Cathy Jordan
Album: All The Way Home
Label: Blix Street
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.cathyjordan.com

Gentle , plucked guitar ushers in the opening phrases of The Bold Fenian Men, the first track on Cathy Jordan's debut solo album, as different a piece of work from her labours with Dervish as you could wish to find. Her own vocal then kicks in, wispy and ethereal, but still managing to get straight to the marrow of this most iconic of Irish songs.Banjo, fiddle and cello provide the architecture for the piece, which - like the rest of this VERY fine album pulses with a life that shows another side to Cathy , one which is considerably assisted by the quietly empathic production of Roger Tallroth, who errs on the right side of subtle throughout.

The choice of songs, too , gives an indication of the kind of album this is, a fond casting back of the eye over the shoulder, at the places and influences of youth, perhaps best exemplified by her reconstruction of a childhood poem-In Curraghroe, to her own melody with the lightest of touches from Andy Irvine.There's sentiment aplenty, but is the kind of feelwhich affirms a happy childhood, something which is brought out in her own writing, where the language used mirrors that of the older material perfectly.The Road I Go, written with Brendan Graham , a finding-ones-feet song, brings to mind a poem called An Chéad Bhróg(The First Shoe) that I taught over 30 years ago, when my own kids were young.

I have listened to this album on car journeys, while alone in the house , since picking it up a couple of weeks ago, and it is, in truth, one of those life-affirming pieces of work which restores one's faith, not alone in the strength of the tradition , and it's ability to absorb the new, but also in the pleasure of listening-really listening- to what's going on with the songs.A piece of work which will keep on giving-an unheard guitar chord here, a hidden vocal twist or harmony there-it is a joy from start to finish, and at this stage a strong contender for album of the year. A thing of beauty, and no mistake.

Oliver P. Sweeney