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Showing 49–54 of 54 results
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Tim Dennehy – The Blue Green Door
Press Reviews
‘The land and lore of his native Kerry and adopted County Clare predominate in songs that are powerfully rendered and intensely felt’. (Irish Times)
‘Tim Dennehy’s rendering of any song would bring a chilling hush to the wildest session. A gem for song collectors everywhere’. (Irish Music)
‘Here is a voice as velvety as the best Irish stout. He produces some moments of breathtaking beauty, especially in his magnificent version of, Be Still as you are Beautiful ‘. (Rock N Reel)
‘There are few better singers than Tim Dennehy in Ireland today- a fine singer of splendid songs’. (Folk Roots)
‘These thoughtful and reflective songs help to contribute to an interesting and varied offering from one of the best traditional singer-songwriters of the present time’. (The Living Tradition)
‘Whether you are interested in learning some new songs or just want to hear one of the finest singers in Ireland today, don’t miss Farewell to Miltown Malbay ‘. (Dirty Linen)
Net Rhythms Web Site March 2003
For the reviewer who’s also a keen explorer, coming across any performer for the first time can be as worthwhile as welcome, and listening to Irish singer Tim’s four (to date) CDs has been one of the most pleasurable experiences of the past few months for me – so much so, in fact, that review of his latest, The Blue Green Door, has been delayed while I’ve continued to make fresh discoveries in Tim’s previous three releases.
The album’s rather wordy subtitle (Traditional And Original Songs Of Love, Loss And Longing, volume 3) is a most accurate depiction of its contents, in fact, though the apparent matter-of-fact driness of this erudite tag shouldn’t put you off, for this (like its predecessors) turns out to be a most appealing and stimulating collection of material, much of it completely new to me – indeed, I think it’s probably the best of the four.
Essentially a Kerryman, Tim was born Ballinskelligs; he lived in Dublin for a while, then in 1989 relocated to Co. Clare, releasing his first (then cassette) album, A Thimbleful Of Song. Tim’s one of those singers of quiet accomplishment, with a smooth tone and enthralling yet subtle delivery and a relaxed, though perennially sensitive approach to phrasing – a description which might well bring to mind Seán Keane
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Tim O’Shea & Friends – Lake of Learning
Press Reviews
The Stillwater Times Reviews Star Rating: ****
“When the summer has gone and autumn winds are threatening to blow our love away, it’s then our love will be tested. Arm in arm we’ll stand, side by side together, to face the common foe that will tear our love asunder…” From “Reconciliation”
Despite what’s inferred on the cover, this is a band album and not a solo project by Tim O’Shea. All the musicians get a chance to do their bit and I was particularly impressed with Matt Bashford’s Uilleann pipe work and Ger Culhane’s accordion playing. The album is a nice mix of songs, jigs, reels slides and polkas with something for everyone to enjoy…
· The album opens with a couple of slides both led by Paddy Jones’ fiddle and accompanied by Tim on acoustic guitar. Track 2, “Lake Of Learning”, was written by Tim and features him on lead vocals. The rhythm guitar part has the same insistent chugging feel as Dave Gilmour’s on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall Pt II”! This track also features some superlative pipe work from Matt…
· Tracks 3 & 4 are both instrumental. Barry and Ger lead the way on track 3 (a collection of jigs) with some jaunty concertina and accordion playing. It’s Paddy’s turn to shine on track 4 with some intricate fiddle work played over Tim’s rhythm guitar and Ger’s accordion…
· “Reconciliation” is a song about the struggle in Northern Ireland and is sung with some passion by Tim. Two more instrumental tracks follow “Reconciliation”, the hornpipe “Cronins” ~ which again features Barry on concertina and “Birdsong/The Butcher’s March”. “The Butcher’s March” has a section of melody line (played by Paddy) which I’m sure I’ve heard in a song by The Corrs, but can’t remember which one!
· Next up is Andy Stewart’s “Freedom Is Like Gold” which again has a passionate performance from Tim on lead vocals plus some melodic pipe lines from Matt. “Feartha Famine” is probably the most introspective tune on the album and features a fine solo acoustic guitar performance from Tim. Barry also gets a chance to shine with a solo concertina spot on “Mr O’Connor’s”, in which he shows a deft hand with this notoriously tricky instrument! Barry comes to the fore again on track 11, another collection of reels. Tim’s accompanying guitar has an almost jazzy feel to it on this up-tempo set of tunes…
· The album concludes with a song, “Willie Taylor” and a slow reel, “Roll In The Barrel”. “Willie Taylor” contains familiar traditional themes ~ love, the sea, betrayal and murder! The slow reel, “Roll In The Barrel” performed by Ger, Tim & Matt, is a fitting finale to this fine album…
· What I really liked about this recording was that although it stuck to a theme of (mainly) traditional songs and tunes, there was enough variation to stop the album becoming rather “samey”. I also liked the fact that despite Tim’s name being writ large and bold on the front cover that he took a back seat on many of the tracks and let the other musicians have their moments of glory! As I mentioned in my introduction, “Lake Of Learning” is a band album and not a solo effort… “Lake Of Learning” was reviewed by Dave
netrhythms.com
Tim’s second studio CD, like his first (Fair Dawning) and a 2001 live offering, draws ably from the deep well of music from Ireland’s south-western corner, his primary influences coming from the Sliabh Luachra in Co. Kerry and the tunes of Co. Clare.
It contains eight tune-sets and four songs, all bound together by the common thread of Tim’s nifty, driven guitar work. Although Tim has nine instruments in all at his disposal for the music-making this time round, they’re used selectively and rarely with more than three playing at any one time on any one track.
His “friends” (the supporting musicians) prove themselves a feisty unit, and they’ve worked hard touring the world to champion Irish music. The roster comprises Barry Magee (concertina), Paddy Jones (fiddle), Ger Culhane (accordion) and Matt Bashford (uilleann pipes, clarinet, low whistle), offering some interesting and rewarding, if sometimes unusual, textural possibilities – for instance the warm reedy timbre of multi-tracked clarinets providing a coda to Tim’s rendition of Ron Kavana’s Reconciliation. I also liked the concertina-accordion duet on the set of jigs (track 3).
