Regular Columnists

Artist: Tony Irvine
Genre: Folk
CD Review:
Wow. What a treat, what a treasure. Imagine getting yourself a cd of 50 minutes worth of traditional Irish or sailor tunes. Envy me yet? Well, you should. This stuff is wonderful. Though I'm not sure if the 1st half of the cd - which credits Tony Irvine as the composer - are really traditional songs. Even if they aren't, he is a master at writing tunes so Close to the original sound, that he's going to easily wind up with a contract at Disney or the History Channel if he's not careful.

My favorite song on the album is track 4, 'College Hornpipe', the sort of mega-fun you'd expect to be pumping out at you as you wait your turn to get into The Pirates of the Caribbean. Guitar, flute, tambourine perhaps. I could take an entire album of this sort of ball-bouncing instrumental.

Even though the lead song is just as good. 'For God, King & Country', written by our very own Tony, begins the cd, leading in with a good acoustic guitar, followed soon by a Very nifty group of backing vocals. I love his arrangement of the vocals there. I wish there were a 2nd cd of Tony - who does All of the vocals on the album - doing all new and all old male vocal songs, like that classic 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home'. Of course I know he could come up with a whole album full of sea-faring blarney, so... what are you waiting for, TI?

I won't lie to you. This is an album you have to go into liking. You have to like songs of a different era. Before the World Wars. When Britain still had the best fighting force in the world - by sea. But if you like eating at Red Lobster, you're in with a chance. Go and get the tunes.