Eleanor Shanley & Friends

Since she began to perform with De Dannan in the late ’80s, quality has always been Eleanor Shanley’s byword. With everything she sings, she brings to the proceedings such a distinctive mark that, almost unconsciously, standards are set for others to match or aspire to.

The material on this record comes from a variety of sources – the tradition, original writers like Christie Hennessy and Charlie McGettigan; and there are versions of two songs by Steven Foster – requiring in the process that Eleanor call on quite a range of emotional responses throughout. What’s going on in and around the songs under the baton of producer Alec Finn, is also very fine. Listen for instance to Frankie Gavin’s flute playing on ‘The Bantry Girl’s Lament’, or to Frankie Lane’s dobro on ‘Maybe’, a song written by, and performed with Christie Hennessy. There’s a powerful alchemy at work throughout.

For final proof, listen to the closing track – a version of ‘Hard Times’ recorded with De Dannan some time ago, featuring the two gospel singers from the Half-Set In Harlem sessions. It’s an overworked term, I know, but “stunning” is the only appropriate epithet to use.