The playing is sprightly and enjoyable on all the tune-sets, although on one or two occasions I felt a slight reserve, holding back. Then again, an out-of-tune fiddle on the first tune of track 7’s jig-set is all the more noticeable through being exposed carrying the entire melody part. Tim’s plaintive slow air Feartha Famine, played solo on guitar, paints a compelling portrait of abandoned homesteads, and stands proudly at the centre of the CD. The CD’s other solo item (a rendition of O’Carolan’s Mr. O’Connor) is given over to Barry’s concertina playing. It’s a minor shame, though, that Matt’s magnificent piping skills are utilised only on one of the songs (Andy M. Stewart’s Freedom Is Like Gold). This, along with the remaining vocal tracks, is managed credibly by Tim, his voice carrying shades of Denny Bartley in its overall tone and phrasing but without quite the same degree of searing intensity; best of the four songs, however, is probably the title track, one of Tim’s own compositions, which was partly inspired by a legend centred round Loch Léin, the largest of the Lakes of Killarney. An enjoyable collection altogether, and an attractive booklet to go with it too. David Kidman
Folk North West: June.05
Tim O’Shea is from Killarney in the south west of Ireland and has been working solo, and in several bands since the late 1980’s. He draws his influences from the dance music of his native Sliabh Luachra and West Kerry folk traditions and from the singing of Irish and Scottish performers like Jimmy McCarthy, Paul Brady, Dick Gaughan and Andy M. Stewart. Six years ago Tim brought out his first independent CD, “Fair Dawning – Tim O’Shea & Friends” and the follow up album, launched last year, features Uilleann pipes, accordion concertina and clarinet.
The new album features four songs and Tim demonstrates his excellent versatile musical ability on a range of polkas, jigs, slow airs and varied paced reels. He’s ably supported by Barry Magee (concertina), Paddy Jones (fiddle), Ger Culhane (accordion) and Matt Bashford (Uilleann pipes, clarinet and low whistle).
Tim is no mean slouch as a singer, performing the title track, Lake Of Learning’, and exuding a suitable sense of injustice on ‘Reconciliation’, Ron Kavana’s much travelled analogy for the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland, Andy M. Stewart’s “Freedom Is Like Gold” and the traditional tale of ‘Willy Taylor”.
“Lake of Learning” showcases the considerable talents of Tim and his talents friends. It will particularly appeal to those who love good Irish music played well with passion and fervour. For further information visit: www.timosheaadfriends.com Lewis Jones
Taplas, The Welsh Folk Magazine April/May 05 Adolygiadau o Reviews
Lake of Learning is Tim O’Shea’s second studio CD. The singer and guitarist from Killarney is ably supported by fiddler Paddy Jones and concertina player Barry Magee, along with new “friends” Ger Culhane on accordion and piper Matt Bashford, who also plays clarinets and low whistles.
The four songs include Tim’s own composition The Lake of Learning and a nice cover of Ron Kavana’s Reconciliation, on which the clarinet arrangement is particularly effective.
Some comparisons to Dick Gaughan are inevitable, but the vocals are confident and assured. The same can’t be said for the fiddling on the Birdsong Jigs, which gets off to rather a hesitant start. Also the guitar ends slightly behind the fiddle on the slides that open the CD.
Magee’s concertina playing, though, is very pleasing, particularly the three jigs and the virtuoso solo rendition of Carolan’s Mr O’Connor.
Tim’s own guitar composition Feartha Famine is another highlight on an impressive CD that is worth checking out. Nick Passmore
Live Ireland.Com
The Lake of Learning is by Tim O’Shea, and is out on Lackeen Records. Tim and his friends are from the Sliabh Luachra area of Kerry and also of the County Clare.
We love The Lake of Learning. The album headline is ” Tim O’Shea and Friends “. This is gloriously true. Tim is surrounded by some gifted musicians here, including Barry McGee on concertina, Paddy Jones on fiddle, Ger Culhane on accordion and Matt Bashford on pipes, low whistles and clarinet! Tim plays guitar beautifully, and has a wonderful, true and terrific voice. This is traditional music that makes a difference. A wonderful take on the tradition. And, yes, of course all the Sliabh Luachra and Clare swing is here, the lift, the intonation, phrasing and the soul.
There are trad song standards inducing one of our favorites, Willie Taylor, joined by Reconciliation (a beautiful bit of business by Ron Kavana), Freedom Is Like Gold from Andy Stewart and the title song. Lake of Learning by Tim himself. We really love this voice. Sure, confident and true. This album is the real deal. This would be impossible if the star, Tim, were not the deal himself. Album after album is put in front of us that tries to achieve what is easily offered here. This is are album by a singer and musicians who love and believe in what they-pi-e doing. Men about their business.
The instrumentals are varied and brill. These must truly be friends and long-time fellow players with Tim, as they all blend together so naturally and beautifully. This is an immediate contender for this year’s Vocal/Instrumental Album of the Year Award here on Livelreland
A wonderful voice joins with wondrously played polkas, beautiful airs, reels, slides, slow reels’-what more can we ask??
This is a winner all the way ’round!! The airs are especially
beautiful-one from Tim on solo guitar, one from Barry McGee on concertina. They are perfect, and really complete the album.
We have written in the past that one of the most disturbing trends in the tradition is that so many new players ( and some experienced ones whom we are tempted to name, but won’t ) apparently think that the tunes should be played at Mach 1 speed, all the tunes should be blisteringly fast, and we will all think, “Boy!!! Can these people play!! ” Nothing could be further from the truth.
This album is tastefully put together, balanced-and everything is presented at a tempo that suits trad to perfection. Music from Clare and the Sliabh Luachra is all about intonation, phrasing and the “swing”—-and these all are exactly what are left behind when this music is played too swiftly. Not here. These lads know what they are doing, and what’s what!
