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Sunday World

Sinead O'Connor was working on blues album before sudden death, pal reveals

'Not long before she passed she was going to take the blues road, singing the blues, and she asked me to produce the album,' Don tells me. SINEAD O'Connor is featured on a new single called Cinderella recorded with her friend Irish blues legend Don Baker that has just been released. In an exclusive interview, Baker also tells the Sunday World how Sinead had been learning the guitar and working on a blues album before her sudden death two years ago on July 26. Last year, at the age of 75, Baker was thrilled to land a deal with a German record label. One of the songs he gave them was Cinderella, which had been a track on an album he released over a decade ago called My Songs, My Friends. 'One day in the car with Sinead I put on a CD of stuff I was working on and that was one of them. I had called it Kings,' Don reveals. 'She said, 'I'd f**kin' love to record that.' I obviously told her I'd love her to record it. So we later recorded it for the album, My Songs My Friends. Don Baker 'She kept calling the song Cinderella because there's a line in it that goes, 'Cinderella was a junkie and full of pain, ain't that the truth we're all the same.' 'She thought the line was brilliant. So we just changed the name to Cinderella because that's what everybody seemed to be calling it, 'Oh I love that song, Cinderella.' 'Cinderella is about something that is never spoken about, which is love and sex addiction and co-dependency. Sinead O'Connor 'We talk about heroin addiction, alcoholism, gambling addiction, but you rarely see a discussion about sex addiction and love addiction and co-dependency. It's a huge problem for society and she saw that.' Baker forged a close bond with Sinead through the years, although he reveals that they had a falling out and a making up in the years before she died. 'Not long before she passed she was going to take the blues road, singing the blues, and she asked me to produce the album,' Don tells me. 'I put a band together for her, we went in to the studio and I think we had about five tracks recorded…and then she went AWOL. 'I couldn't get in touch with her. She had gone to Europe without telling me. I'm sorry to say we had a bit of a falling out over that. 'But eventually the hatchet was buried and we were ok, I'm glad to say. I wouldn't like that on my conscience after she passed. 'That was the only hiccup I had with her and a lot of that was my impatience as well. I bear 50 per cent of the responsibility for that. 'I was always into her. She was a great woman. She did more for emancipation than anyone I know. She had a John Lennon type of thing in her. She always spoke the truth. 'We remember her ripping up the photograph of the pope because of all the abuse of the Catholic Church in Ireland. 'That's the real enemy,' she pointed out. 'I do think she wasn't far off the mark there. I wouldn't have had the guts to do it, but she did. So she stood up for injustice anywhere she could and I really liked that about her. I had huge respect for her. 'She didn't pick the songs I wrote for commercial reasons, she took songs I wrote because of the meaning, because of the lyrics. 'The first song of mine that she recorded was one called Woe To The Holy Vow, which hits out at the Catholic Church because of all the abuse. 'I got to know her quite well. I used to call out to her house because I was teaching her guitar in recent years. We had a laugh together as well. 'I saw the dark side to her too and, God love her, she suffered with bipolar and it's a horrible thing. If that wasn't in Sinead's way she would have been an even bigger force to be reckoned with.' DON Baker's song, Cinderella, featuring Sinead O'Connor is now available on Spotify and all music platforms. See the video now on YouTube. REVIEW ASLAN have taken the baton from their much-loved singer and songwriter Christy Dignam and are powering ahead with new music featuring Lee Tomkins on vocals. The fans embraced their first original release with Billy McGuinness revealed how they were surprised to see a new, young following at their Olympia where fans were singing back the song, Hear Your Call. This weekend they've released the follow up, A Hand To Hold, and it's guaranteed to become another Aslan anthem at live gigs. BRIEF IRISH alt-rock trio NewDad will release their long-awaited new album in September, the band announced this week. It was written over the past two years and we get a taste with their latest single and video, Roobosh, now available. BRIEF IRISH jazz and blues singer Mary Coughlan is back with a new single, Lumberjack, featuring Ultan Conlon. 'The first time I heard Ultan singing the song it broke my heart,' Mary says. 'I asked Ultan if I could sing it.'