Clare People Interactive

After two years touring Europe David Hope is back with a new band and a new EP. Andrew Hamilton caught up with the Shannon singer songwriter and found out what it takes to be big in Germany.

There’s something about the Irish sound that make the German stand up and take notice. More than that in fact, there is something about the music of the west, and Clare in particular. From the days when the Russell brothers were as famous in Dusseldorf as the were in Doolin, the German have always latched onto something in the music of Clare and taken it for their own. And so it remains.
The latest in this long line of musicians is Shannon singer songwriter David Hope. After releasing his debut album ‘A Picture’ in 2007 - things seemed to go a bit quiet for the Shannon singer songwriter. This proceeded quietness in Ireland was brought about by his explosion in his popularity in Europe and Germany in particular. Something which may have had some influence on his latest EP - ‘Daybreak Someplace’.
“I’m not sure if it has or it hasn’t. It’s hard to know what exactly can sneak in and influence you subconsciously level. Stylistically I don’t think that it has really influenced me. The new CD is a little bit more rootsie, a more American kind of song than the first album had - which had a more Irish feel to it. I still like that element and I wouldn’t say that I have changed things too much since I’ve been touring so much over in Germany. I guess the reason that I have been over there so much is that they like what I do and that reinforces it with me…

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Martha Wainwright
Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: the Piaf Record.
Co-op
8/10

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There isn’t much that Martha Wainwright could do that I wouldn’t like - you might want to keep that in mind as you read this review.
So, after the brother gave Judy Garland the old Wainwright treatment back in 2007, it is perhaps not surprising that Martha would follow the pattern with a live tribute to Édith Piaf.
This live album, released last week, is simply dripping with charisma, passion and atmosphere.
But how do these versions compare to the originals? Sadly, and to my great shame, I have few point of reference connecting me to the French diva and besides a few passing glances in the direction of Non, je ne Regrette Rien (that’s, No Regrets to you and I), she is somewhat of a mystery to me.
But, as I said before, there isn’t much that Martha Wainwright could do that I wouldn’t like and this certianly does not fit that category. She was, and remains, simply captivating.
Andrew Hamilton

Nirvana
Live at Reading
UMe/Geffen
9/10

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Probably the most bootlegged, swapped, illegally copied and downloaded live performance of all time - Nirvana live at Reading is a masterpiece of modern live music and possibly the pinnacle from which grunge would slowly recede.
Yet strangely concert probably never shouldn’t have happened at all. At this point in his life Kurt Cobain had just been in and out of rehab but was still openly abusing heroine - and of which led to a rumour just before the Reading Festival that he was back in hospital after an overdose.
This only added to the crowd excitement as Nirvana, at the very heights of it’s musical powers, played a stonking 25 song set.
Finally officially released in is it’s entirety, Live at Reading is fantastic - a document to a band who shaped more of modern music than they will ever get credit for.
While the band’s Live in New York record may have been adopted by fans after Cobain’s death - this record is a much much truer celebration of the band that was - it’s all it’s furious and frenzied glory.
Andrew Hamilton

Sharon Shannon
Saints and Scoundrels
Claddagh Records
9/10

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Say what you like about Sharon Shannon, but she is never ever boring. Saints and Scoundrels is the eight studio album released by the Ruan superstar, and by all accounts it’s one of her most expansive and exciting to date.
For this album Shannon has pulled together a collection of Ireland best voices with the likes of Shane McGowan, Mike Scott, Imelda May and Jerry Fish all lending their considerable talents to the cause.
Equally impressive however, are the acoustic number with songs like Howya Horse? and The Wild West Wagon Train threatening to upstage the vocalists.
This is a drunken barn-dance of an album - fast, frantic and almost impossible not to dance to, it’s the perfect antidote to the early night and the gathering winter cold.
The record closes with a perfect amalgimation of The Pogues’ Rake The Gates of Hell and The Scoundrel’s Halo - one last rush of sunshine to bring the session to a close.
Andrew Hamilton

After 12 months on the high seas, Lisa Hannigan is coming home. Ahead of her gig in Glór next week, Andrew Hamilton caught up with the Mercury Prize nominee and got a sneak preview of the new songs just on the horizon.

