MICK HANLY “Happy Like This” (Round Tower)

RECORDED IN just five days, Happy Like This oozes the kind of first-take spontaneity sadly lacking in most current releases. Which is not to suggest that it’s amateurish or in any way rough around the edges. Thanks to the cracking band Mick Hanly has assembled, this is an accomplished work, showcasing his proven songwriting ability and perfectly in keeping with his newfound assurance.

The single ‘Blessed’, already garnering considerable radio play is as good as anything he has written to date and is nicely underpinned by KennyCraddock’s shimmering Hammond organ. On ‘One More For The Daddy’ he reminisces nostalgically about his childhood, his family and growing up in the fifties.

Despite his recent songwriting success on the country market, there are only two songs here which could be described as ‘straight’ country – the sparsely accompanied ‘These Days’ and the lovely ‘The Writing On The Wall’.

The rest finds Hanly in a good-timey rollicking mood as on the title track where he reflects wryly on growing older: “I’ll give the reformation a miss… I’m happy like this”. ‘Nobody Told Me’ is similar in approach with its bluesy honky-tonk rhythms and ‘I Could Have Missed Her By A Whisker’ would’t sound out of place on a Tina Tuner album.

‘Geronimo’s Child’ steams along like a demented freight train and Hanly slips into a cabaret mood on the ‘Piano Tuner’, playfully dueting with Shelley Buckspin over a smokey, jazzy late-night shuffle.

With more than able assistance from Arty McGlynn, Fran Breen, Eoghan O’Neill, Noel Eccles and Kenny Craddock, Happy Like This is an album of substance and style which confirms Mick Hanly’s reputation as an artist to be reckoned with.

He sounds like a man enjoying himself too and I think it might be contagious. Catch it if you can!

• Colm O’Hare