Roots

Roots CDs reviewed

GER WOLFE

No Bird Sang

Raggedy Records***

I would be telling an untruth to say that I know well Ger Wolfe’s work, but I have long admired the Corkman’s singular approach to making music, his unrelenting attachment to place and culture, and his determination to say something in a song. There’s a remarkable intensity to the performance of his self-penned songs, heightened here by the skeletal accompaniment of essentially his acoustic guitar under the direction of producer Peadar O’Riada. However, the almost mournful tone of Wolfe’s voice demands a lot of the listener over the course of an album. That said, his lyrics – rich, thoughtful and intriguing – rarely fail to transport the careful listener to another place. The title track, presumably about the A-bomb attack on Japan, is typical of Wolfe’s pastoral poetic style, while his adherence to his Cork accent shows him to be an artist true to his roots.www.gerwolfe. com

Download tracks:No Bird Sang, The Grey Crow

ERROL WALSH

No Borders 

Privately issued ****

People of a certain age may remember Errol Walsh with affection. Certainly, his band Stagalee was a pathfinder for Americana in Ireland years before that term was adopted as an umbrella title to cover the many shades of American roots music. As such, this privately recorded CD has a strong pedigree, but even so the quality of the songs, the playing and Walsh's sonorous, lived-in voice are a welcome surprise. No Borders, which is available only from his website (to help maximise the funds he can raise for the Huntington's Disease Association of Northern Ireland, for which he is development officer), has the kind of unhurried charm and honest, unashamed emotion that bigger spenders would love to create. Walsh and friends such as Clive Culbertson sally down the alt.country road with assurance, deftly handling the difficult issue of a song for his stepdaughter Rachel, who suffers from Huntington's, the neuro-degenerative illness. This is an album that should be supported; but it helps that it is so good. www.errolwalsh.co.uk

Download tracks:Gone to Hell, Wedding at Joshua Tree