[2] However, not long after joining the group she became very interested in the experimental roots music of America's New Grass Revival when the bands' paths crossed, and moved to the US in 1986, settling in Nashville, Tennessee.

After numerous album heavily inspired by American newgrass music, O'Connell returned to her Irish roots with the 1997 release, Wandering Home.

Guest vocalists on the album included Mary Black, Paul Brady, Moya Brennan, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Tim O'Brien, Dolly Parton, Sarah Dugas, Kate Rusby and Darrell Scott.

[5][6] In addition to her solo work, O'Connell has collaborated with a number of Celtic, folk, pop and country artists, including Van Morrison, Brian Kennedy, Moya Brennan, Mary Black, John Prine, Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, John Gorka, Bela Fleck, Robert Earl Keen, Dolly Parton and Shawn Colvin.

She has also sung background vocals for a number of artists, including Van Morrison's 1988 project with the Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat and Stockton's Wing on Take A Chance.

Aside from the music world, Martin Scorsese cast O'Connell, scruffed up for the role, as an Irish migrant street singer in his 19th-century epic Gangs of New York, released in 2002.