The more we listen to this album, the more and more and more we love it. Get this lovely thing. I’m listening to Willie Taylor as I write this.
Wow!! Get this album. Really! Bill Margeson
Pay The Reckoning.Com
With friends like these, who needs big-name guest musicians? 0’Shea (guitars, vocals, bodhran, bones) is joined by Barry Magee (concertina), Paddy Jones (fiddle), Ger Culhane (accordion) and Matt Bashford (pipes, clarinet and low whistle) for his third album of songs and tunes that linger in the memory.
The tunes are firmly rooted in the Sliabh Luachra tradition with slides and polkas taking centrestage; even the reels and jigs have the familiar Sliabh Luachra lift – that combination of “busyness” and effortless langour which the best musicians of this part of the world project. When accompanying tunes, O’Shea has all the muscularity of Steve Cooncy. When accompanying the songs he demonstrates a lightness of touch and a feel for the depths of his material which ensures that his material is beautifully backlit.
A cover of Ron Kavan’s “Reconciliation” brings out a whole new layer of meaning and poignancy.
His own “Lake Of Learning”, around which Bashford weaves snatches of O’Neill’s March”, is an odyssey through myth, legend and recorded history, centred on Loch Lein – the largest of the Lakes of Killamey.
Listen out for an absolutely cracking slow version of Cronin’s Hornpipe by Magee. The pace allows Magee to ornament the tune subtly and
masterfully and puts paid to the lie that the music needs a bit of speed to capture it’s pulse.
A subtle, restrained and deeply musical album from subtle, restrained and musical artists. Aidan Crossey.
Irish Examiner 13.5.04
It’s real music as it should be played
THIS is a studio album only in the sense that it was recorded in a studio.
In attitude, it is a relaxed session, a few tunes and the odd song in the front room. You can hear the musicians tap their feet, you can near them breathe, you can hear the groans’ and clicks and squeaks of their instruments. And the music is all the better for it.
Killarney’s Tim O’Shea plays guitar and sings. On this outing, he’s joined at various stages by Paddy Jones on fiddle, Barry Magee on concertina, Ger Culhane on accordion and Matt Bashford on uilleann pipes, whistle, and clarinet.
The opening slides, The Cat Jumped into the Mouse’s Hole/Going to the Well for Water, with Paddy taking the lead, have the necessary rough edge. Lake of Learning, written by Tim, takes its title from a slightly crooked translation of Loch Lein, the largest of Killarney’s lakes. Describing the song as “a mixture of fact and fiction and myth and legend”, 0’Shea builds a novel fantasy ranging from early Christian times to the Cromwellian Wars.
Reconciliation by Ron Kavanagh, and Freedom is Like Gold, by Andy M Stewart, are full of good intentions but tend towards over-earnestness.
Feartha Famine, a self-penned slow air taken on solo guitar, is a wonderfully atmospheric commemoration of the Great Hunger. The album closes with a fine version of the song Willie Taylor, segueing into a slow reel, Rolling in the Barrel.
Real music, played by real people. Pat Aherne
Irish Music Magazine 10.04
This is a condensed version of a Live Ireland review, I’ve been telling the cyber-world about this great t album for a long time, and now it’s your turn dear print reader. The album headline is “Tim O’Shea and Friends”.
This is gloriously true. Tim is surrounded by some gifted musicians here, including Barry McGee on concertina, Paddy Jones on fiddle, Ger Culhane on accordion and Matt Bashford on pipes, low whistles and clarinet! Tim plays guitar beautifully, and has a wonderful, true and terrific voice.
This is traditional music that makes a difference. A wonderful take on the tradition. And, yes, of course all the Sliabh Luachra and Clare swing is here, the lift, the intonation, phrasing and the soul.
There are traditional song standards including one of my favourites, Willie Taylor, joined by Reconciliation (a beautiful bit of business by Ron Kavana), Freedom Is Like Gold from Andy Stewart and the title song, Lake of Learning by Tim himself. Tim’s voice is sure, confident and true.
This album is the real deal. This would be impossible if the star, Tim, were not the deal himself.
The instrumentals are varied and brill. These must truly be friends and long-time fellow players with Tim, as they all blend together so naturally and beautifully. The airs are especially beautiful, one from Tim on solo guitar, one from Barry McGee on concertina. They are perfect, and really complete the album.
One of the most disturbing trends in the tradition is that so many new players apparently think that the tunes should be played at Mach 1 speed, all the tunes should be blisteringly fast, and we will all think, “Boy!!! Can these people play!!” Nothing could be further from the truth.
This album is tastefully put together, balanced and everything is presented at a tempo that suits trad to perfection. Not here. These lads know what they are doing, and what’s what!
The more we listen to this album, the more and more we love it. Bill Margeson
Tim and friends are one of the hardest working units in Irish music. They have worked in USA, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. They annually tour Germany and have played many Irish festivals alongside bands like, Altan, De Danann, Dervish and Lunasa.
A unique mix of 4 reed instruments, uilleann pipes, clarinet, accordion and concertina, adds unique colour shadings to the songs and tunes on Lake of Learning.
Barry Magee from Ballybunion Co. Kerry is one the finest concertina players in Ireland today as displayed by his virtuoso solo on the O’Carolan
tune Mr. 0 ‘Connor.Very much in the Co Clare style of playing, Barry offers his own vibrant stamp on 4 selections of tunes on Lake of Learning.
Matt Bashford from Limerick city plays clarinet and uilleann pipes as well as low whistle with energetic and youthful vigour.
Ger Culhane a native of west Limerick, is now living in Castleisland Co. Kerry, contributes some fine accordion playing on four of the tracks.
Paddy Jones. The Kerry music on this CD is reinforced by some wonderful Sliabh Luachra fiddle playing courtesy of Paddy Jones, one of the few remaining students of fiddle master Padraig O’Keeffe who died in 1963.
