Once I Loved
Claddagh CC4CD
Once I Loved; Lord Donegal; Moll Dubh an Ghleanna; A Stór mo Chroi; When Two Lovers Meet; Túirne Mháire; The Banks of the Moorlough Shore; Sail Óg Rua; I'm Thinking, Ever Thinking; Tá mo Chleamhnas Déanta; An Droighneán Donn.This is hardly a review - more of an announcement. Sarah and Rita Keane’s first album, from 1969 - and the only record presently available - has been issued by Claddagh on CD for the first time. You need to buy it.
It is a small but almost prefectly formed thing, and records a practically unique singing style - one of great beauty and poignancy. And this is one of those rare records which, when it's playing, make it impossible to concentrate on anything else except the singing ... waiting for each new note to fall. Do not - as I did - make the mistake of playing it in the car! You'll get hopelessly lost - as I did!
True, at 44 minutes the CD is almost half empty; true, the liner notes tell you almost nothing of the songs or the singers; true, you'll have heard these songs (the ones in English, anyway) hundreds of times already. None of that matters ... nothing else matters when Sarah and Rita Keane are singing together.
What? You've never heard them? Oh, all right then, for our younger readers here's a little bit of A Stór mo Chroi (sound clip)
Now - go and buy it! www.claddaghrecords.com is the address.
Rod Stradling - 27.10.06
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