Walls & Windows
Four years after celebrating the music of her native Ireland onWandering Home, Maura  O'Connell returns with a characteristically eclectic and deeply satisfying  collection of songs from both sides of the Atlantic. A lesser voice coveringVan Morrison's "Crazy  Love" would leave us hankering for the original, but O'Connell manages to make  it her own, and elsewhere she strikes gold in the song books ofJohn Prine("Sleepy Eyed  Boy"),Eric Clapton("I  Get Lost"), andRon  Sexsmith("Don't Ask Why"). A songwriter's hat trick ("I Wonder," "Poor  Man's House," and "Long Ride Home") goes toPatty Griffin, a top-tier  vocalist herself whose gutsy material is proving increasingly popular in  O'Connell's adopted hometown of Nashville. Throughout, Ray Kennedy's production  is clean and energetic, with sections of full-on rock and twang balanced by fine  acoustic picking and the gentle wail of uilleann pipes, but as always what  lingers in memory is O'Connell's luminous voice.--Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers