Steve Wickham: Beekeeper – honeyed collection from Waterboys fiddler

Beekeeper
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Artist: Steve Wickham
Genre: Rock
Label: Man in the Moon Records

He is best known as the fiddle player in The Waterboys, but Steve Wickham has also been a prominent collaborator over the course of his long career.

His second solo album, 13 years after Geronimo, gathers old and new friends for a well-rounded collection of songs, taking in snaky gypsy interludes (Two Thousand Years), sultry, sombre ballads (the Camille O'Sullivan-featuring Silence of a Sunday) and his exceptional skill on the fiddle (The Hare, The Cells of the Heart which Nature Built for Joy).

Ger Wolfe's turn on the gently galloping folk of Song of Lost Things is a delight, while Wickham's Waterboys cohort Mike Scott leads a slow, menacing stalk through Stopping By Woods. There's no real attention-grabbing sting in this album's tail, but plenty of aural honey.

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. She writes about music and the arts for The Irish Times