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PETER BELLAMY The Maritime Suite Fellside FECD284
Peter Bellamy’s Maritime Suite is an unjustly ill-fated “special project” which succeeded his string of Kipling-related albums, conceived as a cycle of songs that was to celebrate National Maritime Year (1982) by tracing British naval history over a thousand years, intertwining traditional songs and ballads with his settings of Kipling poems. Although not on the scale of 1977’s The Transports, it was nevertheless an ambitious undertaking. Peter was to be the sole singer but backed by various musi- cians, with Dolly Collins providing the arrangements. In the end, however, Peter’s intention for the release (which included lav- ish packaging) over-reached both available resources and the economic climate, and the Suite never got “properly” recorded, although an intimate performance featuring Peter backed by just piano (Dolly Collins) and cello (Ursula Pank) was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 (and subsequently privately issued by Peter on cassette).
Happily, Fellside have managed to assem- ble, from this and other rehearsal and session recordings, a “proper” release of this Suite, splendidly remastered. Listeners habitually resistant to the “bleaty” Bellamy will find the almost mellow character of his singing here comes as something of a (pleasant) shock, while the musical climate of the settings is chamber-classical rather than folk – ditto in terms of structure (the Suite’s 14 items form a continuous sequence in two “halves”, with an instrumental prelude fronting each). For this release, Fellside have usefully appended five bonus tracks on nautical themes, previously unissued takes from a variety of sources recorded around the same time.
The Suite is still an “acquired taste”, albeit one of a different kind to the “usual” Bellamy, but it’s a fascinating and rewarding “might-have-been” that unquestionably con-
Lisa O’Neill
tains some of his finest work, both in concep- tion and execution. Hearty thanks to Fellside for giving it the wider currency it so deserves.
fellside.com David Kidman LISA O’NEILL
Heard A Long Gone Song River Lea RLR001CD
If you haven’t been paying attention since 2009’s Has An Album, you might think of Lisa O’Neill as one of those kooky gals who sings cute songs about crazy clowns and piggies. Think again. She’s always had far more about her than that, and her work has matured exponentially through 2013’s Same Cloth Or Not and (especially) 2016’s Pothole In The Sky.
And now… this. It turns out that Lisa
O’Neill’s actually a folk singer. Not just one of those singer-songwriters who records a bunch of old songs and claims to be drawing on the folk tradition, but someone who actu- ally inhabits that tradition and boldly asserts their own artistry from a place within it.
Of the nine tracks, four are traditional. The Galway Shawl is delivered with all the gravitas of a Margaret Barry circa 1955 while Factory Girl – a duet with Lankum’s Radie Peat – is astonishing in its intensity.
The original compositions reveal O’Neill’s remarkable faculty for empathetic and poetic imagination – whether inhabiting the per- sonality of Dublin dockers (Rock The Machine) Mussolini’s would-be assassin (Vio- let Gibson) or even another species (Black- bird). As an interpreter, she remakes The Pogues’ Lullaby Of London in her own image, while A Year Shy Of Three (sung over the slow air, The Morning Dew) is a heartrending response to a painting entitled The Aran Fish- erman’s Drowned Child.
Christophe Capewell and Libby McCro- han contribute tellingly on fiddle and
bouzouki respectively, while Cormac Begley’s concertinas plumb the sonic and emotional depths of the songs, perfectly shadowing that extraordinary, all-consuming voice. A current masterpiece and a future classic.
lisaoneill.ie Steve Hunt
THE BREATH Let The Cards Fall Real World
I’m a big fan of Ríoghnach Connolly. A fine flute player and one of the most extraordi- nary singers around at the moment, oozing charisma, emotional depth and allure and capable of evoking so many different moods; her work with Honeyfeet and Afro Celt Sound System is something to behold. But, as much as I want to love The Breath – her partnership with former Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stu- art McCallum – I’m not really getting it.
Sensuous and poetic, it comes full of sub- tle textures, soundscapes, layers and counter- rhythms which – at its best – suggest it houses all the components of a thoughtful and richly affecting work… but not necessarily in the right order. There’s a jazzy sub-text and while the electronic ambience offers glimmers of genuine beauty (as on the serene title track) it too often flirts with the realms of lounge music and doesn’t always best service the material, which seldom escapes the genteel fragility of its surroundings. Apparently it’s alt. folk, in case you were wondering.
This is their second album (Carry Your
Kin came out in 2016) and it’s far softer and more fragile than the first. The overload of soul-searching melancholia works quite well when you’re at home late at night with a half-full glass in your hand contemplating the evils of the universe and have time and patience to unravel the tender agony of the six-minute Untie Me Now – which admittedly eventually builds slowly into an impressive barrage of sound, but it’s a long, slow haul.
The production values are excellent – and Ríoghnach remains a wonderful singer – but a barrel of laughs it isn’t.
realworld.com/thebreath Colin Irwin
ERIC BIBB Global Griot Dixiefrog DFGCD 8810
The title Global Griot is a perfect choice for Eric Bibb’s latest magnum opus. The world- travelling American-born singer-songwriter- guitarist has heavily channelled both music and musicians from West Africa as an inte- gral, though not exclusive, part of his latest recording project. It proves a beautifully realised collaborative work involving a large number of musicians and singers of diverse nationalities recorded in no less than ten stu- dios situated in some seven counties. The result justifies the effort, with the best tracks soaring like a bird on the wing.
At the very top of his game, Bibb’s singing is pitch and tonally perfect, his guitar playing effortlessly complements the other varied components, and his songwriting (dis- playing all his usual preoccupations: family, humanity, environment, spirituality) is as strong as ever. All the musicians play superbly and all the collective vocalists raise their voic- es impressively. There are far too many musi- cians to mention all, but Bibb regulars – gui- tarists Stefan Astner, Michael Jerome Brown, vocalist Linder Tillery, and multi-instrumen- talist Glen Scott put in sterling work, while
Photo: Claire
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