Irish icon delivers yet another album of meaningful observation and storytelling.
Songwriter, folk singer, guitarist, poet, social commentator, Irish republican, and Ireland’s greatest living musician (People of the Year Awards 2007), so, a living legend. Which makes it all the more difficult to critique Christy Moore and his new album, “A Terrible Beauty”, his thirty-seventh including six live albums and six with his first band, Planxty, in a recording career dating back to 1969.
His early life revolved around drinking (and many of his songs have been about drinking from a variety of angles) – it led to serious health problems associated with alcoholism and then heart problems which caused him to slow down. It did not however blunt his instrument, an acerbic wit underpinning sharp commentary of global events and as a chronicler of sinister events in Ireland past and present.
And the other instrument is his voice, a warm, comforting and mesmerizing voice (even when he speaks his songs) that draws you under his spell until you are hit with the ferocity and hard-hitting intensity of some of his lyrics – not so many his, it has to be said, but chosen from a selection of poets and songwriters whose world view partly shapes his own, or is at least in sync with his own.
And so, his thirty-seventh album has a double-edged but essentially contemporary title, and is taken from the artist Martin Gale’s stunning painting, which forms the cover for the album. The content is what you have come to expect from Moore, a varied selection of beautifully recorded and played songs, largely wrapped around Moore’s lovely acoustic guitar, enhanced with bodhran, piano, banjo, organ, second guitar and mild percussion. The album kicks off with ‘Boy in the Wild‘, a song part-written by the talented Wally Page (who died in 2022) and finished by Moore after his death. It’s a fine opening track, as slow and as warm as any Moore song. It’s followed by a remarkable track, to a piano backing, the spoken poem ‘Sunflowers‘, by Mike Harding, about life in Ukraine after Putin’s invasion. You can’t help but be moved by Moore’s reading of this poem.
Track three is Briany Brannigan’s rather dark ‘Black and Amber‘, sung acapella with Andy Moore on harmony, about the effects of drinking on the family environment. Briany Brannigan contributes the next track ‘Lemon Sevens‘, a heartbreaking and tragic story (life on the streets for some) that Moore excels at interpreting. Later in the album are two more heartrending tales, the first ‘The Life and Soul’, the history of Ann Lovett, a fifteen-year-old Irish girl who died in childbirth in a field, a death that caused a furore in Ireland and much debate about extra-marital pregnancy and birth. The song is spoken and topped and tailed with a jaunty little Irish jig, reflecting the song’s title. The second is ‘Lyra McKee‘, about a journalist who was shot and killed during a riot in Derry. And the sadness continues with ‘Darkness before the Dawn‘, about the firebombing and killing of the Doran Family in 1921 – this was written by Pete Kavanaugh, but it’s interpretation by Moore is a continuation of his mantra – “it is good to sing for people who don’t have a voice”.
More global politics and observation comes in the form of ‘Palestine’, a stunning song by Jim Page, that Moore altered slightly with permission, observations about the Arab/Israeli encounter, which pre-dated any of the current conflict, though is remarkably pertinent today. Whichever side of the Middle East issue you reside in, this is a very moving summation of the issues that exist in that war zone. The closing tune ‘Snowflakes‘ is sung acapella and addresses unseen and unaccountable social media trolls, another song that More has borrowed, this one from Martin Leahy.
You can’t help but be drawn in by Moore’s acute observations, ones that he has been making for well over half a century and although this album follows a similar path to many of his previous releases, both in content and production, you have to acknowledge his continued masterful storytelling ability and the way his voice seduces the listener. His Lifetime Achievement Award from RTE in 2021 was well deserved, and this album just adds to a rather compelling body of work.