Tim O’Shea plays guitar, bodhran and bones and sings all 4 songs. Reconciliation is a fine song from Ron Kavana benefits well from the Matt’s sensitive
layered clarinets. Freedom is like gold comes from the pen of Andy M. Stewart and speaks for itself. Willie Taylor is a fine traditional song very popular at Tim’s live gigs and flows nicely into the slow Clare reel Roll in the Barrel.
This CD offers the seasoned traditional fan and the contemporary folk fan plenty to enjoy. From the two solo voices of Mr. O’Connor and Feartha Famine to the full sound of the title track Lake of Learning and the use of 9 instruments in all offers the listener a unique sound of music from Kerry and Clare.
Dates: Check out www.timosheaandfriends.com for further details.
After a great summer, it’s Autumn once again and time to hit the roads, the rails, the seas & the skies. “Thank you” all for coming to our gigs and for buying the CDs, and for helping make 2010 another successful year. We toured at home and abroad. Highlights included several TV appearances in the USA as well as several live Radio & TV performances in Ireland & USA. Memorable gigs included 4 special performances with Circus Gerbola in Ireland and Puck Fair, Ireland’s oldest Fair. Introducing a new ‘old friend’ for the German Tour, please put your hands together for Rodney Cordner (Guitar/Vocal/Bodhrán) from Portadown Co. Armagh. Please welcome back Declan Buckley Killarney Co. Kerry (Uilleann Pipes), who was on last year’s German tour.
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Tony Reidy – A Rough Shot of Lipstick
Tony Reidy was born in Aughagower near Westport, Country Mayo in the wild west of Ireland. Aughagower is an historic village where Pagans walked and St Patrick followed on his way to climb Croagh Patrick. He was reared on a small farm and his songwriting is very close to the soil. Tony Reidy is a man who has spent his life close to the land and its nature. It documents the plight of the people who work the land in Ireland, and maybe the plight of those people all over the world.
“I can still remember when first I heard Bob Dylan’s “Like A rolling Stone”, I was cutting thistles that day on my father’s farm, and I couldn’t get over it! The words, the music, the power of it all”! “I also remember Sweeney’s Men who brought Irish, English and American old timey music together in one brilliant piece of vinyl”.
Tony has been writing songs and poems ever since. “Once I got the songwriting bug I found I couldn’t stop”.
Tony’s first CD, The Coldest Day in Winter (also available from Copperplate) was released in 2002, it featured many varied songs concerned with the land and the people. His classic song, Like A Wild Thing was taken from The CD to be the title track of another fine CD, by the Mayo based group, Ceide.
Now in 2006 Tony comes up with his second CD, A Rough Shot of Lipstick, more brilliant insightful songs about life in Mayo, the land, love, clowns, lipstick, an informer, a priest and himself.
The album was recorded in Paul Gurney’s studio in Longford and produced by ex Dervish member, brilliant musician and producer, Seamie O’Dowd.
Copperplate is very proud to have this title on our roster and to help it achieve its full potential will be supporting this release with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail.
Also available from Copperplate: TRCD 001 TONY REIDY: The Coldest Day in Winter
Press Reviews
MOJO April 2007 Album of the Month Essential Folk
Songs about love, lipstick and clowns from Co Mayo
Like an earthier, more rural version of Damien Dempsey, the Mayo singer-songwriter’s slightly wayward approach may grate with some. But on this second album- produced with striking intimacy by former Dervish multi-instrumentalist Seamie O’Dowd – he’s written a mighty selection of songs that he delivers with almost leisurely understatement. O’Dowd contributes a nimble variety of arrangemenmts and instruments to add relative sophistication to what’s essentially an old school singer-songwriter album.
It’s very Irish and it may even sound dated, except heartfelt story songs of the quality of The Boy in the Gap, Sean sa Saggart, God Knows and Seventh Son will never date, shrouded as they are in a compelling, oblique sense of history, mystery and menace that’s invariably offset by a keen ear for melody and chorus. Colin Irwin
Folk World #33
Tony Reidy, I do remember writing a review of his 2002 cd The Coldest Day in Winter. I liked that cd; it’s sober and pure sound in the best singer-songwriter tradition. Now, five years later I find his new cd on my desk ready to get reviewed. The opening song immediately reminded me why I liked his music so much. No intro, he just starts singing and catches my attention from the first second. The boy in the Gap, as the song is called, is a strong piece of music for a reason I can’t explain. I don’t really understand the lyrics, but they do intrigue me terribly. Besides this kind of powerful songs, Tony Reidy also recorded some easier songs to listen to without loosing any of the quality. Fool for You is one of my favourites in that style, a love song that gives me a happy feeling. Followed by God Knows, which shows his Dylan side, a bit more melancholic and darker. Besides his strong vocal work, this cd is well produced and the musicians (Seamie O’Dowd, Paul Gurney and Kevin Doherty) are of high quality and add many extras to Reidy’s songs. So Tony Reidy did it again, A Rough Shot of Lipstick is a great follow up on his earlier cd The Coldest Day in Winter and shows that he is ready for a much bigger international audience. Eelco Schilder
Irish Music Magazine May 07
I had the pleasure of reviewing Tony Reidy’s first CD, The Coldest Day in Winter, which I enjoyed a lot, and it’s great to see him back again with this new album, A Rough Shot of Lipstick. The songs are all his own, not only in words and music, but in their unique style of expression and music. If you are unfamiliar with Tony’s songwriting, well, you can get an idea of his distinctive way with words in what he says of himself and his music. “I gather the seeds of these songs close to home,” he says, “and around the West of Ireland. The sounds and words may fall on fertile
ground or on wasteland, it does not matter.”
Home for Tony is Aughagower near Westport, Co. Mayo. He writes about home in one of the numbers, I’m a Mayo Man. You will possibly note that the title is an echo of the self-deprecating line a lot of Mayo people use when asked where they’re from: “I’m from Mayo, God help us.” So, assuming one knows about this line, he has fun with the song words, using self-mocking put-down lines like the following: I’ve come from the bogs of north Mayo / I come with the turf between my toes / I’m as proud a man as you could meet / I’ve swept many a woman off her feet. So the Mayo bog man has the last laugh!
