The Songs I Loved So Well

After a couple of decades of tinkling the ivories and purveying a distinctive style of orchestrated Irish and Celtic Music, Phil Coulter releases this, an entirely vocal album.

While he is no Pavarotti, his voice has a warm, lived-in quality. His life has been a mixture of extraordinary professional success and personal tragedy, which is why these songs resonate with such conviction.

There are songs of leaving, of laughter and tears, songs of pride, but none of them can top ‘Scorn Not His Simplicity’, written for and about his young son. In any canon, this is an extraordinary song. The album's closing track features Coulter with Ronan Keating, who, in fairness, more than captures the sensitivity and nuances of Phil's best-known song, ‘The Town I Love So Well’.

The bottom line is that Phil Coulter is a fine songwriter, and this album confirms it.