Ravishing tune

Poststructural Pub
1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF8mxuOu5WE&feature=related

Forgive my posting this here, but this lady seems extraordinary.
I can’t figure out all the words, nor is it clear what
key these people are playing in.

Cara Dillon is a rising star in Ireland, less known here,
apparently.

Here, I found the words.

Garden Valley
(Music & Lyrics by Dougie MacLean)



This is really not my home

Oh where are you my lovely Jenny?

I’m afraid and all alone

There is no peace for me

I’m sitting in the stranger’s room

Playing at the stranger’s table

Shining empty like the moon

There is no peace for me



But in the darkness struggle cold

I think about a garden valley

Gentle as the leaves unfold

Singing out across the Tay

Distant and so far away

There is no peace for me



I’m blinded by your city lights

I wander through these fearful places

The colours fade to black and white

There is no peace for me

And these are not the friends I know

These are not their smiling faces

A desert that no-one should know

There is no peace for me



But in the darkness etc.



Now I know and feel it well

Poor immigrants deep sunken feeling

Standing at the gates of Hell

There is no peace for me

Burned out by their master’s greed

Cruel exile transportation

Robbed of every love and need

There is no peace for me



But in the darkness etc.

2

I must confess, I’ve never tried to ravish to music, but I think that if I did, it would be to something with a bit more gusto, with a bit more ravishating emotion, as it were. This just doesn’t stir me to ravish at all, I’m afraid.

djm

3

It’s OK. But from Dillon’s phrasing and arrangement, this seems like a cover of Cathie Ryan’s version of the song, which I prefer. With her mature voice and Seamus Egan’s arrangement, Ryan really captures the aching sadness of homesickness, whereas this performance seems more like just singing pretty words. And Dillon’s substitution of “bay” for “Tay” in the lyric guts the Scottish foundations of the song.

For that matter, Dougie MacLean’s own recorded version, with his single open-tuned guitar barely filling the emptiness is a more moving experience, I think.

Jim, treat yourself and check out these others:
Cathie Ryan, “Cathie Ryan” (1997), Track 1
Dougie MacLean, “Real Estate” (1988), Track 4

BTW, Cara is singing in C#. :slight_smile:

4

Thanks for the heads up.
I’ll try to check these out, but they seem not
to be on Youtube.

One can never say something can’t be done better,
and I think this is very lovely. Also the piano/bass
accompaniment is perfect, IMO.

This lady plays a mean fiddle too. Gee, there
are some amazing female vocalists.

5

Second that. Real Estate is a terrific album all around.

6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7lfKixQ_s

Here’s another. Great whistle solo in the center (F whistle)
and a duet at the end.

7

Okay, I don’t want to be a snob or anything, but I think that version of She Moved Through the Fair is musically not very interesting. Also I don’t think she’s a remarkable singer, but rather sings in a bland pop-music idiom. That is taste more than anything, I guess, but I don’t feel ravished.

She’s playing an Overton, and that’s gotta count for something, though.

8

Yes you do. :smiley:

I think Cara’s voice is unmistakably sweet and pretty. And, of course, there’s room for all sorts of tastes. But I guess I look for more than just prettiness in a singer’s delivery and interpretation. A sense of the singer’s emotional entanglement with and understanding of the song, which I don’t find here. Instead, her attitude seems fairly detached and cold, and perhaps immature.

I also mistrust singers whose normal technique involves practically eating the microphone. Yes, I know about the benefits of proximity effect and “playing” a mike. But it seems to me that there’s an entire crop of wispy, small-voiced (mostly) female singers on the market today for whom a microphone doesn’t just reinforce their voice. It is their voice, in effect. There’s no projection. Without that enhancement, they’d never seem anything more than ordinary in someone’s living room. Heck, even my mediocre singing sounds pretty good when I’m sucking on an SM-58.

9

No, I don’t. :angry:

10

This is much better, I think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRVbaBoUkxE&feature=related

11

Well then, I hereby both apologize and revoke your snob card and your membership in the Society of the kNights Of Bloomfield (S.N.O.B). Please leave your regalia at the door.

Seriously, no aspersions or disrespect intended. A bit of snobbery, in the form of strong likes and dislikes, is not something I consider necessarily bad …

12

I didn’t think you were casting aspersions or being disrespectful, so no sweat. But I’ve been called a snob (or snobe) too many times on c&f, and I don’t like the suggestion that any form of criticism is snobbery.

13

One can’t argue with taste, so I won’t.
I’ll say what I think of it.

Cara D won the all-ireland singers trophy when she was 14.
She plays whistle and fiddle too. I hear all that
in these renditions, it seems to me. Personally I think
she’s extraordinarily good and that the group
is coming from a place deep in the music qua music.
Her husband on piano and the bassist are
very good too. I think these are superb
musical arrangements. I find them moving.
The group has a united musical vision.
The singing and phrasing
are, to my ear anyway, nuanced, thoughtful
and beautifully crafted.
It’s cross-over stuff, I reckon,
between trad and pop, perhaps more
on the pop side in these. Fine with me.
I like her rendition of ‘She moved through the fair’
a good deal better than the others. FWIW

14

Fair play to you, Jim. Obviously, there are many who share your appreciation!

15

Thank you.

Here’s something more trad, and there’s a flute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce-5VnetlCM&feature=related

16

Hi MTGuru

Cara Dillon is a very nice live performer, so you can put me in Jim’s camp too :laughing: :laughing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCnPkkf8UV4

A clip of her singing with Óige.


Jim maybe I can convert you to the singing of her sister Mary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObbFaxvTRWw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=313jJYkZfY0

Ignore the videos, but the choice of soundtrack is good :slight_smile:

David

17

My god, she has a sister!
Is her sister married?
Oh well…

18

Fraid so Jim :laughing: :laughing:

I fancied Deanta’s flute player more though :devil:

David

19

I still get sad sometimes knowing that Deanta are probably never gonna make any more music. I got one of Cara Dillon’s albums because she sounds a little like Mary, but there’s no comparison.

I also got an album by the London Lasses to get a Deirdre Havlin fix (Deanta’s fluteplayer), but they’re also no comparison to Deanta.

20

Mary is fab.