By Earle Hitchner
EVENING COMES EARLY, by John Doyle. Shanachie Records 78045.
As a lead singer, Dublin-born John Doyle is a terrific guitarist. That became apparent on the last Solas album he did, "The Hour Before Dawn" (Shanachie, 2000), where his rendition of the traditional song "A Miner’s Life" was that recording’s lone clinker.
He really doesn’t have the voice — not range, timbre, or elastic strength — for some of the songs he assays here, either. There are three running consecutively — "Pretty Saro," "Willie Riley," and "Early in the Spring" — where his gray monotone will make you grateful there’s a skip
button on your CD player. But his acoustic-guitar work on those three songs is a model of detailed picking, set within smart, inventive arrangements that do everything possible to prop up his limited voice.
Another song forgettable for its singing is "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly," learned from Antrim singer Len Graham. Chicago’s John Williams on low whistle and Kieran O’Hare on uilleann pipes expertly frame Doyle’s vocal, which remains stubbornly inert throughout.
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The best vocal performance by Doyle comes in one of the most exhilarating, and simple, arrangements on the album: "Crooked Jack," a traditional melody set to Dominic Behan’s lyrics that Al O’Donnell and Dick Gaughan have covered memorably in the past. The blend of Doyle’s percussive guitar picking with the clawhammer banjo work of Richie Stearns, a member of the inventive old-timey band Horse Flies for many years, is stirring, as is the serrated vocal mix of the two musicians.
Songs such as "The Wheels of the World" (with ex-Solas colleague Karan Casey as guest), "North Sea Holes," and "Sovay" are rendered haltingly by Doyle. But he gives a credible reading to "Blue Diamond Mines," a Jean Ritchie song adapting the Southern Appalachian melody of "In the Pines," and the vocal harmony of Doyle and guest Mick Moloney is executed well there.
John Doyle and another guest, Liz Carroll, take no prisoners on the reels "Crowley’s/Johnny D’s," a fur-flying fiddle-guitar duet that leaves you breathless. The album’s other instrumental medleys — "The Hungry Rock/The Sleuce Gate/Evening Comes Early," "Young Tom Ennis/The Besom in Bloom/The Cuigui Lasses," "The Morning Dew/The Morning Star" — demonstrate just how masterful a plectrum player he is.
But on an album where 10 of the 14 tracks are songs, and nine of those feature Doyle on lead vocal, hot picking can’t overcome chill singing.