Colman Connolly,
Tobi Kurig, Franziska Urton
Blue
Fox Music FMCD
631991; 47 minutes; 2006
Connemara-born, long-time London resident uilleann piper and whistler Colman Connolly is a musician whose talents should have received more attention, but sadly don’t deserve such recognition if they involve future collaborations such as this manifestly awful album made with the German pairing of fiddler Franziska Urton and bouzouki-man Tobias Kurig.
Imagine
you’ve decided to make Irish aural stew one night. Searching your recipe book
(perhaps that new one by Conrad Gallagher or Jenny Bristow) you discover that
the ideal recipe involves a smidgeon of Planxty, a dollop of Lúnasa, several
grammes of The Bothy Band, a tablespoon of Danú and a wallop of Altan. And, of
course, it all goes to pieces, because your local branch of Centra has
exhausted its supplies of that little ingredient called soul.
To amend the analogy, Blue is like an Airfix kit. The instructions are in place and all the parts seem to be present, but, apart from getting very sticky fingers and perhaps a whiff of glue, the end product about as much resembles the aircraft or battlecruiser of your desire as a mothball is similar to a porcupine. It’s truly horrible – aimless meandering from Connolly, unimaginative, off-key fiddle from Urton, constant blooming plucking from Kurig, awful percussion, inapt arrangements – all compacting together into a monstrous waste of time.
Presumably, some people in Germany pay good money for albums like this. They really should have more sense.
Geoff Wallis
3rd March, 2008
If you really need more information about this atrocious album, I’d suggest that psychotherapy is a viable alternative.