“Album of the Year 1991.”

LISTENER’S POLL, BBC GREAT NORTHERN FOLK

Guests:
Des Hurley (fiddle), Chris Newman (guitars/bass/mandolin), Andrew Hurley (bodhran), Máire Ní Chathasaigh (whistle)

Description

“Album of the Year 1991.”

LISTENER’S POLL, BBC GREAT NORTHERN FOLK

Guests:
Des Hurley (fiddle), Chris Newman (guitars/bass/mandolin), Andrew Hurley (bodhran), Máire Ní Chathasaigh (whistle)

Tracklist

1. The Hurleys
2. Homes of Donegal
3. Tone Rowe’s/Smithy’s Baccy Tin/Caliope House
4. How can my poor heart?
5. Frenchie’s Reel/President Garfield’s
6. Johnny Miner
7. The Gold Ring/O’Mahoney’s
8. Cross The River
9. The Lark in the Morning
10. The Goodnight Waltz
11. The Overgate
12. Calum Donaldson/Mick Johnson’s Parrot/Da Grocer
13. Wish the wars were all over
14. Ben’s Foot/Birmingham Fling

Review Extracts

“Tom’s singing of How Can My Poor Heart, a Robert Burns song set to Tom’s own tune, is so achingly beautiful it takes your breath away…”

TAPLAS

“Tom is an affable Geordie with a fiddle style which, while deriving from the Northumbrian and Irish traditions, is undoubtedly his own… It is bright and rhythmic in the dance tunes and lends expressive, often melancholic accompaniment to his songs…”

THE FOLK MAGAZINE

“Works like a dream in spite, or maybe because of, its sheer diversity… It snakes its way through traditional and contemporary material, with virtually every track a high point. A record of great charm and persuasion, and no little depth.

Lovely stuff. Particular mention must be made of two tracks, The Homes of Donegal, which all but eclipses Paul Brady’s reading of the song, and the title track, written by Tim Wood about the Sharpeville Six and one of the strongest political songs of our time…”

HOT PRESS

“A pleasure to listen to. A very, very nice album.”

FOLK NORTH WEST