Sunny Days

DEIRDRE CUNNINGHAM: “Sunny Days” (Lake Records)

Sunny Days’ production ethos, its overall sound and the collective musical style of its contributors all conspire, on initial hearing, to present an album that sounds more like a refugee from the vague, unpressurised early seventies than the product of the unsettling, uncertain nineties.

Add the tendency for the lyrics to obey some imagined eleventh commandment that says, ‘thou shalt not write songs unless they are in rhyming couplets of equal length’ and the lack of composer credits for the non-original songs, and first impressions were not favourable.

But while such a dismissive response might have partially satisfied my ultimately insatiable out tray, it would have denied me the pleasures which were subsequently revealed by repeated plays. Notwithstanding the above reservations, Sunny Days, like a vintage wine, needed time, and are given that scarce commodity revealed many classy moments I am now glad I did not miss out on.

Quality musicianship contains its own seductive power, and on this album the guitar playing of Brian Rawson – from his jazz inflections on ‘Fantasy’ to the incendiary ‘Rain Check’ and from the searing lead lines on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ to his stylishly appropriate interjections on ‘Sunny Days’ – in conjunction with the inventive percussion of Donal Hoban and Cunningham’s own assured vocals more than repaid the investment of time and effort spent on pushing the repeat button.

Local hero Philip Donnelly, on guitar and control room knobs, lends his notable weight and authority to the album’s two best tracks, ‘Take Me For A Fool’ – which features vocal harmonies one longs for more of, plus a convincingly aching vocal from Cunningham herself and a tastefully restrained performance from the band – and the equally commendable ‘Comin’ Down With Love’.

‘Hurry Make Love’ is a worthy choice as a single, its production/arrangement displaying a more adventurous imagination which one hopes will be given more freedom on future studio visitations. ‘Love Child’ effectively turns up the heat without ever losing control, fired as it is by some gutsy playing from Rawson, while ‘Surrender Your Love’, with its dash of cajun-ish accordeon from album producer Liam Cunningham, suggests that Deirdre Cunningham is fully equipped to carve a path to the blues if she learns to live in her songs a la Mary Coughlan rather than merely singing them.

Sunny Days the album is yet another admirable example of an artist taking control of her career by recording and releasing her own material and a further indictment of the paucity of imagination of most of the local major labels. Of course such a brave decision inevitably brings its own pitfalls and obstacles which in turn only serve to heighten one’s admiration for those with the courage to attempt to walk on shark-infested water.

Deirdre Cunningham’s undoubted talents as both vocalist and songwriter should secure her a place in the illustrious pantheon of quality Irish singer-songwriters before too long. And that out tray is going to have a wait quite a while before it gets to taste her first fine effort.

• Jackie Hayden