It’s always a thrill when you get in on an artist right at the start of their career, and are able to follow their progress over years. One such (for your writer) is Ireland’s Noelie McDonnell, first encountered when he supported the Saw Doctors on a UK tour back in 2005. Having only recently been introduced to the Saw Doctors themselves (and having fallen deeply for their emotionally uplifting, 60s tinged folk rock sing-alongs), it was enough to know that we were going to see a live band who were still absolutely at their height.
What a treat, then to find that the support was a tousle haired youth, jumping between piano and acoustic guitar, and backed with a tight little rhythm section, all three of them looking like they were having the best time of their lives, a joyous vibe soon picked up and appreciated by a raucous audience. So, in time-honoured fashion, straight to the merch table in the gap between bands to pick up his debut album. Which once we got home, seldom left the turntable for the next two years (and still gets played today). Absolutely packed with songs which were alternately celebratory and yearning, full of verve and packed with melody, and with all the hope of youth and none of the ennui.
Opening track ‘Stars’ sets the scene:- a rapid tempo with a thrilling squall of harmonica, acoustic and electric guitars chiming, all leading to a fantastically catchy chorus. It has ‘live favourite’ written all over it, and there’s a joyous clip on YouTube from a Galway concert that captures the essence. It was the song that initially caught the ear of the radio playlists, and no wonder. Similarly, ‘Marrakech’ became something of a radio song, with its nice mid-60’s groove and subtle melody.
There were some slow burners, too, and ‘Easy On Me’ and particularly ‘Roundstone’ had a yearning quality that would ensure they would last in the listener’s memory, both capturing a very personal feel. Rounding off with a beautifully delicate love song’, ‘Marguerite’, it was a really wonderful debut.
Follow up “Beyond Hard Places” took the folkier, more fragile parts of McDonnell’s debut and expanded on them. There are just two up-tempo numbers on the album, and they are the first two tracks: the hooky ‘Feet First’ and the edgier ‘Broken Dishes’. It’s almost as if McDonnell wanted to get them out of the way, before getting to the real heart of the record.
‘Moths’, track number three, is a really beautiful song of the fragility and anxiety that comes with a new blossoming relationship. “We are equally attracted to, and blinded by the light / so I’ll meet you in the darkest corner / and let the moon be the only thing to guide us tonight / to truth, through love and honour … we’re only trying to do the right thing / like moths colliding”. Wrapped in a natural melody, it’s a song of rare beauty. Plenty more follow – indeed, there are no duds at all. The poignant lyricism of ‘Dominick Street’, the gossamer light of ‘There You Go’ and ‘If I Need Your Arms’, the warm glow of closing tracks ‘Take the Evening Slow’ and ‘You’ll Find Me There’. Not to mention the radio hit of ‘Nearly Four’, written from the perspective of a three year old, full of joy and bravado, and no little humour (“I’m Batman and I’m Spiderman / I’m a pirate through and through / I knew all of the alphabet / way back when I was two”).
It’s a gorgeous record, full of subtle, inviting story telling, and for anyone who enjoyed early Paul Simon songs like ‘Bleecker Street’, ‘Kathy’s Song’ or ‘Homeward Bound’, or the more up to date likes of Madison Violet, Ruth Moody or the Tallest Man on Earth, there’s likely to be plenty to entice you.
McDonnell’s third, and to date last, solo album, came in 2009, in the form of “Come Alive”. It sounds a little more produced, a little more mature, and possibly a little less assured than the two that came before. This may have been a natural progression in itself – ‘the difficult third album’. There is still plenty to enjoy, plenty of fine songwriting, and some fine ensemble playing on show.
The anthemic ‘Knowing’ seems to touch on some personal truths. “I’ll celebrate you, I’ll remember for a while / you made me smile / then I’ll go on without you”. It felt like it was a goodbye, or at least an au revoir, and this feeling only seemed to be reinforced by final track ‘Disappear’ (“where did you go? I thought you were still here… Did you just disappear?”)
McDonnell joined short lived Irish ‘supergroup’ The Cabin Collective after this, reworking ‘Marrakech’ with them, and participating in the highly enjoyable project with members of the Saw Doctors and the Waterboys also onboard.
In 2012, the first fruits of a new band appeared, as McDonnell joined forces with fellow singer songwriters Noriana Kennedy and Nicola Joyce, to form The Whileaways. What initially seemed fated to be another short lived project, in fact has come to be an established musical entity. The Whileaways have now released four albums to date, and have toured widely to significant acclaim, performing their own music, and also putting together the ‘Bird on the Wire’ show with Patricia Scanlon, a live tribute to the songs of Leonard Cohen, and featuring a large band of musicians.
Recently, McDonnell has also become a regular member of the Saw Doctors band, coming full circle and keeping him in touch with his Tuam roots. His own albums, though, remain a testament to a warm and empathic songwriter, full of charm and verve. They are undeniably difficult to find, having been self released on his own label in the noughties, being too early to appear on iTunes and Spotify, and with little sign of them on Soundcloud or YouTube either. Nonetheless, search them out if you can, for there are musical gifts aplenty within.
