Cara Dillon

• Year: 2001
• Rating: 8/10
• Cat. No: RTRADECD019

Track listing:

1. Black Is The Colour
2. Donald Of Glencoe
3. Craigie Hill
4. Green Grows The Laurel
5. Lark In The Clear Air
6. The Lonesome Scenes Of Winter
7. Blue Mountain River
8. I Wish I Was
9. The Maid Of Culmore
10. She’s Like The Swallow
11. I Am A Youth That’s Inclined To Ramble

One of the most notable winners at the 2002 Irish Music Awards was petite singer Cara Dillon, for her album of traditional folk songs given a respectful but modern treatment. That’s modern as in straightforward piano/guitar/string format, not trip-hop rhythms and sampling… for this album is a pure and beautiful thing. Timeless, in a similar way to the hugely successful Songbird album from the late Eva Cassidy, and transcending all preconceived notions of stereotypical Irish folk music.

In the mid-1990s, some of the earliest tracks by The Corrs touched upon a similar magic, before they forsook the more ethereal elements of their sound in pursuit of global domination. Here, though, Cara Dillon – her sweet vocals slightly reminiscent of Andrea Corr – goes the whole nine yards in bringing the qualities of this genre into the contemporary mainstream virtually undiluted. Yes, it’s prettily done, with few rough-hewn edges or harsh textures, but any admirer of the largely piano-based works of singer-songwriters from Joni Mitchell through to Tori Amos by way of Kate Bush will find much to savour in these 11 tracks.

Black Is The Colour – so memorably performed at the aforementioned awards show earlier this year – is an undoubted highlight, a haunting, glistening dark pool of a song that’s marginally more intense than anything else here, although Green Grows The Laurel, She’s Like The Swallow and Blue Mountain River are not far behind.

Cara Dillon’s lightness of touch brings a fresh spin to material with a long and established history. As an antidote to manufactured, overhyped and largely generic 21st Century pop and rock, it’s nigh on unbeatable.