He says he doesn’t care on what sort of ground the seeds of his words may fall: “What matters is the continuation of the tradition of the bards, poets, storytellers and songwriters telling stories real and otherwise.”
Tony’s I’m a Mayo Man song is one of the ‘real’ songs he refers to, while the opening track, The Boy in the Gap, is an ‘otherwise’, a dreamlike and day-dreamy: She took to the bed / She’d given up the Ghost / Sayin’ novenas for us all / Now and at the hour and livin’ on toast. Of this song and some of the others, he says in his CD notes: “The boy in the gap still listens and waits. Sean na Sagart was an informer during penal times. The island boys come from Inisturk off the Mayo coast. The scarecrow and the wild goose are still around and still holding hands. The man with the soft heart is my friend. The fool, the clown and the seventh son are exchanging views and thankfully still doubting the truth.” The album was recorded in Paul Gurney’s studio in Longford and produced by Seamie O’Dowd, who, along with Paul, is also one of the session musicians. Kevin Doherty plays double bass. I wrote of Tony the songwriter in that first review: “He is a gifted painter of word pictures, and a dab hand at fitting lyrics to a well structured tune.” Well, he’s still at it, and like a good wine, improving with age. Aidan O’Hara
Froots April 07
Tony Reidy from Co Mayo is a highly promising singer-songwriter whose debut album The Coldest Day in Winter signified the arrival of a fine talent.Compositional kudos is bathed in an assured sense of delivery and timing with the lyrical emphasis on finely honed observations.
A Rough Shot of Lipstick, Reidy’s second album, is shot through with his particular sense of vision. I’m A Mayo Man is an anthem for his locality as well as personal statement of ethnic pride. Island Boys recalls the local emigrants dislocated from home in the search of work abroad and If This Is Progress captures the instance of a maverick who is not afraid to stand up and be counted. Reidy’s gravely vocals and seasoned delivery are framed in a sympathetic canvas from producer Seamus O’Dowd.
A lyricist of power and diversity – Tony Reidy stands out from the pack with another quality effort. John O’Regan
The Irish Democrat
TONY REIDY’S second album is packed full of well-crafted, perceptive songs of Mayo life, work, exile, love and betrayal, delivered in a style which, while unmistakably rooted in Irish folk traditions, displays a host wider musical influences, ranging from Dylan to Tex Mex and bluegrass.
Recorded in Paul Gurney’s studio in Longford, the album is produced by ex-Dervish multi-instrumentalist and producer Seamie O’Dowd. Gurney (keyboards/piano/accordian) and O’Dowd (guitars/harmonica/mandolin/fiddle/bassvocals) accompany Reidy throughout as does Kevin Doherty (double bass).
He may not thank me for it, but there’s much in Reidy’s vocal and lyrical style which reminds me of Christy Moore.
By that, I do not mean that Reidy is in any way derivative or a pale imitation of the great man. His warm west-of-Ireland vocal sound is most definitely his own, while the songs, many of which display a bitter-sweet quality, represent as fine and original a collection as this reviewer has heard in a good while.
‘Island Boys’, for example, captures the mixed emotions born of feelings of inevitability and loss, tinged with transformation, brought about by the need of a small and remote island community to send its young across to the Irish mainland for schooling.
And there’s something distinctly sinister about the priest in ‘Seventh Son’ with his “direct line to the man above” and claims to be able to “heal” all manner of ills while at the same time ‘preying’ on his flock’s weaknesses and laying hands on their pockets as well as their ailing bodies and souls.
By way of contrast, the priest in Sean na Sagart, a song about spying and betrayal at the times of the penal laws, is treated with less ambiguity. But, while he is able to forgive the murdered traitor, those around him “the people” continue to reek their vengeance by digging up the the betrayer’s bones and throwing them into the river.
In ‘If This is Progress’, Reidy is at his most caustic. The song is a indictment of the hypocrisy, greed and betrayal of politicians and church in modern Ireland, “… a nation that has nothing to say”.
Tinged in the faded hopes of 60s radicalism the song points to the growing divisions between rich and poor and laments the bland corporate takeover which has accompanied the era of the so-called Celtic Tiger.
Yet it’s not all doom and gloom and the love songs ‘Fool For You’ and the album’s title track ‘Rough Shot of Lipstick’ are full of tenderness, humanity and subtle imagery.
Then there’s the tragic-comic humour of ‘Job as a Clown’, where the subject gets turned down for the job despite having gone to circus school and being able to eat fire, walk on stilts, juggle and dance. “They could see it in my face/There’s more to being a clown than clownin’ around”.
As with his debut album, The Coldest Day in Winter, several of the songs refer affectionately to his roots and life in Co. Mayo. The boys in ‘Island Boys’, come from Inisturk, off Ireland’s west coast, Reidy informs in his liner notes, and you can almost feel the rain in the air and smell the peat bogs in ‘The Boy in the Gap’ and ‘I’m a Mayo Man’.
This is a beautifully produced album from a fine songwriter who deserves to be better known. If he continues to produce albums of the quality of this, he surely will be. David Granville
Rock’n’Reel
For his second album, the Mayo singer-songwriter carries on singing about what he knows, and like fellow countrymen The Saw Doctors he makes no apologies for his rural background, instead rejoicing in the imagery and idiosyncrasies of rural living. His earthy vocals, and the rhythmic drive of his guitar on the statement-of-intent ‘Mayo Man’ supplement the warmth of his delivery and lyrical content: ‘I’ve come from work in Ceide fields, I come with Michael Davitt ‘s dream’.
This is unmistakably the work of a singer-songwriter from Ireland, as the title track, a Gallic accordion-flavoured grower demonstrates, rather than something from the Irish tradition. His influences offer a nod Stateside in the direction of Mr Zimmerman on the appealing ‘God Knows1 while he!s darker and accusatory on the insistent ‘If This Is Progress’ which goes hunting that mythical Celtic Tiger with a vengeance.
