On her third outing after
Cherish the Ladies
,
Cathie Ryan
throws herself and the rest of her listening public a change-up by forgoing the talents of
Seamus Egan
's production talents in favor of
John McCusker
and the studios of New York for those of the
Rusby
family's in Yorkshire, England. Utilizing the talents of
Kate Rusby
(and engineer
Joe
),
Phil Cunningham
John Doyle
Kris Drever
Iain MacDonald
Lester Simpson
Karine Polwart
, and
Martin Stitt
, with
Michael Aaron
on Hammond B-3 on
Luka Bloom
's
"Wave up to the Shore."
Ryan
moves deeper into the modern
folk
tradition on this recording. She's less exotic in her writing and interpretation, exploring
British folk
as well as the more familiar haunts of her ancestral and modern
Celtic
lineages on tracks like
"Rathlin Island (1847)"
and the heartbreakingly beautiful
"Somewhere Along the Road."
But before any jump to the erroneous conclusion that
's abandoned her rootsy
trademark, one listen to the wooly and sensual
"Raking and Rouging"
Gaelic
suite, which pairs a couple of trad tunes in a haunting, steamy tangle, or the mysterious
"Ta Se 'na La."
The disc closes with
Bloom
's moving, youthful paean to the movement of nature and life (he was only 16 when he wrote it) and
Alan A. Bell
's truly moving
"So Here's to You."
On this song -- and many others here --
's voice carries within its grain all of the poetry melancholy can bear; it is lined with the hint of a hope so subtle, yet affirming, that everything in the lyric cracks, leaving only the ravaged, hunted beauty of a heart that has broken enough times that it can embrace the entire world. Such is
's talent as a singer, and to create the space for that voice to lay these lyrics bare is her talent as an arranger as well. This is
's finest effort yet. ~ Thom Jurek