Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There have been many celebrated writers throughout Ireland’s incredible literary past, Seamus Heaney and James Joyce to name but two and in both of these great men and their renowned, illustrious works can be found the template of story-telling that encompasses Kevin Doherty and his latest album Seeing Things.
Like Joyce in his seminal book Dubliners or one of Seamus Heaney’s many poems there is a construct of narrative that is almost unique to both these men and Kevin Doherty. The music, whilst hauntingly beautiful and as serene as the countryside of Ireland is almost secondary to the voice, the splendid outpouring, humbly delivered but with an exuberance, a joyful melancholy that is hard to beat or replicate.
Seeing Things showcases 10 new songs written by Kevin Doherty and arranged by Michael Keeney, the pair returning to their successful collaboration that saw the 2010 album Telegraph being much acclaimed by critics and fans.
As with all the best poets, writers and musicians it can be what you don’t see or don’t hear that grabs your attention the most, by downplaying the music, which is a remarkable feat in itself, to a point where what it represents is sublime and extraordinary. The words on songs such as Poor Boys, I Wish I Was On A Train, the excellent New York City and Rambling Irishman almost sense as if they have been lovingly painted onto a sharp new canvas, the texture of the phrasing giving more than just a snapshot of time and of the person, it captures the soul, the very essence of the man.
Not only does Kevin Doherty follow on in the impressive footsteps of Heaney and Joyce but he frames what it is to be Irish in the 21st Century, the highs, the lows and the expectations of those who went before him and those that will undoubtedly follow.
Seeing Things is to believe, a natural beauty throughout.
Ian D. Hall