He sings in praise of the other side of Ireland’s ‘economic miracle1 on the nimbly picked grower, ‘Hard Hat Soft Heart’, and closes with the decidedly odd Job As A Clown’ on which a grumbling double bass and mandolin vie for your attention over Reidy’s doleful delivery. A refreshing take on the singer-songwriter genre. Danny Moore
Taplas, The Welsh Folk Magazine
A slightly more contemporary feel to Tony Reidy’s second CD, A Rough Shot of Lipstick: this time only Ceide’s double bass player Kevin Doherty is in evidence; otherwise instrumental duties are mainly fulfilled by producer and ex Dervish man Seamie O’Dowd and sound recordist Paul Gurney (both of whom were responsible for Ceide’s recent Out of their Shell). Many of the songs here are destined to be covered by others.
The Living Tradition Jan/Feb 07
The follow-up to 2002’s ‘The Coldest Day In Winter by this distinctive Co Mayo singer and guitar/mandolin player, Reidy’s damascene moment came on hearing Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone. There’s no doubt he’s also heard ‘Girl From The North Country and Not Dark Yet’ but he’s nothing to fear from such influences; his take on matters singer/songwriterly is twisted and left field enough to make everyone sit up and take notice.
Produced by Seamie O’Dowd with a sure touch that playing with Dervish and Mary McPartlan has honed. Lipstick is an album to spark the imagination and says a lot about the time and space its creator comes from. A windswept, desolate north-west coast of Ireland is reflected in this CD- it’s dark hours and small triumphs. The view from Reidy’s window is surely a bleak one at times.
With emotive phrasing, and an affecting lyricism the album gives voice to a series of personal narratives that are at once unsettling and insightful. His grounding provides a potent base of traditional sounds, highlighted in these intense, almost claustophobic tales of informers, small town romance, dreamers, losers and yes, a failed clown!
Music for a messed-up Celtic Tiger then? Well at the very least, a lesson in the power of sincerity and one for all those who have a weakness for beauty when it’s bruised. Clive Pownceby
Irish Dancing & Culture Feb 07
The thing that strikes you most about this CD is the presentation.The CD itself is designed like an LP, It’s a great design!Tony Reidy was born in the North West of Ireland In County Mayo. This CD is insightful in the way it has been composed, the album evokes emotion: Tony clearly writes his songs from the heart about his homeland and people he has met along the way. The songs are lyrical, poetic; ultimately they are different. This is the kind of music that will be cherished by those who know Tony, along with those who don’t- For the people of Mayo this compilation tells a story of an ordinary lad from their county, it will be around for years. Worth a listen! Leanne Nelson Fab Rating * * * *
The Irish World 24th Dec 06
REIDY WITH A ROUGH SHOT OF LIPSTICK
DESCRIBING his second offering, singer-songwriter Tony Reidy from Westport, Co Mayo says: “I gathered the seeds of these songs close to
home and the West of Ireland.
The sounds and words may fall on fertile ground or on wasteland, it does not matter. What matters is the continuation of the tradition of the
bards, pilots, storytellers and songwriters telling stories, real and otherwise.”
A Rough Shot of Lipstick’ was recorded in Longford, in the studio of Paul Gurney and, savs Reidy, “has songs about Mayo, an informer, love,
lipstick, clowns and myself”. Produced by ex Dervish member Shamie O’Dowd, the album contains arrangements and vocal’s that echo Tom
Waits, Dylan (in fact the first piece of music that moved Reidy was ‘Like A Rolling Stone’).
These songs don’t fit neatly onto the ‘fiddly-dee’ shelf and reveal not only Reidy’s diverse influences but his musical spirit of adventure.
A lyrical and expansive collection by an accomplished storyteller.
www.netrhythms.com
Born in a small village near Westport, Co Mayo, Tony’s introduction to songwriting came on hearing Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone and he’s been writing ever since!
But his first CD didn’t appear until 2002; The Coldest Day In Winter was an impressive debut by any account, featuring an attractive body of work that focused thoughtfully and compellingly on human interaction with country life.
Album number two here continues that strand of writing, with if anything a little more in the way of contemporary edge, on 11 brand new typically insightful songs. Tony’s particularly strong suit is the heartfelt, as on Seventh Son and Hard Hat Soft Heart, both of which in subtly different ways explore and lay bare the emotions that hide not far beneath the surface of an outwardly strong character, and the touching (if ultimately ambiguous) quasi-love-song Fool For You.
Perhaps Tony’s darkest thoughts on this disc come with the desperate meditations of If This Is Progress and God Knows. But he’s also a master of quiet observation, as Sean Na Sagart, the tale of an informer against priests (with an apt and appealingly modal setting) and Island Boys, which simply yet sensitively examines the emotional situation of local lads sent to school on the mainland, both prove. Tony can let his hair down too though, as on the delicious “bog bayou” of I’m A Mayo Man, which takes a different (more humorously self-deprecating) slant on his sense of local pride.
Tony’s got a distinct talent for finding a natural musical rhythm in his lyrics (does this emanate from his gaining inspiration from Dylan I wonder? – the title track sounds a bit like His Bobness essaying a Parisian chanson style), but I also hear shades of Al Stewart in Tony’s facility with melody and overall approach to phrasing, as on The Boy In The Gap. Not only is Tony’s way with words very attractive, but his fluid and conversational expression of those words (he has a naturally musical singing voice) will instantly win him admirers I’m sure.
