Tim O'Brien: The Crossing (Alula)
This is the kind of "concept" album that in the wrong hands would be sentimentality on a stick. Bluegrass star Tim O'Brien, however, has that magic touch that enables him to bring together a glittering cast of thousands (well, a dozen or two) and yet make this by force of his musical personality a surprisingly cohesive and satisfying journey to his "roots". With a name like O'Brien, rocket scientists need not apply to work out the country of his great-grandfather. But though O'Brien occasionally (very) plays the returned Yank, for the most part he celebrates his Cavan connections by an inviting, mostly original, selection of song and tune, an equally astute selection of partner (Altan, Paul Brady, Jerry Douglas, Del McCoury, Frankie Gavin, Kathy Mattea and many more) and a series of memorable crossover performances.
By Joe Breen
Tom Russell and Others: The Man from God Knows Where Kirkeleg Kulturverksted/Topic Records
The singing really carries this catchy "folk-opera" song cycle by Tom Russell of Texas (with roots in Tullamore and Norway), themed rawly around chain gangs, massacred indians, and working underdogs who built railroads and God-fearing frontier towns - "American primitive man". Russell's big Cash-style, gasoline-perfumed voice is the centrepiece, with the odd squirt from Eoin O Riabhaigh's pipes, Annbjorg Lien's fiddles, and treated steel guitars. Other singers chime in: Dolores Keane, hoarse but feeling; Iris DeMent's folk-country voice that would splinter ice; Kari Bremnes, just as keen; the urgent old-time yawl of Dave Van Ronk; the Norwegian sean nos of Sondre Bratland; even Walt Whitman sampled from beyond the grave. Not my normal bag, but I'm impressed - and moved.
By Mic Moroney