Burningboy
Album: The Dark Months EP
Label: Bristlecone Pines
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.burningboymusic.com

Burning Boy is Irish (Co. Laois) singer/songwriter Terry Byrne, and although he's been around the scene since 2006 (even supporting Snowpatrol and Glen Hansard) and has more recently contributed two tracks to a Lemonheads tribute album, The Dark Months is his debut release in his own right. The name Burning Boy may already be familiar to Irish readers from the appearance of one of this EP's songs (Tenderheart) on the Irish compilation album Connect One that made the Irish album charts last year. And it's easy to see the appeal of his music, for the EP's four songs (the fifth track is just a radio edit of the first, Poppies, that's a mere half-minute shorter) draw the listener in with a sound-world that's intimate and comforting, with Terry's guitar cradled in a creative, warm-textured setting that, although largely keyboard-generated, sounds natural and organic.

Terry's wistful lyrics are honest and yes, old-fashioned, and stocked with richly imagined seasonal imagery; the songs offer solace and understanding, and remind us (tho' gently) that we should be thankful for the good times and the better aspects of life - a philosophy with which it's hard to argue, couched in music that's hard not to like.

David Kidman