Maria Doyle-Kennedy

Don’t let the tulle threads fool you – there’s a flinty edge in Maria Doyle-Kennedy’s delivery that’s far closer to Patti Smith or Marianne Faithful than any of the ’90s vintage Lainey Keogh-goes-to-Lilith songbirds. It’s an edge that runs through most of her set, from the obvious songs of love and hate (‘Revenge Is Sour’, ‘Loving You Is Killing Me’) to the refashioning of fairytale fallacies in ‘Bitter Sweet’ and ‘Snow White’ – the latter prefaced with, “If you’re lying round waiting for your prince to come… fuck the waiting!”

In the same vein, a cover of Amy Rigby’s ‘Keep It To Yourself’ is a comic post-feminist contract hit ditty, while her own ‘Babes’ comes as a list of kiss-offs halfway between Etta James and The Drifters’ ‘Float On’. Elsewhere, when the muse heads east (in ‘I Scare Myself’ she marries blues notes with blue notes while Kieran Kennedy goes Kashmir over Peter O’Toole and Dave Clarke’s loping groove), the voice evokes the muck of the Orient as much as the mystic. In fact, MDK’s finest song ‘Helena’ makes Wexford into a Mediterranean republic, as Ann Lovett, the girl in the grotto, gets written into one of Lorca’s black-haired tragedies. ‘Safe From Harm’, another standout from the Charm album, loses some of the abandoned strand ambience live, but is kept just on the right side of paranormal by the boys’ backing chorale.

Despite self-professed attacks of nerves that necessitated pre-gig visits to the vomitorium, Ms Doyle-Kennedy is a confident interpreter: her take on ‘Hold On’ evokes Tom Waits’ world of swinging traffic lights and Edward Hopper diners no problem – put it down to all those weeks spent traversing the States in a camper van (surely there’s an alt-country album in there somewhere?). Later still, ‘Stars Above’ is a tender ode to joy, a Dylan-esque benediction for sure, but one only a mother could’ve written.

It took a while, but the bridesmaid has become the bride.