Lament
Real World CDRW 27; 44 minutes; 1993
This collection of Irish airs and
songs emerged from an event planned for the city of Derry (although the liner
notes do not actually reveal whether it ever took place). However, the CD
certainly did appear in 1993, though it was only when working on the
forthcoming edition of The Rough Guide to Irish Music that this reviewer
was alerted to its presence.
The gap of thirteen years between the album’s release and this review is irrelevant since this is
indeed a classic album. Moreover, if anything said hiatus highlights the
timelessness of the traditional air.
It is certainly difficult to fault the cast list drawn up by the man behind this album’s existence and its co-producer, Nigel Rolfe, which includes pipers Declan Masterson and Seán Óg Potts, whistlers Davy Spillane and Seán Potts (the Elder), fiddlers John Sheahan and Paddy Glackin, accordionist Tony Mac Mahon, cellist Neil Martin, harper (the late) Derek Bell, pianist Micheál Ó Súilleabháin, and vocalists Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill, Alanna O’Kelly, Christy Moore and Kevin Conneff.
Some might look askance at the
mention of Professor Ó Súilleabháin, but his sympathetic rendition of Carolan’s
Eleanor Plunkett is both soothing to the ear and elucidatory regarding
the tune’s twists and turns. Alanna O’Kelly’s name might be unfamiliar to many,
but the vocalist produces Lament’s most startling moment, One Breath,
a forty-five seconds sonic in- and exhalation which captures all the stark
emotion of the keener’s wail or the banshee’s howl.
As ever, on Port na bPúcaí
Tony Mac Mahon proves that no other accordionist is capable of matching the
emotions that the Clare man somehow contrives to squeeze and draw from his box,
though Declan Masterson equals the compassionate force on The Bright Lady.
Perhaps the oddest track is
Christy Moore’s multi-layered, part slow-lilted, part recited rendition of Danny
Boy, all to the background beat of his bodhrán. Not so much a re-reading as
a re-assignment, its mood seems to be a foretaste of Iarla Ó Lionáird’s later
recording for the same label, I Could Read the Sky.
An album for cool reflection, Lament
is still available from Real World and well worth investigating.
This is an original review by
Geoff Wallis.
For more information on Real World
visit realworld.on.net/rwr.