Here is some more information about what The Corr's music is and what it is about. It also gives you information about their albums that they made and the Company that helped them.
Jim Corr
- keyboards, guitar, vocals
Sharon Corr
- violin, vocals
Caroline Corr
- drums, bodhran, vocals
Andrea Corr
- lead vocals, tin whistle
The Corrs, all in their 20s, grew up in Dundalk in Ireland's County
Louth, which lies 50 miles north of Dublin -- smack on the border between
Ireland and Northern Ireland. In typical Irish clan fashion, each member
plays, sings, writes, and generally
throws stardust into the family pot. "Our parents were musicians, so
we grew up with a lot of music in the house," explains Andrea. "I suppose
it was always our intention to become a band. I don't think there was ever
anything else that we really wanted to do."
Along with their powerful familial link, the Corrs' music emanates
from a base of Irish culture and musical styles to speak to broader truths.
"I think the music reflects something about the Irish people as a whole,"
says Sharon. "The Irish have a lot of hope, despite all the troubles they've
gone through over the years. They've always known how to laugh and have
fun. That's where the tradition of up-tempo Irish music and dancing comes
from. But there's that mystical, haunting sound as well, which I think
reflects the Irish environment. I mean, when you get up first thing in
the morning, there is literally
a mist surrounding everything. Our music is influenced by our environment,
and we play what we feel." "There is a certain paradox about it," adds
Andrea. "It's a hopeful sadness."
Since expanding their bonds from family to band in 1990, things have happened quickly for The Corrs. The group had only been together briefly when they met their soon-to-be manager, John Hughes, who was assembling musicians for Alan Parker's film The Commitments. A friendship was struck and the band drew an invitation to perform in Dublin as part of a special Commitments live concert.
As
luck would have it, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith heard
The Corrs play at a small club in Dublin and invited them to America last
summer to play at a World Cup celebration in Boston. Still unsigned, the
band seized the opportunity to meet with U.S. labels. Captivated by the
group, Atlantic Senior Vice President Jason Flom suggested in turn that
they meet with Atlantic Vice President and producer extraordinaire David
Foster, who was in New York at the time working with Michael Jackson. Although
Foster agreed to see The Corrs, high-level Jackson security made it virtually
impossible for the band to reach him at the sequestered sessions.
On their last day in New York, The Corrs made a fateful decision. "We
took a deep breath," recalls Sharon, and, walking in full black garb in
mid-July Manhattan furnace heat, arrived unannounced at the studio. Once
again, Irish luck was on their side. Foster had just finished with Jackson,
and as he came downstairs, The Corrs were perched on the waiting
room couch. He invited them into the studio, where they played live
for him, and as Foster recalls, "told them, 'out of ten, I give you a ten...
no, a ten-plus.' "It wasn't long before The Corrs were official Atlantic
Group artists, with Foster signing on as producer. (Fittingly, both
Foster and Flom were in the process of establishing their own Atlantic-distributed
labels -- Foster's 143 and Flom's Lava -- and thus The Corrs make their
debut as a joint 143/Lava release.)
As a primer to The Corrs' musical world, listen to the purring, spiritual
"Forgiven Not Forgotten," or the lilting Irish violin and Celtic undercurrent
of "Runaway," or the gloriously infectious "Love To Love You." Or perhaps
"Erin Shore" -- one of five traditional instrumentals interspersed throughout
the album -- where an ancient Irish heart keens with melancholy. All told,
"FORGIVEN, NOT FORGOTTEN" is a powerful and versatile musical mix laden
with unspoken sub-texts -- both ancestral and modern. 7/96