Album Review: Jimmy Crowley & Eve Telford, Hello: Child Ballads Learned From Irish Travellers

It’s been the better chunk of five decades since Jimmy Crowley released his classic celebration of Cork City’s urban ballads, The Boys Of Fairhill. On his latest project, a collaboration with Australian-born folk singer and songwriter Eve Telford, he has turned his attention to versions of the Child Ballads, recorded or learned from Irish Travellers.

Inspired by musical friendships forged over the years with Traveller singers – from Cork, to Capel Street, to Puck Fair – Hello features compelling new arrangements of centuries-old songs. Recorded at Jimmy and Eve’s Cork home, the pair embrace a live organic sound – full-bodied in its grit and authenticity, but minimalist, for the most part, in its approach to instrumentation and production. It’s a stance the duo pull off perfectly, with Hello ultimately feeling like an invitation to sit in on a session in their home, complete with the contribution of their cat, and laughter from Eve tied in with her final notes on ‘False Lover John’.

While faithful to the spirit of many of the original recordings, they’re innovative in their reimaginings and interweaving of songs – Eve’s unique voice occasionally offering up flashes of Margaret Barry, and Jimmy’s still shaped by his native Cork’s brilliant twists and turns.

Hello – which takes its name from the captivating refrain on ‘Johnny Barden’, a version of ‘Willie O Winsbury’ – should resonate strongly with this generation, whose folk music is so deeply informed by the legacy of Irish Travellers. It should also serve as a crucial reminder to celebrate the voices, and rich musical heritage, of Traveller singers themselves.

8/10

Hello: Child Ballads Learned From Irish Travellers is available from jimmycrowley.com/shop

Cork City Library is hosting an album launch on Friday, February 3, at 6.30pm.