Subject: Review: Seamus Kennedy CD: On The Rocks
From:
Big Mick
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 10:45 AM
Seamus sent me his new CD, and I feel compelled to let you all know my impressions of it.
Start off with the packaging. The cover art, and the interiors, are shots of Seamus standing and posing at various spots on The Giants Causeway in the North of Ireland. Seamus chose to use a trifold cover instead of a jewel case, and packed in one of the pockets are a complete set of lyrics. I liked it so well that I am going to use this format on our next CD, as well as on the solo project that I am planning. My guess is that this is a very cost effective way of delivering a quality product.
In typical Seamus Kennedy fashion, this CD is packed with music. This is something I like and believe in. It seems to me that to leave much empty space on a CD is ripping off the consumer. Especially in these genres, where we have centuries of music to choose from, arrange our own way, never mind the ripe crop of issue to write new material from. Seamus crams about 65 minutes of music on this CD. He runs the gamut in his selection of songs hitting traditional Irish, songs of the Irish in the new country, mixing them up with songs he has written. The example of this would be his Pennsylvania Mining Trilogy. In this 3 song set, he does Chuck Roger's Sons Of Molly, a slightly altered (with permission of)Aengus Finnan song O'Shaughnessy's Lament, and caps it off with a song I heard him perform for the first time publicly, after he wrote it, in my seisun tent in Muskegon, Michigan, My Father Was A Miner. Seamus wrote this song based on a story told him by his friend Jim Cunningham. I remember the day he performed it in the Tent at the Michigan Irish Music Festival. You must imagine the setting. The tent is where we sit and invite folks to join in a jam session with the performing artists at the festival. It is entirely free form, and Seamus always joins in. The second he started singing this stunning song, I was drawn to it. It is a compelling look at the life of a miner. He then told us he had just wrote it and this was the first time he sang it publicly. You could have heard a pin drop.
Here is the track listing from CD BABY.
I guess what it comes down to is this. Seamus puts a lot of thought into his work. It is why he is so popular. Over the years, he has sent me much of his work. I believe that this one might be the best of a body of excellent work. You should consider it a must own CD.
Mick
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sj
