your kids to run around in their bare feet, and several prominent signs have been posted recently stating that "This Community Does Not Tolerate Prostitution", but hey...she and her band would like to eat in some of these places, I can tell just by looking at them.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find her address and she doesnt' even have her own website. After recording the critically-acclaimed album Miss America in 1988 (named by MOJO magazine as one of the top 100 albums of all time), she never recorded another, except for the Christmas EP and the recent soundtrack to the recent film Apartment Hunting. In Canada, Chart Magazine recently named Miss America #14 on its list of best Canadian albums ever. Fittingly, she has recently been named to the Alternative Canadian Walk of Fame for "achieving international music legen
d status on the strength of one 17-year-old album, and for refusing to play celebrity"Interestingly, on the way home from the concert I began associating her in my mind with the old Carla Bley/Paul Haines collaboration Escalator Over the Hill. Then I found out on angelfire.com that she had contributed a track to the 1993 Paul Haines Album.
According to writer J.J. Ecto -- if that really is his name--"Seeing Mary Margaret O'Hara let fly elicits a level of emotion not unlike that of being witness close up to the product of Van Gogh's madness." And I would add that--rather unusually for artists of this ilk--I think that she has a very good singing voice, one that I imagine would sound very good in a country and western context, which unfortunately is not weird enough for her occasional humourous forays into extemporaneous scat-rap. She successfully marries the most heartfelt of lyrics (Yes I even thought of Patsy Cline) with an outre improvising jazz sensibililty, because that is who she is. Check out "When You Know Why You're Happy" and "Not Be Allright"---already two of my favourite songs.
She also refuses to record anywhere that is not within walking distance from several Catholic churches, as she claims these are her favorite places to "hang out".
She's even been on You Tube.
What a find. Who knew?
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