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Seamie O’Dowd-Headful of Echoes          (Own label – SOD CD 001; 46 minutes; 2006)

              Anyone looking for a review of a traditional album by the former Dervish member, Ballymote’s Séamie O’Dowd, should (in the words of those newsreaders flagging up a screen of football results just before Match of the Day) “look away now”. For though the singer and multi-instrumentalist is, to employ one of ITM’s most hackneyed phrases, steeped in the tradition, with the exception of The Downfall of Paris, consisting of slow air and set dance, Headful of Echoes firmly explores another aspect of Séamie’s multifaceted musical character.

Anyone who has seen Dervish live or investigated the Sligo music scene will be well familiar with Séamie’s reputation as a guitarist, harmonica player and interpreter of songs and his debut album resolutely concentrates upon those three talents.

In essence, Headful of Echoes could be described as ‘Séamie’s Greatest Hits’, a collection of songs drawn from his own record collection (and one that reveals a certain degree of retrogression). Much of the material dates from the 1970s and 1980s and includes two of Rory Gallagher’s most renowned tracks (Going to My Hometown and Loanshark Blues), a Thin Lizzy song (Silver Dollar), possibly the only extant cover of a Big Country number (Thirteen Valleys, albeit mercifully without bagpipes-impersonating guitar) and, very bravely, a cover of Stevie Wonder’s Visions from his Inner Visions album.

Thom Moore is well represented by three songs, including probably one of his best known, Gorgeous and Bright, as well as Man Alive which employs the melody of The Bank of Ireland reel as its basis, while the remaining song is Dominic Behan’s Crooked Jack, though many will know this via one of Dick Gaughan’s earliest recordings.

Séamie’s voice is in pretty fine fettle throughout, if occasionally veering towards hoarseness (as on Man Alive) while his guitar work is exemplary and includes fine examples of slide-work, particularly on Silver Dollar. However, in many ways it is his harmonica which steals the show. Said already mentioned traditional air (with Máirtín O’Connor on accordion) reveals remarkable agility while his work on, say, Going to My Hometown captures a thrilling empathy with the blues.

Headful of Echoes will certainly not lay out a new career path for Séamie O’Dowd (and that’s probably not its intention), but it does reinforce the view that this man is a hugely impressive musician and singer.

Geoff Wallis,Irish Music Review.

28th November, 2006

SEAMIE O’DOWD

Headful of Echoes{Self Produced}.

Familiar to Irish audiences as the guitarist with Dervish,Seamie O’Dowd was the musical director for Mary Mc Partlan’s album,The Holland Handkerchief,and now he’s brought out his debut solo CD.His laid back singing,driving guitar and bluesy harmonica serve him well on songs by everyone from Big Country to Thom Moore to Rory Gallagher,while ‘The Downfall of Paris’ pairs a slow air on harmonica with a set dance (learned from his father,the well-known fiddler Joe O’Dowd) that sees him playing a nifty harmonica counterpoint to guest Mairtin O’Connor’s accordion.The surprise standout is a cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Visions’,revealing a hidden talent for fingerpicked jazz guitar and a much more emotional vocal style.What’s missing,alas,is any hint of O’Dowd’s knack for writing and playing guitar instrumentals-as exemplified by his contribution to the compilation album reviewed below.

SEVEN/TEN

Sarah Mc Quaid,Hotpress Magazine

 

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Masters of The Irish Guitar{Shanachie}

Masters indeed-there are no female guitarists on this compilation,which seems a trifle odd.Nevertheless,it’s an entertainingly varied collection of styles,from Arty Mc Glynn’s distinctive blend of grace and solidity to Garry O’Bhriain’s more classically influenced playing,Donal Clancy’s lightning-fast flatpicking,Randal Bays’ carefully constructed arrangements and John Doyle’s furious energy.Bays and O’Bhriain both contribute original tunes,as do Donough Hennessy,Daithi Sproule and Seamie O’Dowd.

O’Dowd’s two tracks are the most unusual element here;on a pair of tunes learned from his father’s fiddle playing he mixes acoustic and resonator guitars,while the spellbinding album closer*sees him employing ‘70s lead guitar-hero flourishes to great effect for an original tune played on electric guitar with acoustic backing.

SEVEN POINT FIVE/TEN

 Sarah Mc Quaid,Hotpress Magazine

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Tony Reidy ;A Rough Shot of Lipstick
(Own label – TRCD02; 48 minutes; 2006)

Four years on and Tony Reidy’s second album feels far more expansive than its predecessor,though there’s still a permeable strand of melancholy which colours A Rough Shot of Lipstick.That extended range is undoubtedly a result of Tony’s collaboration with Seamie O’Dowd who not only produced the album,but textures its substance via his multi-instrumentalist skills and certainly brings to bear on the recording his predilections for US roots music and the works of Bob Dylan.

Such influence is easily apparent on the album’s second track, I’m a Mayo Man, which carries contextual similarities to Reidy’s earlier work, but becomes a kind of ‘swamp thang’ workout thanks to Séamie’s Bayou setting and wild juxtaposition of harmonica and fiddles.

That said, this new album is still underpinned by heartfelt moments of existential angst (and nobody in Ireland writes these better than Reidy), such as the island emigration song Island Boys or the narrator’s inability to get a Job as a Clown despite possessing a unicycle and a pair of stilts. Tony also reveals himself as a master of the anti-love song, not least on Fool for You whose subject expresses all manner of job options he might undertake to prove his adoration. However, the most telling song is If This Is Progress which presents a catechism of the right things to do made redundant ‘in a nation which has nothing to say’, a visceral assessment of modern Ireland (or modern anywhere else for that matter).

Musically, A Rough Shot of Lipstick is far superior to its forbear, thanks to Séamie, engineer Paul Gurney (who provides gloriously swaying accordion on the title track) and Kevin Doherty’s absolutely perfect presence on the double bass.

www.tonyreidy.net