Beautiful Mistake

Belfast singer-songwriter Richard Gilpin was formerly a member of Greengrass, but this is his first solo album. That musicians of the calibre of Henry McCullough and James Delaney were happy to lend their talents to the enterprise is the first clue that this is not just one more album tossed into the great national lottery of the music marketplace.

Gilpin has a natural feel for folk, rock, blues, bluegrass and country and on this album he makes a true marriage out of what can often be a shotgun wedding.

Rosemary Woods adds sublime harmonies on several tracks, and the presence of McCullough adds weight and urgency to songs like ‘Wildflower’ and ‘Nothing Like Love’. Brian O Huiggin brings stirring pipes to the ballad ‘General Monro’. Donna Harkin’s accordion adds a plaintive touch to ‘Stronger’. Cathal Hayden’s ho-down fiddle helps jerk the tears in the country waltz ‘Tears In The End’.

Oddly, ‘Sleeping In The Car’ is so familiar you can even sing Rick Nelson’s ‘Garden Party’ to it. ‘Be My Prison’ immediately brings Jackson Browne to mind.

But there’s plenty here to tickle the toes, shiver the spine and gladden the heart. This kind of talent rarely fades.