Name: The Old Simplicity *
Brand: Naxos of America Inc.
SKU: 243521
Price: 15.51 USD
Availability: InStock

The Old Simplicity *

Rating

Album: The Old Simplicity *
#	Song Title		Time
1)	1917 (The French Prostitute)	More Info...	0:04
2)	Poor Irish Stranger	More Info...	0:06
3)	Cumha an Ghrá	More Info...	0:02
4)	Ye Rambling Boys of Pleasure	More Info...	0:03
5)	No Half Measures (The Song of the Drinking Man's Wife)	More Info...	0:04
6)	No Telling	More Info...	0:05
7)	The Old Simplicity	More Info...	0:04
8)	John Condon	More Info...	0:04
9)	Moll and Poll Ha'Penny	More Info...	0:04
10)	Blue Murder	More Info...	0:02
11)	He Fades Away	More Info...	0:04
12)	Long Cookstown (Nancy Whiskey)	More Info...	0:02
13)	The Peddler	More Info...	0:02
14)	The Men That God Made Mad	More Info...	0:04

Album: The Old Simplicity *
#	Song Title		Time
1)	1917 (The French Prostitute)	More Info...	0:04
2)	Poor Irish Stranger	More Info...	0:06
3)	Cumha an Ghrá	More Info...	0:02
4)	Ye Rambling Boys of Pleasure	More Info...	0:03
5)	No Half Measures (The Song of the Drinking Man's Wife)	More Info...	0:04
6)	No Telling	More Info...	0:05
7)	The Old Simplicity	More Info...	0:04
8)	John Condon	More Info...	0:04
9)	Moll and Poll Ha'Penny	More Info...	0:04
10)	Blue Murder	More Info...	0:02
11)	He Fades Away	More Info...	0:04
12)	Long Cookstown (Nancy Whiskey)	More Info...	0:02
13)	The Peddler	More Info...	0:02
14)	The Men That God Made Mad	More Info...	0:04

Performer Notes

Composer: Graham Dunne.
Personnel: Niamh Parsons (vocals); Niamh Parsons; Kat Eggleston (vocals); Graham Dunne, Graham Dunne (guitar); Steve Gibons (violin); Liz Knowles (fiddle); John Williams & the Tick Tocks (accordion); John Williams (concertina); Dennis Cahill (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin).
Recording information: Lakeside Media, Chicago, IL.
Photographer: Dennis Cahill.
Arrangers: Niamh Parsons; Dennis Cahill; Graham Dunne.
On her first offering in nearly four years, Niamh (pronounced "Neeve") Parsons delivers her most powerful and serious recording yet. Her voice is singular, a trademark, much like Linda Thompson's -- and in fact Parsons covers the latter's "No Telling" here. She revisits the amorous territory of 2002's Heart's Desire but juxtaposes it against songs of war, aging, and injustice. Parsons' producer is Dennis Cahill once again, and Graham Dunne remains her guitarist and musical foil. The traditional material here -- "Poor Irish Stranger," "Moll and Poll Ha'Penny," and "Long Cookstown" -- is given new and bracing arrangement without the loss of Parsons' sensitivity toward history. Her readings are full of empathy and reverence, but extend it for modern listeners. Of the new songs, the set opener, "1917" by David Olney, is startlingly beautiful. It's a reality-based love song about a drunken, broken soldier on leave, told from the perspective of a woman who has seen many. It's a song about both love and war, illustrated out of space and time by Parsons' hunted vocal. Alistair Hulett contributes three songs to this set, all of them heartbreakers, but none as devastating as "No Half Measures," a supposedly true account of a woman who wrote the details in a letter to an Australian newspaper. This is the kind of love song that offers the surrender to helplessness as the only way to salvage memory from a relationship. The reading of "John Condon," here arranged by Dunne, is one of the great war songs that asks the eternal question: why? The Old Simplicity is dignified and burns its passion quietly like a smoldering fire. There's poetry in here, and tragedy and defeat, and above all empathy and love. Highly recommended. ~ Thom Jurek

Professional Reviews

Dirty Linen (p.92) - "Parsons' pace rarely varies from a stately stroll, and she seems to savor and shape every syllable she sings."