Cara Dillon

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Title: Cara Dillon
By: Dillon, Cara
Released by: Rough Trade (division of Sanctuary Records)
Released on: 2002
Rating (out of 10): 10
Date: 05/07/2002

The Voice, Heart, and Beauty of Ireland

Winner of the All Ireland Singing Trophy and veteran of various bands and labels, Cara Dillon has done all sorts of folkie stuff since her earliest childhood. A native of Ireland, Dillon seems to have all the joys and sorrows of her homeland in her voice, a voice that seems to come right out of Irish tradition and history. Together with her former bandmate and producer, Sam Lakeman, she's created an excellent US debut album, called simply Cara Dillon.

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Conventional wisdom says that to be an Irish folk singer is to know and sing of the troubles that've plagued Ireland for hundreds of years. Supposedly, the trick is to separate performing songs dealing with Ireland's tradition of rebellion from obvious sympathy with the rebellion itself. If that's so, Dillon has mastered that feat beautifully—I don't hear anger and determination; this isn't a call to arms. (She doesn't give us "Roddy McCorley" or "Kevin Barry.") I hear, instead, another tradition: reminders of the dark beauty of Ireland in these ancient songs, the disastrous love affairs and the craggy shores. Nothing here's been done to death (we don't get yet another rendition of "Danny Boy" either); for the majority of American listeners, this material is new...and beautiful.

There's a purity to this music, a sense of faraway places and long-lost times, beginning with the opening track, "Black is the Colour." Nice trad arrangement, with Dillon's clear voice gliding around Lakeman's wonderful piano. This is heartbreakingly beautiful.

The aforementioned piano is something special. Not often thought of as a traditional Irish instrument, this piano modestly compliments the more commonly heard Irish things, working with them, but never overwhelming them. Seth Lakeman's mandolin, viola, and violin give the music that classic Irish tone, while the piano and the other oddballs (electric guitar and bass) offer a sound modern people can identify with and like.

These lyrics are but fantasies now, echoes of loves lost and won, but once upon a time these words reflected day-to-day life in Ireland. The mental pictures they conjure, so vivid they could be of yesterday instead of four hundred years ago, build mood, offering scenes of Ireland as once she was—romantic, deadly, wild, and tender.

And on her who the prize of Mount Ider was won
Then approached me a lassie as bright as the sun
And the ribbon and the tartan bout her did flow
That welcomed young Donald the pride of Glencoe

Cara Dillon is full of these lovely pictures, some lovely in their joy and others in their sorrow. To allow these lyrics into your mind is to see places and hear voices we'll never see or hear again. The world has changed, and the sensibility that could create these ideas and situations is long gone. If for no other reason, this is why you should love this album: The simple beauty of the lyrics will take you away from your life and set you down someplace you'll never have a chance to see otherwise.

Special note to Cara Dillon herself, whose voice is the sound of faeries in the meadow, of ghosts pacing the castle corridor, of maidens still waiting for their drowned sailorboys. So delicate it is, and yet so strong, so full of heart, you'll cry at its beauty. (I certainly did.) She is indeed the Voice of Ireland.

I listened to Cara Dillon several times, at first just enjoying it immensely, and later looking for faults. There aren't any. Not a one of these tunes is badly played or sung, not a one is out of place, not a one is anything less than spectacular. There's no way to say this but to just say it: You need this album. Even if you think you don't, you really do. Everyone needs romance and fantasy in their lives, and it's in short supply nowadays; get Cara Dillon and stock up on both.

© Copyright CultureDose.com 05/07/2002

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