Post Description

Folk, singer-songwriter. 

Ik zou haar in één adem willen noemen met Mary Black, Lisa Hannigan en Eleanor McEvoy, en dat doe ik niet zo maar. Absoluut toptalent. 

Linda Moylan is a singer with a wide and remarkable talent.  She’s a writer of perfectly-formed and thoughtful songs that often delve deeply into her own life experiences.  She’s also a specialist in interpreting traditional and well-known songs in a way that convinces you that you’re hearing the definitive version of the song for the first time.  Best of all, she’s the owner of a unique, vivid and absolutely alluring voice that’s capable of taking a multiplicity of forms, from the sultry, the bluesy, the smoky to the unbelievably sweet – often during the same song.

She’s originally from Waterford in the south-east of Ireland and she moved, with her family, to East London during the 1980s and The Fool is a reflection of her life and her experiences, growing up whilst East London steadily gentrified during her formative years and a eulogy to the resilience of the working class, immigrant experience.

Once again, Linda has surrounded herself with a plethora of hand-picked musicians to help make The Fool such a satisfying listening experience.  Ian Montague, one of Linda’s favoured co-writers, is everywhere, contributing acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, mandola, nylon string guitar, percussion, backing vocals and (even) brandy glass; Phil Beer (who produced The Merchant) is back, playing violin on one track and other musicians who play a starring role on The Fool include Greg Ireland (accordion), Matthew Mason (drums and percussion), Rebecca Mileham (violin) and Rob Bartlitz (piano).  And, this time around, Linda has taken the plunge and stepped up to the producer’s plate, along with Mark Estall and Ian Montague.  All-in-all, the team have done a wonderful job.

The Fool gets off to an easy-swinging start with Irish Love Song, the lead single.  Linda wears her Irish heritage on her sleeve or, perhaps even more visibly, across her forehead, as she delivers a characteristically shimmering vocal that, despite the brightness and jauntiness of the tune, exposes a vulnerability that makes the listener hope that she’s OK.  Ian’s bass is solid and Greg’s accordion provides the drive to this breezy opening track.

Linda regularly cites Sandy Denny as a major influence upon her music and nowhere is that influence more evident than with Burn Me Blue, an early album highlight.  Greg’s accordion remains in evidence, but it’s Ian’s acoustic guitar that takes centre-stage – alongside (of course) Linda’s divine vocal – on a mini-epic of a song.  Things take a turn for the happy-go-lucky with the good-time blues of Winter Lights.  Matthew’s drums are nice and shuffly and the harmony vocals are the perfect foil for yet another shudder-inducing lead vocal from Linda.

The sound is pared-back a little for the delightful Shadowboxing, another of the album’s real highlights.  Rob’s piano and Phil Beer’s violin provide the sparse backing but it’s Matthew’s percussion that, perhaps, elevates the ranking of this gentle song from (merely) good to (simply) stunning, and Linda’s voice conveys as much passion and drama as I’ve ever heard her commit to.

Linda confronts her ‘newcomer to London’ status in the most joyful way possible in the bright, bouncy, Hide Me London.  Helped along by Matthew’s compulsive drum rhythm, Greg’s accordion takes the lead in establishing a party mood – a mood into which Linda only partially indulges as, alternately celebratory and angry, she declares “I’m a long way from home.”  And, I guess, she means that in the figurative sense as well as literally.  Written with old friend Chris Wyatt, the gentle Roaming sounds particularly thoughtful after all-out hedonism of Hide Me London, and it’s a contrast that works.  Piano, soft violin and ponderous bass are all that’s needed as Linda confides “All I have, I’m roaming.”

There’s something of a nostalgic feel to the sumptuous Dutch Houses.  A solid, deliberate, rhythm and some dreamy violin from Rebecca provides the backing to the warmest of vocals from Linda and I was left wondering as I considered her lyrics – “Is she recalling her own past?” 

Next, come a couple more highlights.  Singing to the accompaniment of just Ian Montague’s acoustic guitar, Linda sounds like she’s performing the intimate and folky, The Little I Have, for you, and you alone.  It’s a beautiful song, with an atmospheric, late 60s post-psychedelic feel, a feel that is retained for the equally-charming Venus in the Dirt.  Rebecca’s violin and Ian’s electric guitar add a sinister edge to a tasty chunk of subtle folk-rock.

Matthew Mason’s military snare completes the elegiac mood of the slow-building, anthemic Ancient Truth before we come to the song that is, for me, the album’s real revelation.  I’ve already mentioned Linda’s talent for taking hold of a well-known song, totally owning it, and forcing even those to whom the song is absolutely familiar to believe that they’re hearing the definitive version.  That’s exactly the treatment that she gives to her evocative, heartfelt, interpretation of Eric Bogle’s The Green Fields of France.  Linda seems to be assuming the role of the song’s bereaved sweetheart as she delivers Bogle’s devastating lyrics and Ian Montague’s electric guitar – the only instrumentation required to give the song an authentic funereal feel – just adds to the Ypres, 1915 imagery.  Lines like “But here in this graveyard, it’s still no-man’s land, the countless white crosses stand mute in the sand, to man’s blind indifference to his fellow man, to a whole generation that were butchered and damned” are sung with passion and genuine feeling and the intensity builds as the song reaches its climax.  It’s a wonderful way to round off an excellent album.

Tracks:
01. Irish Love Song
02. Burn Me Blue
03. Winter Lights
04. Shadowboxing
05. Hide Me London
06. Roaming
07. Dutch Houses
08. The Little I Have
09. Venus In The Dirt
10. Ancient Truth
11. Green Fields Of France

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRYuX_zAi2Q