Brendan Monaghan
Album: Lovers Always Win
Label: Brambus
Tracks: 17
Website: http://www.brendanmonaghan.com

With a career spanning five albums, the 'Lovers Always Win' (or 'lovers always win' - as he seems to like the use of lower casing) comes as a retrospective collection from the 2003-5 period. Featuring songs from his early work it gives a pretty honest flavour of the road Brendan has travelled receiving enthusiastic reviews and recommendations from the country folk community.

With a small band of players as backup musicians, it the vocals, guitar and songwriting of Brendan Monaghan which are the telling factors. The seventeen songs weighing in at just an hour, including an extended version of 'The One I Left Behind' (or 'the one I left behind'), come across as untroubled and affable listening. Writer Tim Carroll has probably hit the nail on the head with his "nothing outrageous, nothing extravagant" claim which really sums up Brendan Monaghan in four words. In fact he fits more than comfortably in the homely entertainer category with his country leanings.

The occasional use of cello adds to the smooth and calm effect in the songs of home - '3.45 Amsterdam Train' recalls the longing for home and returning to the roots of the homeland, while there are the almost inevitable strains of fiddle and whistle which recall the Irish stock at the centre of the material.

The melancholy mixes with the lively and more uptempo - 'Let It Breathe' moving into 'Off The Rails' being a typical segue showing the shift from languid ballad to foot tappers and knee slappers. The threat to go all Dubliners at the start of 'The Road To Ballintra' doesn't materialise while there's the seasonal single in 'The Snow Fell Down' (apologies at this point, but the use of lower case of the text on the sleeve will begin to grate at some time for the more pedantic listeners). It's a seasonally sounding effort, although painting a more dejected scene lyrically ("drunken men with their hollow words….she told them that Christmas would be better this year.…there was going to be uncertainty"). Perhaps not up there with the Christmas joys of Sir Cliff and Slade, it runs out of steam and slides to a slow fade just when you feel there may be some chance of hope.

Whilst Brendan Monaghan remains as one of those names who may get overlooked alongside the more accepted folk musicians and songwriters who take the headlines, he continues to fill a gap for those who enjoy their music along the straight and narrow.

Mike Ainscoe