ORLA FALLON, singer and harpist, describes the creation of her new album, Distant Shore, as a journey. It's one that started out at her kitchen table, that progressed to the acclaimed Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, that took a short hop over to a recording studio in Spiddal and then flew across the Atlantic to Nashville, Tennessee.

'This is the album I've always wanted to make,' smiles the woman from Knockananna, Co Wicklow, who now lives in Leighlinbridge. 'It's my dream. I've talked about making this album for so long and I thought that if I didn't do it now I'd never do it.'

Distant Shore may be her new solo album but she's probably better known for her role in Celtic Woman, a singing troupe that won the hearts of American audiences during the noughties.

It was a brave step for her to leave such an ensemble two years ago when the women were still immensely successful. Suffice to say that they released four albums, selling four million copies and reaping enough awards to make even the most humble singer green with envy.

'I had four brilliant years touring with Celtic Woman, but the tours were very, very long,' Orla says, explaining her departure. ' They were five to six months each time and it is hard to leave your husband and family all the time. Now, this way, at least I'm in control.'

'When you're on the road the whole time, you live in a bubble,' she explains. 'You've no idea what's going on in the world because everything is done for you. It got to be a novelty for me to hang out my own laundry on the washing line when I got home.'

During the years of being with Celtic Woman and even before that when she toured with Anuna and Clannad, Orla must have met some of the most influential and important musicians, producers and movers and shakers in the industry.

For Distant Shore, it seems that she picked up her contacts book and hopped off the phone – the amount of acclaimed musicians, writers and producers featured on it is impressive.

First off, the two producers are Eoghan O'Neill, bass player with Moving Hearts, and an American, Dan Shea, who's worked with such luminaries as Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and J-Lo. 'Eoghan gathered a dream team of musicians to work with me on the album,' Orla says, still smiling. 'We have Donal Lunny, Davy Spillane, Moira Breathnach.'

She also brought in Brian Masterson of Windmill Lane to engineer the work while Brendan Graham also penned tunes for her. Add drummer Ray Feehan of Celtic Woman and now Horslips fame and the who's who is almost complete.

Enter, finally, a songwriter called John Bettis, who penned Madonna's Crazy For You, and you have an album that should have great radio appeal. The American connection brought her to record in Nashville, a town that she thoroughly enjoyed despite her initial misgivings about working with Dan Shea.

'Yes, I was nervous because I thought that he wouldn't get my music. But it worked,' she sighs. 'I didn't want to sell my soul to make something too commercial but when he heard my voice, he wrote the title track for me. He then brought in John Bettis who wrote the lyrics for me.'

Even though Orla surrounded herself with music industry heavy hitters, one of the biggest thrills for her was the chance to work with fiddler Davy Spillane. 'I worshipped Davy's musicianship for years,' she recalls. 'He's really hard to get so I felt very honoured that he agreed to work with me.'

Orla would have been quite young when Davy Spillane was in his heyday, but she grew up in the village of Knockananna and later Hacketstown where she became obsessed with music.

This she credits to her Kerry-born granny who had a comprehensive knowledge of trad.

'I don't ever remember not singing,' she says. 'I used to drive my family crazy with non-stop singing in the car from Knockananna to Kerry.'

It was when she was in school in Mount Sackville that she was introduced to music teacher Sr. Eugene and to the harp, thus beginning her musical journey.

'At first I thought that the harp was really uncool,' she recalls of her teenage self. 'Now, I think that it's the most amazing instrument, it's so mystical. I've made so many friends through it, especially in America.'

Orla firmly rejects the somewhat easy marketing ploy of making herself and the harp 'Oirish' to appeal to the Americans.

'I just won't do twee,' she asserts. 'It's unfair that people represent Irish with a Darby O'Gill image. That's what I loved about Celtic Woman, too. They refuse to do that twee stuff.'

But the America market is famously Irish-friendly and took to Orla and her fellow Celtic Woman like a Paddy to his Guinness.

With the release of Distant Shore on Friday last and its distribution across the States, Orla is once again on that touring circuit.

This time, though, she'll spend just two weeks maximum away from home and with the help of her management based in Cleveland, Ohio, has sorted out the logistics of the trips. Not least of all the carting around of precious and delicate harps!

To overcome the problem, Orla has sponsorship of harp makers, Salvi, who'll ship such instruments to wherever she is in the world.

'A harp will suddenly appear wherever I am,' she giggles. 'The people at Salvi laugh at me because I'm always falling in love with whatever harp they send me!'

Those harps will be waiting for her in venues across the States and, later, elsewhere. This week, though, she's taking care of business right here on home soil and is spinning from press, radio and TV interviews.

'For me, the reaction to the album is really, really important at home,' she concludes. 'Every artist wants credibility and respect, especially from where they come. That's the most important thing for me right now. It's like I'm starting all over again.'

And with her years of experience in what's known as a cut-throat business, no doubt she'll be flying again soon. Distant Shore was released on Friday and is available from Empire Records, Carlow Shopping Centre.