Karan Casey - Distant Shore
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CD Details
Artist: Karan CaseyEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2003-02-11
Music Label: Shanachie
Soundtracks:
- Distant Shore
- Another Day
- Song of Lies
- The Curra Road
- The Ballad of Tim Evans
- Just a Note
- Lord MacDonald's
- Quiet of the Night
- Bata is Bothar
- The Four Loom Weaver
- The Jute-Mill Song
Music reviews of Distant Shore
Music Review: "So full of hope but prone to grief."
Rating: 5 Stars
Karan Casey, with classical training in Irish music and a huge vocal range, sings Irish traditional songs and contemporary ballads with simple accompaniments, often using traditional Irish instruments--the bodhran, the fiddle, the low whistle, and the concertina--and sometimes including instruments from other countries, the bouzouki from Greece and the berimbao from Brazil. With a light, "innocent," and almost whispery soprano, she imbues her often mournful songs with an honest passion that is rare in contemporary folk singing. In the title song, her choice of accompaniments--the low whistle, the electric bass, and drums--creates such an insistent beat and ominous background that when she plaintively sings of being "washed up on a distant shore," the reader's sympathies are fully engaged.
All of the songs here are laments, tragic narratives, or songs of hard work and the hope of survival, and all are in minor keys. Though some songs are in faster tempos and may have syncopations, these are not "uptempo" in mood. Casey stresses the displacement of the Irish, the poverty, and the need to "stay strong." In various songs she emphasizes a life "full of hope but prone to grief," states that "them that works hardest are the least provided," and says, "We won't worry about the government, worry about the way to go." "The Ballad of Tim Evans" tells about a man executed for murdering his wife and child, though he was innocent. "The Four Loom Weaver" tells of having "nowt to eat...I feel in my heart I'll soon starve." And both "Distant Shore" and "Bata is Bothar" deal with the unhappiness of immigration.
Casey's voice is at its most versatile in "Lord MacDonald's," sung in Gaelic, as in rapid tempo her voice lightly dances up and down her range in a song with few pauses, the Gaelic refrain combining with drums for dramatic power. In the unusual love song "Quiet of the Night," a mournful tune with a double bass, she becomes a person who decides to stay strong, a woman who "love[s] you in my heart because you let me be," a particularly affecting concertina solo adding to the drama. This magnificent voice singing heartbreaking songs reflects the Irish melancholia one so often sees in the country's poets. Here Karan Casey becomes a poet in song. Mary Whipple
Description of Distant Shore
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.The Waterford-born singer Karan Casey has been on a highly personal journey since she left the Irish-American supergroup Solas. Her solo albums, of which this is the third, reveal a questing nature and a deceptively fragile-sounding, vibrato-enhanced soprano. At times, Casey brings the early Dolly Parton to mind, especially when she's essaying modal ballads that recall the Celtic-derived American Appalachian tradition and its tributaries. Her material ranges from Irish and Scottish folkways to modern story songs, many of which deal with immigration and other forms of displacement. The poignant opening tune, composed by British songwriter-activist Billy Bragg, is a meditation about a frightened, uprooted newcomer dealing with homesickness and hostile natives. The sensuous yet coolly ascetic semi-acoustic arrangements feature prominent banjo, fiddle, low whistle, and accordion vamps, plus an atmospheric solo piano. Guest artists Karen Matheson (lead vocals in Capercaillie ), bluegrass singer-mandolinist Tim O'Brien, and American roots player Dirk Powell all make indelible impressions. --Christina Roden
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