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Talking Elephant [Release date 22.07.22]
Until this album appeared at GRTR! Towers I’d not heard of Alison O’Donnell. Apart from, that is, the actress who plays “Tosh” in the superb “Shetland” TV series.
The musical one has plied her trade since the late 1960s and, with Mellow Candle, she released the influential album ‘Swaddling Songs’ on Deram (Decca) Records in 1972. Goth rockers All About Eve covered their ‘Silversong’. With its fusion of Pentangle and prog it is well worth re-discovering.
Alison has an interesting backstory, rubbing shoulders with many of the “names” who emerged from Ireland such as Thin Lizzy (Mellow Candle shared management), Clannad and Donal Lunny. She’s also had time away from the music scene in the 1990s and in more recent times has performed on albums by Dublin-based United Bible Studies, modern exponents of what might be termed “acid folk”.
‘Hark The Voice’ brings her story up to date and is a collection of folk-based tunes with a contemporary twist. This is no finger in the ear stuff or fol-de-rol just a consistent album’s worth of nice tunes, well sung and orchestrated.
A couple of tracks are admittedly more traditional folk/vocal-centred but those that work best (and succeed in updating her musical approach) include ‘Lass From A Distant Shore’ (reminding a little of Loreena McKennitt), ‘Farewell To The Strawberry Tree’, ‘I Wish We’d Sailed On The Jeanie Johnston’ and the bouncy ‘The Birds Of Belfast Lough’.
Soothing and stimulating in equal measure. ****
Review by David Randall
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