It would be a heart of stone indeed that would fail to melt on hearing this dazzling collection of old-time country music, played with love and zest. And thankfully, you won’t OD on the phoney American accents that made Irish C&W such a laughing stock.
Songs like ‘Your Eyes’, ‘Heavenly Penicillin’ and ‘Slim Pickins’ sound so authentically part of the tradition that it’s surprising to learn the album consists entirely of originals, mostly by Neil Tobin, and that the band have emerged from the badlands of County Wicklow.
With six vocalists in the nine-person ensemble, you get variety on the vocal front and a delicate mix of guitars, organ, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel, harmonica and piano that all adds up to something truly unique and original. There’s a restrained subtlety to Johnny Evans’ guitar fills behind Alison Byrne’s superb vocal on her ‘You’ll Always Stray’, so with her Bray Vista have a sterling lead vocalist who sings with conviction and passion. The slow ‘Still Haunting Me’ is another gem, and ‘When I Get There’ is truly evocative of America’s open roads, but ‘Home’ is too close to Steve Earle’s ‘Galway Girl’ for comfort.
This album has an innate timelessness that will especially appeal to hardcore fans and those with minds to open, so it’s a pity it lacks the urgency that might have given it a contemporary edge. But maybe we’ve enough of that to be going on with. The Bray Vista Social Club? Now there’s a film title to conjure with.