One album, two American tours, three times round the UK and right around Ireland more times than she can count - the last year has been an amazing voyage for Lisa Hannigan. With her debut record Sea Sew captured the hearts of fans and critics alike, the Meath singer songwriter has finally found her own place in the son - far from the reach of Damien Rice’s ever shrinking shadow.
But now, after living and breathing the album for more than a year, the temptation to move on to newer pastures grows ever stronger.
“It’s exciting. I have a few songs done and we are playing them all live at the moment. I definitely wanted to play them live for awhile before we record it. As soon as I write a new song I want to play it live straight away. So we have been doing a bit of that and I think in January I’ll just hunker down and do some serious writing for the next album. I’ve got a good few done but I have a long way to go yet…

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Enya
The Very Best of Enya
Warner
7/10

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The last time I review an Enya album - almost a year ago to the day as it happens - I received a three page letter of complaint all the way from France from a wounded fan with a bone to pick.
This wasn’t your usual letter of complaint mind. I wasn’t called anything nasty, there were no four letter words used (in English or in French) and my manhood was not once called into question.
Instead, my French friend Etienne laid out a number of reasoned and perfectly sane reasons why I might reconsider my opinion.
And while my opinion hasn’t changed, I still that Enya is really really good elevator music, with little or no substance - I am now at least open to the possibility that I just don’t get it.
So the very least I can say about Enya’s Best Of, due for release later this month, is that it is relaxing. More than that songs like Orinoco Flow, Storms in Africa and Caribbean Blue will pull at the nostalgia part of your brain and remind you of the 1980’s - when we were all poor but strangely happy.
Andrew Hamilton

Mick Hanly
Mick Hanly Collected
Doghouse Songs Limited
7/10

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This month has already seen the release of a near avalanche of Irish Best Of records - each promising to be a stepping stone for the musician involved and not a swan song. In the case of Mick Hanly I’d tend to believe it.
After 35 years of writing, recording and touring the likelihood is that the former Moving Heart’s front-man will be dragged from the stage only to the grave, and not a minute before.
Mick Hanly Collected is a selection of some of Hanly’s best songs from the three decades. Some standout tracks include a live version of Damaged Halo, an epic six minute version of I Feel I Should Be Calling You and another live recording, this time a great version of the anthemic Past The Point of Rescue.
Indeed the live recordings on this album all work a treat. Complete with the odd crowd sing-along, these songs are a pint of stout away from actually being there.
Hanly alongside Arty McGlynn will be in the Market House in Miltown Malbay to launch this album on Friday, November 20.
Andrew Hamilton

What started as a way to make friends with his younger brother has now morfed into a new and exciting musical adventure. Andrew Hamilton chats to Eoin Ó Súilleabháin, son of Mícheál, brother of Moley and one half of Size2Shoes.

It’s funny. They say that no news is good news, but in the newspaper business, good news really isn’t news at all. The same, some might say, could be said for the world of art and music.
From Cobain to Cohen, Morrissey to Joy Division the overwhelming majority of musicians have a huge leaning to the darker side of the tracks. The reasons are this are many - some write to confess, others to protest but the single greatest reason - according to page 23 of the rock and roll bible, is that is it simply much more difficult to write great happy songs.
Limerick band, Size2Shoes, are looking to re-write this particular piece of music lore. Sons of music legend Mícheál Súilleabháin - Eoin and Moley - have began a campaign of putting a smile back on music’s face.
“I guess it was always the voices that we were interested in. The music that we would have listened to growing up was always driven by the music and something that we could sing along to. Like the two of us are huge fans of Michael Jackson and we just saw the This Is It movie last night. Things like that have always blown us away and it’s always what we wanted to go. It’s something that we really think attracts people and turns people on…

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Mugger Dave
Crawl Up
Self Released
8/10

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There is something so immediately likable about Mugger Dave. I’ve been struggling to put my finger on exactly what that is since the Galway alt rockers first pick up a guitar in anger more than two years ago and now I think I have finally cracked it.
I’m not sure if they’d enjoy the comparison or not but they remind me so much of an early Supergrass, right around the release of I Should Coco. It’s about the energy, the tunefulness and the atmosphere - but mostly it’s about writing songs at about 2,000 miles an hour.
Crawl Up is the third EP from the three piece and I’m sure I’m not the only out there who is about ready for an album thank you very much. The EP’s title track is radio gold - and about as close to an Irish pop-rock anthem as I have heard this year.
The EP is completed by The Stranger - another catchy track with the fast becoming signature vocal harmonies and a little whistling thrown in for good measure.
Andrew Hamilton

Mail Order Messiahs
Plain
Self Released
8/10

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Don’t be put off by the fact that this album probably wont get a spin on mainstream radio - at least not before midnight - this is a really tasty record.
Having set a high bar for themselves with their 2008 Par Avion EP, this album delivers on that early promise and them some. Par Avion was packed with methodically crafted electro pop - this is all but with an added edge that is both neck grabbing and a little scary.
The album opens with Buddy, a song as tuneful as is it dark, featuring samples of all those annoying noises that a computer makes whenever it decides that it wont do what you are asking it to. Beautifully eerie, it opens the album like a swift kick to the belly (in a good way).
Combine this with Rusty’s Last Stand - a song equally as eerie and maybe a little more aggressive - and the scene has been set for a seriously interesting record.
The album mellows a bit as it goes, with fan favorites such as Plain, Fluid Floe and Caffeine Dreams but by and large it keeps the level of intensity right up there for a full 40 minutes.
Andrew Hamilton