MARY MCPARTLAN - From Mountain To Mountain
Private Label MCPP003
This crowdfunded production from one of Leitrim’s best known singers is subtitled A Tribute To The Legendary Jean Ritchie and features a galaxy of supporting musicians and singers from the worlds of Irish and Appalachian folk, as well as from jazz and Afro-American music. So the expectations are pretty high.
The tracks that work best are those that follow either the Irish or the Appalachian path, or a blending of both, where Mary’s strong and unmistakable singing is supported and augmented by the likes of Seamie O’Dowd and Cathal Hayden – great stuff.
Mary has described herself as an “experimental innovator” and experiments by definition don’t always produce perfect results; attempts to fuse different musical genres can be risky. Jean Ritchie’s music was characterised by the purity of her singing and her guitar and Appalachian dulcimer accompaniments – classic bluegrass material – and some of the tracks here don’t seem to bear much relationship to the dedication on the cover. The imposition of a jazz regime on songs like Lord Randall and Shady Grove is, in my view, questionable, and the strange percussion on One I Love is disconcerting for the listener, while the Afro-American improvisations often dominate the song rather than commenting on it.
For me, some of the experimental innovations were a step too far. I quite accept that this may well be more of a comment on my personal musical tastes than on the recording itself, but it is a fact that songs that have grown and matured in one musical tradition don’t always sit easily in another. However, if you enjoy a more innovative approach to your music, this could well be just your taste.
www.marymcpartlan.ie
John Waltham
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this CD online from The Listening Post The Listening Post is the CD mailorder service of The Living Tradition magazine. This album was reviewed in Issue 114 of The Living Tradition magazine. |