Instrumental support for Tony is extremely effective, albeit from just three fine musicians: the multi-skilled Seamie O’Dowd (guitars, mandolin, fiddles, harmonica), Kevin Doherty (double bass) and keyboardist Paul Gurney (who’s also responsible for the wonderfully clean production). This is another of those CDs whose easy appeal is deceptive and belies the depth of the craftsmanship within; it’s also a very satisfying disc to revisit, which I’ve done often in spite of more pressing engagements! David Kidman
WWW.IRISHMUSICREVIEW.COM
this new album is still underpinned by heartfelt moments of existential angst (and nobody in Ireland writes these better than Reidy), Geoff Wallis
HOT PRESS
“If at least one of these thoughtful, well-crafted original songs doesn’t take root and grow into lasting life, there’s no justice”. Sarah McQuaid Eight/Ten
The Irish Times
“Songwriting with “attention to detail that hints at a task lovingly undertaken” Siobhán Long
The Mayo News
“Tony Reidy knows his roots
£14.99 -
Tony Reidy – The Coldest Day in Winter
- The Country Man
- Like A Wild Thing
- Draiodoir Dubh
- Kitonga
- Sometimes
- The Coldest Day in Winter
- Black Pudding Music
- The Mountainy Man
- Woman Sitting in a Dark Café
- Cul an ti
- Aphrodite
Press Reviews
Taplas June/July The Welsh Folk Magazine
Tony Reidy’s debut CD is definitely one that grows on you.
Having heard his song, Like A Wild Thing on Ceide’s album of the same name,
I was interested to see what his other songs are like.
There’s certainly a great variety. He introduces us to a gallery of characters like,
The Mountainy Man, Kitonga Mwanzia from Keyna and the Latin crooner on Black Pudding Music.
His guitar playing is reminiscent of Nic Jones in places. On some tracks he’s helped out by members of Ceide, while Pat Early Quartet provide string arrangements on a couple of tracks and co-producer David Munnelly, whose own CD is well worth checking out, adds accordion and keyboards. Nick Passmore
Pay The Reckoning April 2002
Pay The Reckoning first became aware of Tony Reidy via Ceide whose first album, Like A Wild Thing, derived its name from their version of Reidy’s starkly beautiful song. We raved about it then (see here) and therefore when we learned that Reidy had brought out an album, we wasted no time in getting our hands on a copy.
This is not an easy album! It’s a bloody good album, by a songwriter on top of his craft. A unique vision, a unique voice. But the album is no breezy listen. No middle-of-the-road. It’s challenging. Moody. Brooding. Not all the time. But an air of melancholy informs the album’s key moments.
And before friends of Pay The Reckoning start making assumptions that “The Coldest Day In Winter” is a traditional album, then we have to warn you. Irish it most certainly is! Traditional it most certainly isn’t. Musically there are a lot of reference points on the album – trad is one of them, of course. But there are echoes of Nick Drake, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, John Martyn, John Prine, Guy Clark. There are ghostly echoes of other songwriters who are able to capture, with a few words and a decent tune, some of the essence of their, our, someone’s or everyone’s life experience. These are Reidy’s peers. He can write songs with the best of them!
The fact is that Reidy has such a way with words that we wondered how he could craft tunes to do them justice. Before we had a chance to play the CD, Pay The Reckoning sat down, read the lyric sheet and revelled in Reidy’s attention to detail. We pondered how he reveals the whole picture through focusing on the fine images that the unobservant might miss. For example, a verse from the album’s opener, “The Country Man”. “The country man is happy/With the dew on the top of his boots/And the stems of last year’s thistles/Crunching beneath his steps/The country man is happy/He can jump over the gate/He can kneel down and smell primroses/He is not minding his clothes”
“The Country Man” leads into the exquisite “Like A Wild Thing”. In a great album, this song nevertheless shines like a beacon. The lyrics are quite different from those on Ceide’s album, the imagery even more intense, with even more of the high lonesome quality which stirs Pay The Reckoning’s soul. For example “Farewell to sheep’s wool on barbed wire fences/To the blackthorn, the whitethorn, the frogs in the ditches/Farewell to my jumper that has the blue stain/I now wear a suit, I sit at a chair”. Reidy’s delivery is easy, conversational, though there’s little doubt that he feels intensely the pain of separation that he describes. The listener can only agree that this suburbanisation, this divorce between people and the land, between people and their islands and their inland fishing areas, is one of the tragedies of the Irish experience. A tragedy which wasn’t confined to the post-Independence years when the Blaskets and the Mayo Islands and other west coast islands were cleared, but which is a process which continues in the present.
Draiodoir Dubh, Reidy’s hymn to a wide-eyed, credulous childhood, is followed by Kitonga – a song to a young Kenyan lad whose photo adorns Reidy’s wall. It exposes the gulf between a rose-tinted image of wild Africa and the harsh reality. Reidy asks naive questions on all our behalfs. Kitonga answers – matter of factly – “I can’t hear birds when my stomach’s empty/I can’t see beauty when the crops are ruined/I can only hear my brother crying/I see my family search for food”.
“Sometimes” – a piano-driven vignette which features restrained clarinet courtesy of Kevin Walsh- contains the superb image “Sometimes the world spins at the right speed/And I’m at the same speed too”.
Which leads us to the title track. A Cohenesque ballad whose bedrock of straightforward acoustic guitar is enlivened by Reidy’s mandolin playing and accordion wizardry courtesy of either David Munnelly or Tom Doherty. The song opens at Old Joe’s funeral where two lovers meet. Drinks are taken, “Our shopping bags fell drunk on the floor” and an old spark is rekindled.
Black Pudding Music is a wry tale of a musician whose dream is to play swing or bossanova, who “… prefers Andy to Hank”. (NB Pay The Reckoning prefer Hank to Andy … but we sympathise with the lad’s plight!) Instead he wastes his life playing “black pudding music”. But when the night’s over he “… has a few beers and he hums his way back into his dreams.”
The revelation of the album is “The Mountainy Man”. This is a song whose insights are on a par with those of “Like A Wild Thing”. Here, Reidy demonstrates his deep affection for, and understanding of, the wild characters who (thank Christ!) still abound in the bleak and hilly hinterlands. “He had his own outlook on life/It wasn’t always right/Sean nos mixed with alcohol/Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits”. And then later “Sometimes he was beautiful/In the bogs on heathery days”. And the song’s clincher (and a distillation of Reidy’s sensibilities) “Sometimes love comes down the hill/When he allows it in/And he prays to God or something/And the mountains are at peace”.
