Nora O’Connor has been an in-demand backup singer/multi-instrumentalist for decades, performing around the world with Iron and Wine, The Decemberists, Andrew Bird, Robbie Fulks, Neko Case, Mavis Staples, and Chicago super group the Flat Five, to name a few. The constraints wrought by Covid limited her to touring the backyards of her hometown alone, and reminded her that she can hold her own on guitar and she can sing the hell out of anything—and she can write a song, too. With time to spare at home, she began recording a series of new home demos that became her third album, My Heart released in October 2022 on Pravda Records.
O’Connor isn’t new to working solo. She released Cerulean Blue in 1996 and Til the Dawn in 2004 before she carved out a livelihood making other people’s songs sound better. She has no intention of stopping—in fact 2021 found her back out on the road with Neko Case and The New Pornographers. But her recent solo shows increased her confidence and stretched her ambition, moving her to experiment with her voice, to play with new sounds and textures, and to envision a next chapter in her long and dazzling career; one where she takes her rightful seat at the table of the luminaries she has supported for all these years.