Album Review

Cathy Jordan – All The Way Home

• 2nd Apr 2012

All The Way Home is the first solo album from Cathy Jordan, the vocalist from traditional Irish band Dervish, and it showcases her quite beautiful voice very nicely. If gentle Irish folk with a modern feel is your thing then you will love this album.

Jordan mixes versions of traditional Irish songs form her childhood with her own compositions on the album and she is backed by a cast of excellent musicians from Ireland and beyond. The standard of playing is consistently high throughout and provides fine accompaniment to the always excellent vocals.

The album opens with a gentle version of The Bold Fenian Men, a song of the 1916 Easter Rising and the most political of the choices here. Others selections are mainly ballads and love songs that Jordan heard sung by family members as a child, such as Slaibh Gallion Braes and The Banks Of The Folye, a great Derry song.

Another traditional track, Eileen McMahon is a highlight. The beautiful old song, which has been recorded by Dervish, is delivered here as duet with Eddi Reader of Fairground Attraction and subsequent solo fame. The combination of the two exquisite female voices, one Irish and one Scots, in a slow and haunting track is quite superb.

There are a couple of instrumentals on the album too. The River Field Waltz sounds exactly like the name suggests: an Irish melody in waltz time. The Jordan Jig is a joyous song written for this album by producer Roger Tallroth that fits in perfectly with the overall feel of the album.

And two of Jordan’s own new songs tell a story in themselves. The Road I Go has restlessness and wanderlust, expressing her desire as a young woman to go out and see the world. The title track, which closes the album, offers a complete contrast. It’s about the weariness of missing home after travelling widely. And when you hear Jordan’s description of the beauty of her native Roscommon it’s easy to understand the pull it holds.

All The Way Home is a lovely album that combines traditional Irish music with modern influences to produce a beautiful collection of songs that are arranged and sung perfectly. Cathy Jordan has a great voice that is gentle and expressive and she takes the listener to the places of which she sings in fine style.