(self-produced)

 

Every now and the, an album arrives, an album which simply touches something deep down inside. Mary Custy and Stephen Flaherty did it with a beautiful fiddle/guitar recording a few years back (After 10:30); so did Luka Bloom (Before Sleep Comes); Harry O’Donoghue has done it with “Sincerely”. Basically, it’s all about a man with a wonderful voice, a couple of acoustic guitars and a bass, and a set of classy songs. The idea was to sit and record live performances in the studio. The result would be then be an intimate experience for the performer and for the listeners. He succeeded.

 

Life is full of songs I avoid, yet O’Donoghue when performing these has my undivided attention. “Danny Boy”, one of the hardest songs to sing I know, comes across with a freshness and comfort rarely heard; the overworked “The Water is Wide” sounds a though it was made for him; “The Streets of London”, a song ruined by many, has meaning and compassion.

 

If I feel like that about things I don’t particularly want to hear, imagine my reaction to the tracks I do! By stripping the songs to their basic elements and presenting them with such personal feeling, O’Donoghue has created a CD that you can play over and over. Whether it’s traditional material, a Van Morrison or Tom Waits, or something he’s written himself, it’s spot on. The soft, gentle tenor, the sometimes picked, sometimes strummed guitars and the clear, warm recording all combine into a delightful album.

 

This is the first time I’ve come across Harry O’Donoghue but it won’t be the last. This is the kind of recording that makes you want to hear more of the man.