John Spillane is a masterful storyteller and an engaging live performer with a keen ear for a winning melody. His seventh studio album is the soundtrack to his upcoming TG4 travelogue series, Spillane an Fánaí (Spillane The Wanderer). It finds him doing what he does best, which is observing and absorbing the ordinary, everyday aspects of Irish life – and then turning them into musical vignettes.
For the purpose of the series Spillane adopts the persona of the wandering minstrel of yore – most of the songs are named after the towns he visited. ‘Graiguenamanagh’ is a lilting ballad featuring his gently plucked acoustic guitar, with a lovely string and woodwind arrangement. A more traditional sounding tune with a mischievous rhythm and featuring a children’s choir, ‘Fethard Town’ jigs along merrily, while he’s at his most lyrical on ‘Castleisland’ where he sings of “a kingdom long ago where a maiden in a garden plays in the snow”. It gets surreal at times – twangy guitars, operatic backing vocals and a cast of rowdy characters inhabit ‘The Ferry Arms’, a live recording before a clearly animated audience, while ‘An Spailpin Fánach’ showcases his ease with the Irish language.
Elsewhere, he waxes poetic on songs such as ‘Near Coothill Town’ and ‘Kiltimagh’, while a re-recording of an earlier ballad, the appropriately-titled, ‘All The Ways You Wander’, rounds off this enjoyable musical tour through the heartlands.

Keytrack: 'All The Ways You Wander'