Distant Shore

Karan is one of those Irish women that God has blessed with a voice that can stop a concert hall crowd dead in their tracks.To use an old cliche, Karan Casey has a voice like an angel- except that this angel is really hip and has a powerful and compelling social conscience! Although the overall feel is deeply traditional, the whole album has a completely modern esthetic.

Her band is great. And Dirk Powell adds understated but effective banjo on several tracks. Tim O'Brien contributes outstanding vocals and mandolin.

Both of them are featured on Karan's version of Tim's song "Another Day ". It's simply the most profound and compelling song that I've heard in many years.

A great project- thoughtful and moving.

Karan Casey's second solo album since moving on from the group Solas is a haunting, insinuating addition to your Celtic library.

It's deceptively quiet, even the Billy Bragg title song, which is a heartfelt ballad of homesickness in the person of an immigrant-- "washed up on a distant shore, can't go home anymore"-- with a lilting, soothing melody. Her inflections are subtle but powerful, so that when she adds on a trill or a grace note it changes the whole meaning of a phrase.

For this album, Karan included guest artists from scottish gaelic tradition (Karen Matheson from Capercaillie, for one) and Tim O'Brien from American bluegrass. It all blends into an album that has an overall mood of wistfulness.

What is deceptive is that many of the songs are in fact peppy and upbeat. "The Ballad of Tim Evans," for example, seems at first another ballad of a criminal, but the chorus "go down, you murderer" sneaks under your skin and stays there. The point-of-view is anti-death penalty but it's quiet enough to let you make up your mind, and the use of an electric piano in the background gives the tune an odd, jazzy, modern feeling.

Karan's voice is instantly recognizable and unforgettable, while powerful it has a girlish quality like Nanci Griffith's that lend all the songs, even the happy ones, a sense that we are just a step away from heartbreak.

There are some wonderful new songs on this album-- "The Curra Road" is a lovely pastoral bit of nostalgia from Ger Wolfe, and one of my personal favorites is Karan's own composition "The Quiet of the Night," an odd love song whose chorus says "I love you in my heart, because you let me be."

But in this busy world, that is as strong praise as any I've ever heard, and combined with the pensive, minor-key melody, it creates a beautiful mood of peace and determination.

"The Four-loom weaver" is one of the fastest songs on the album-- it may be about a man on the brink of starvation, but the melody is quick-- conveying anger and despair at once-- and it's just a great tune.

No, this is not the same kind of "pub music" you may have heard with some of Solas, but it has a gorgeous purity that makes it a must for any follower of Celtic music.

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