Woman Sitting In A Dark Cafe – a song inspired, it would appear, by a painting or photograph which Reidy glimpsed in a visit to Amsterdam is followed by the plaintive Cul An Ti.
The album closes with the gentle, elegant “Aphrodite”, whose last verse is a fitting farewell from the man himself “Soon we’ll fly away/From this burning sun o’er the waves/On Mweelrea hills/The clouds will fill with grey”.
Reidy has assembled an exceptional cast of fellow-musicians to help him out with “The Coldest Day In Winter”. As well as those mentioned above are Brian Lennon (low whistle/vocals), Kevin Doherty (double bass), Pat Gaughan (percussion) and the Pat Early Quartet (strings). Expect to see some of these songs make their way into the repertoires of big-name artists in the near future.
John ORegan’s Review.
Tony Reidy’s name first came to notice from Like a Wild Thing the title track of north Leitrim band; Ceide’s debut album reviewed enthusiastically in these pages, some time ago.
Coming from a farming background in Co.Sligo, Tony Reidy is well acquainted with rural life, and a strong sense of communal experience emerges from his material.
His second album, The Coldest Day in Winter reveals a sharp concise lyrical talent with a nose for detail and a forthright vocal delivery.
The Country Man and Like A Wild Thing offer two diverse accounts of rural life the former a vivid word picture depicting a farmer content in his role as provider and man of the earth while the latter depicts a common scene in recent Irish life with small farms closing down forcing many young farmers to make their life working in cities. Like A Wild Thing captures a computer programmer whose heart is elsewhere and the helplessness of his condition I feel like a wild thing trapped in a snare.
Otherwise, Kitonga a pen to an adopted child in Africa and Woman Sitting in a Dark Café haunt different inspirational boats while the humerous, Black Pudding Music depicts the pub and wedding musician’s lot.
The ghosts of fellow Irish songwriters Mick Hanley and Mickey McConnell occasionally scurry through Tony Reidy’s vocabulary, but the results are finely wrought songs of substance and life experience.
The Coldest Day in Winter is a pleasant aural surprise unveiling a highly promising Irish songwriting talent. John O’Regan
Aidan O’Hara, Irish Music Mag
“He had his own outlook on life/ It wasn’t always right/ Sean nos mixed with alcohol/ Bruce Springstein and Tom Waits.” Well, whatever about the alcohol and the mix he refers to in his song, The Mountainy Man, singer/songwriter Tony Reidy’s own general mix of material and music styles is a wonderful assortment altogether. Indeed, those lines quoted might just be about himself – he is the mountainy man, observing the quirky world from his hillside cottage.
Speaking of quirky – the songs listed on the back cover and in the CD notes are not in the usual order from 1 to 11, but are scattered around the pagein a random, shuffled order. Perhaps he’s saying, “Here’s a few ould songs I put together. You can listen to them in any order you want.” Most of Tony Reidy’s song/poems are a quiet meandering through ‘life’s rich tapestry’, with here and there a sharp comment on some of the harsher realities of life.
In his song, The Country Man, the first line of every verse is “The country man is happy,” and the pictures are of lambs racing round the walls, and the smell of whins in the nostrils; but in the following song Like a Wild Thing he parodies the subject of the title – the country man’s new state — which sadly is worse than the first; he has gone to the big smoke where he gets a job sitting in front of a computer: “Farewell to the land where I grappled with stones/ Farewell to the hills (where) I got soaked to the bone …” And
having second thoughts, he realises that maybe he has sold his birthright for a mess of pottage: “…farewell to my place/ To make a living I must sit at a chair.”
All the songs but one (Seán Ó Ríordáin’s “Cúl a’ Tí) are Tony’s. He is a gifted painter of word pictures, and a dab hand at fitting lyrics to a well structured tune; his guitar playing style is uniquely his own, and his playing weaves around word and melody as effortlessly as Mississippi blues singer’s – most appealing. He is well served by his backing musicians, Brian Lennon, David Munnelly, and not least, by the Pat Early quartet. Looking for a song to sing on your next album? You could find a gem or two on Tony’s new CD. Aidan O’Hara His songs have been likened to “Paddy Kavanagh, embellished with stark guitar arrangements” by The Irish Times. His work first came to our notice when his classic song “Like A Wild Thing” was used by the Mayo group, Ceide as their title track of their Copperplate album. The band and many local musicians have helped Tony in the recording of this his first recording. We would ask you to please listen to the sound bites on this page, just click on the underlined titles in the track listing section.
Tony Reidy was born in Aughagower near Westport, Country Mayo in the wild west of Ireland. Aughagower is an historic village where Pagans walked and St Patrick followed on his way to climb Croagh Patrick.
He was reared on a small farm and his songwriting is very close to the soil.
He still remembers when he first heard Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone; he was the boy in the gap on his father’s farm.
He also remembers Sweeney’s Men who brought Irish, English and American old timey music together in one brilliant piece of vinyl.
Tony was always interested in writing and bits his own poetry were always making their way onto his maths copybook.
Later as an engineering student in Galway in the early seventies he met up with Johnny Mulherne (songs, Mattie/ Hard Cases/ Continental Ceili were recorded by Christy Moore and Mary Coughlan) and Tommy Healy both musicians and songwriters.
But, it was not until on a holiday with fellow musician and writer, John Hoban in Istanbul in 89, that Reidy met Mulherne again and his muses were awakened. He’s been writing songs ever since then.
Recently his classic song, Like A Wild Thing was used as the title for the debut recording of the amazing Ceide, a group of musicians who came together as the house band in Matt Molly’s bar in Westport.
This finally lit the Reidy fuse and with the lads, Tony went into the studio to record this his first CD.
Now dear listener, you have the fruits of the mans work in your hands. We feel sure you will enjoy it, and we all look forward to more of his works.
£14.99
