Bridget Fitzgerald
Album: Two Sides Of A Coyne
Label: Suspicious Motives
Tracks: 17
Website: http://www.suspiciousmotives.com

Though perhaps best known as a founder member of Cherish The Ladies, Bridget is a pre-eminent exponent of the time-honoured art of sean-nós singing; indeed, although she's made New England her home for the past few decades, she hails from one of the last great sean-nós strongholds, Connemara. And yet it's taken many years for her to make a CD of her own - partly, it must be admitted, due to the perceived unfashionability of sean-nós until relatively recently but also partly due to the unavoidable shelving of her plan to make an album with her close friend, guitarist Carol Barney, due to Carol's untimely death 14 years ago. The recordings made for the original project by Bridget and Carol form the basis of the release, which has finally been completed due to the encouragement and participation of a number of Bridget's friends and the support of a Kickstarter campaign, and forms an affecting tribute to Carol's memory.

Two Sides Of A Coyne (Coyne being Bridget's maiden name, I just found out) presents 17 traditional (or as near as dammit traditional) songs delivered in Bridget's trademark captivating, softly expressive and genuinely felt, lightly decorated styling. Just over half of these are sung in the Irish language: the exceptions being nicely turned renditions of Bonnie Light Horseman, As I Roved Out, The Croppy Boy, The Foggy Dew, Over The Mountain, Dublin In The Rare Old Times and (best of all) the compelling "vision song" Síle Ní Eidhir. The latter is the first of a pair of songs which Bridget sourced from the singing of Cathie Ryan that form centrepiece highlights of the CD, and I kept delaying hearing the remainder of the disc since being so taken with Bridget's enchanting performance of the beautiful lament Carrickdhoun.

On just seven of the songs, Bridget sings unaccompanied, in typically sensitive yet controlled fashion and with brilliant command of nuance and dynamics; of these selections I especially liked Amhrán Mhaoinse, which plaintively voices the singer's wishes regarding arrangements for her own wake and funeral. The instrumentally-accompanied tracks, while closely focused and refreshingly intimate in both conception and execution, also involve contributions from a small handful of extra musician friends - notably some contrasted yet intensely complementary fiddle playing from Pat O'Connor and Hanneke Cassel (models of subtle yet tremendously enhancing accompaniment).

Even while remarking on Carol's loving, caressing guitar embellishments, the gentle winding nature of the all of the instrumental contributions is a key element in the presentation of the songs. There's a piano and flute on Over The Mountain (Sean Clohessy and Shannon Heaton), while John Coyne's bouzouki and some delightful bodhrán (and a fetching duet vocal part) from Máirtín de Cógáin feature on the closer Peigín Leitir Móir. To be sure, we can rejoice now that Bridget has at last got round to completing and releasing this CD; for it's entirely delectable (and hey there, not a suspicious motive in sight!); and it's not just one for the esoteric sean-nos connoisseurs, I'd say.

David Kidman