Album Review: Damien Dempsey, Holywell

Bookended by the centuries-old ‘The Coolin’ and the ancient Gaelic lullaby ‘Seoithín, Seo Hó’, on Holywell, Damien Dempsey delivers golden songs from the Great Irish Songbook, which more than achieve his ideal of airing songs he “heard as a child, sung by my elders in houses and pubs at singsongs.”

Indeed, Holywell continues Damo’s lifelong mission to preserve and pass on traditional Irish music to new generations in more ways than one. Firstly, he has primarily chosen lesser known tracks, so he’s teaching his fans new songs from the bounteous Irish canon; but in marking them as his own, he adds a personal and contemporary dimension. Take Shane MacGowan’s ‘A Pair Of Brown Eyes’, perhaps the most recognisable number.

Damo takes it someplace else – much more vulnerable – in a version that had me pressing rewind on repeat. Equally impressive is the take on Ewan McColl’s ‘Go Move Shift’, which is less macho than Christy’s version and more tragic. Conversely, by way of Frank Harte, Damo infuses ‘The Mickey Dam’ with all the swashbuckling Fighting Irish swagger it deserves (with a boss ‘Castle Kelly Reel’ tacked on to boot).

Elsewhere, blind poet rhymer Michael Moran would, I’m sure, appreciate fully the banter and buffoonery instilled within jocular ‘The Pharoah’s Daughter’. Leo Casey’s ‘Rising Of The Moon’, meanwhile, is fiery, fierce and up for a mighty scrap.

For good measure, there are also the precious history lessons contained within ‘Michael Dwyer’ and ‘James Connolly’, while Aoife Scott’s ‘Ireland’s Hour Of Need’ is marvellously crafted. Quite simply, Damo is a national treasure.

• Out now.