ROOTS

Latest CD releases reviewed

MARIA MCKEE
Peddlin' Dreams Cooking Vinyl
***

I have a very fond memory of Maria McKee, voice electric, leading the exuberant Lone Justice in support to U2 at that band's first Madison Square Garden gig too long ago. Today she continues to sing with passion and intensity of a life in a somewhat slower lane, aided and abetted by Jim Akin, her partner, musical and otherwise. The duo's songs, which make up the bulk of this intentionally rough-edged but enjoyable collection (her sixth as a solo artist), are varied expressions of the Americana genre, from the stirring Gospel-ish title track to the folky opener, Seasons of the Fair, from the reflective Sullen Soul, with its ringing guitar motif, to the swinging country pop of You Don't Know How Glad I Am. They return to Ireland for gigs on June 26th-28th at Spring & Airbrake, Belfast; Cuba, Galway; and Whelan's, Dublin. www.mariamckee.com

Joe Breen

CAROLINE MOREAU
Paris Is Burning Circular Records
****

Timeless and unapologetically contemporary, Caroline Moreau's music belongs to another time and yet manages to root itself in the present with a rare vitality. She's been whetting her audience's appetite for a collection such as this since her live debut in 2000. Moreau is French born, but she's as comfortable tackling the melodrama of Astor Piazzolla's Balada Para Mi Muerte as she is negotiating the intricacies of Charles Aznavour's Deux Guitares and Serge Gainsbourg's Acccordéon. Her voice is that perfectly pitched combination of French sultryness and quintessentially European insouciance. Her partnership with violinist, guitarist and producer Oleg Ponomarev is fired by a shared appetite for wicked invention and reinvention, which reaches its zenith in her magnificent reading of Barbara's Nantes. Debuts don't come much more accomplished than this. www.carolinemoreau.com

Siobhán Long