Reviews of  my CD "Choose the Sky"

Folk Roots/ Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif
February 5, 2012

If Blue O’Connell had just chosen to perform instrumentals on Choose the Sky – six of its 13 compositions are instrumentals – it would be easy to simply applaud an album of often haunting, creative classical guitar or guitar/flute pieces influenced by sounds of nature and by strains of classical, folk, new age and Native American music. The compositions and the way she plays them on guitar and, occasionally, on flute, is spacious, calming and lovely.

The vocal songs, too, are spacious, calming and lovely. But, when Blue sings, the timbre in her singing voice quickly tells us that she is an unusual singer-songwriter. Hers is a voice obviously affected by a hearing disability – a disability she has not allowed to stop her from appreciating, making and sharing music.
FATEA Magazine in UK
January 28, 2012

This may not exactly be politically correct, but, actually so what, I think it's going to be the best way to get across my thoughts on Blue O'Connell's "Choose The Sky" after it had made its way across the pond to land on my door mat.

Dame Evelyn Glennie, despite how she was often portrayed in the media, was not a deaf percussionist, she was a world class percussionist that also happened to be deaf. Similarly Blue O'Connell is not a heard of hearing singer/songwriter operating in the country/blues idom, Blue O'Connell is a pretty sharp singer/songwriter/guitarist/flautist that happens to have profound hearing issues.
Victory Review Acoustic Music Magazine:
January 1, 2012

Blue O’Connell has released an album of gorgeous melodies, with clear, thoughtful classical guitar backing.  Other instruments are the cello played by Peter Markush; Native American Flute and tambourine played by Blue; and harmonies by Mary Gordon Hall. The title song ‘Choose the Sky’ is poetic and revealing, “Sometimes I get lost, Inside a thought, Nowhere to go, My story that only I know…”  

Northern Sky Music Magazine in UK:
December 12, 2011

Upon first hearing Charlottesville-based singer/guitarist Blue O'Connell's album CHOOSE THE SKY, with its complex guitar instrumentals and well-crafted self-probing songs, the standard of musicianship should come as no surprise, bearing in mind that Blue has experienced no less than 36 years of musical exploration, studying with the likes of Robert Fripp, Ralph Towner and Dusan Bogdonvic along the way. What will be a startling revelation to some is that Blue O'Connell has been cheated of the very thing all musicians depend upon, her hearing. Having undergone cochlear implant surgery, basically being fitted with electronic hearing devices, Blue has managed to complete and release this beautiful record.