Niamh Parsons with Graham
Dunne
Click on the album title
above to head directly to the relevant review.
Green Linnet GLCD1219; 55
minutes; 2002
Releasing
three albums in a mere three years would test any singer's mettle and so it
proves with Dublin-born Niamh Parsons' Heart's Desire. However, this is not
simply another solo album to follow 1999's ground-breaking Blackbirds and
Thrushes and the succeeding year's consolidation via In My Prime, since tucked
away on the tray insert, just below the singer's name, is the simple phrase
"with Graham Dunne". Presumably, contractual reasons preclude the
appearance of Niamh's regular musical partner from greater prominence, but this
brief mention is hardly fitting, considering the guitarist appears on nine of
the album's fourteen tracks. Indeed, Graham, takes the leading role on two of
these (where Niamh does not appear at all) picking his way adroitly through
sets of reels and jigs respectively while himself accompanied by Dennis Cahill,
the album's producer (and fiddler Martin Hayes's regular sparring partner), on
nylon-strung guitar and mandolin. 
Niamh, of
course, is one of the most eloquent unaccompanied singers around, though some
die-hard traditionalists might take issue with occasional evidence of the jazzy
ornamentations she displayed with her former band The Loose Connections. There
are three solo renditions on offer here, including the very familiar My
Lagan Love into which Niamh breathes her customary vitality, but the best
of these is a relatively new song, New Holland Grove, penned by the
County Armagh songwriter Seán Mone, renowned for his comic song My Name is
David Trimble. Dunne offers understated excellence whenever he appears, but
two of the standout songs feature radiant accompaniment from the Clare button
accordionist Josephine Marsh, the jaunty A Kiss in the Morning Early and
the more reflective Tide Full In.
While
lacking the overall strength of Blackbirds and Thrushes, this is still an album
which will delight Niamh's fans, but whether it will add new converts is
questionable.
Green Linnet GLCD1232; 54
minutes; 2005
Is there a better female
song interpreter in Ireland at present than Niamh Parsons? On the evidence of The
Old Simplicity it’s truly hard to believe otherwise. Indeed it’s possible
to avow that Niamh hasn’t just stepped into Dolores Keane’s shoes, but reached
for the old expanders and taken her tootsies down lanes which others might fear
to wander.
Yet, there’s a qualification required since probably
no Irish traditional singer has ever surpassed the innate joy present in
Dolores’s singing while Niamh’s work, as the funereal cover suggests, dwells in
a far more sombre land. So, no matter how mellifluous her vocals, her choice of
material leans heavily towards the dark side of experience. So, if you’re
seeking rapture or rousing choruses, look away now.
Most of the songs on The
Old Simplicity are indubitably bleak and the titles of some give the game
away – The Men That God Made Mad, Blue Murder, He Fades Away,
No Telling and Poor Irish Stranger. True, there’s the occasional
joyful interlude, usually provided by Graham Dunne’s solo guitar tracks, but
even the traditional Ye Rambling Boys of Pleasure seems to drag the
listener inexorably towards the abyss.
Overall, The Old
Simplicity is Irish traditional music’s version of Nick Cave’s Murder
Ballads. You’ll be swept along by Niamh’s luxuriant voice, but the
omnipresent negativity might ultimately seem enervating.
These reviews by Geoff Wallis were originally written for Songlines
magazine – www.songlines.co.uk.