Sliotar
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above to head directly to the relevant review.
PT-Records; 56 minutes; 2001
It was tempting to call this review ‘Take Your Daughter to
the Sliotar’, but it is doubtful whether many Iron Maiden fans access these
pages. However, as GAA followers will well know sliotar is the name for
a hurling ball and the band so ascribed is a trio consisting of Dubliner Ray
MacCormac (whistles, pipes and vocals) now relocated to Clare, percussionist
Des Gorevan from County Sligo, and the Finnish guitarist, bouzouki player and
singer J.P. Kallio. The band is pretty well known on the European circuit as a
result of a busy, almost hyperactive schedule which takes in more than two
hundred gigs a year. Also, I believe that they used to play regularly at The
Porterhouse in Dublin’s Parliament Street on the evidence of the title of their
debut album, The Porterhouse Sessions, and the fact that the
acknowledgements in the liner notes to Bí Liom Bí include thanks to the
management and staff for their continuing support. 
Sliotar’s line-up provides an interesting variation on the standard group format and is reflected by the lightness of tracks such as the opening Dan O’Keeffe’s/Sweet Marie/The Yellow Wattle, with McCormac’s whistles to the fore. However, there is some additional instrumentation provided elsewhere by fiddler Dáire Bracken (formerly of Danú and nowadays of Slide) who appears on seven tracks, while Alan Doherty adds his flute to two. Sliotar can certainly spot a good tune and there are plenty of examples here, including the rarely played Australian Waters, associated with the Teelin fiddler Jimmy Lyons, and the excellent hornpipe Johnny Cope, while Ray McCormac’s own composition, the slow air Eileen’s Life, displays the breadth of his piping skills. Des Gorevan should also be complimented for his very understated use of a drum kit on the album – a refreshing change from the bodhrán.
Unfortunately, however, despite their instrumental prowess, the band does not possess a strong singer. Both McCormac and Kallio vent their lungs, but neither is especially expressive nor seems to have a powerful enough voice, which is a great pity since Sliotar’s arrangements of the four songs on the album sung by the band’s members is particularly evocative. The fifth song, by the way, is the closing title track, sung by Ray’s daughter, aged five (and a very good job she makes of it!).
In spite of the misgivings expressed above,
Bí Liom Bí is a thoroughly enjoyable
album and well worth tracking down.
Idrone Media Production IMP 003; 56 minutes; 2005
The
Porterhouse’s house band returns with another enjoyable set of songs and tunes
which, four years on, reveals notable developments in both sound quality and
arrangement skills but continues to highlight Sliotar’s central failing, the
lack of a decent singer. Indeed some might feel that guitarist J.P. Kallio, in
particular, should receive suitable and sufficient punishment for not only
supplying his own music to Lord Gregory, but singing the lyrics in a
manner which owes more to Joe Strummer than Elizabeth Cronin.
That said, Sliotar know that they’re never
going to be world-beaters nor heading the line-up at the Green Energy festival,
even though it’s only just up the road. Instead, they’re the ITM equivalent of
that transient pre-punk musical phenomenon, pub rock, a musically skilled and
extremely tight band which possesses a driving rhythm section and a thoroughly capable
musical front-man in the form of Ray MacCormac – for an example of his
abilities listen to his whistling on The Humours of Lissadell/Jackson’s
2nd.
The album also features a live recording from
The Porterhouse, Tommy Peoples/The Swinging Gate/The Old
Copperplate (with Des going wild on the last of said tune trio) which
offers a more than fair reflection of how Sliotar sound in situ,
though a pint of one of the pub’s own superb porters would certainly enhance
the listening experience.
These are original reviews for The Irish
Music Review by Geoff Wallis.
For more information about Sliotar
visit www.sliotarmusic.com.