Seamus Begley: The Bold Kerryman | Album Review

Seamus Begley, long-associated with the box and possessor of one of the tradition’s tenderest voices, has set his accordion aside so those songs can shine.

The voice is an enigma: emanating from Begley’s strapping frame, it embodies a vulnerability that seems at odds with his garrulous personality.

But his song choices suggest an interpreter completely at home in that delicate space where singers must venture to fully inhabit a song.

Begley's boldness rests in the breadth of his choices, and a robust Scottish influence filters through The Lough Tae Boat Song and the sublime Will You Go to Flanders.

John Reynolds’s production is at times over- zealous, but guest vocals from Damien Dempsey and Begley’s daughter Meabh are pitch perfect.

Tim Edey’s guitar accompaniment, meanwhile, is sympathetic .

[ irlbigcartel.com ]