Over her previous 4 solo albums Karan Casey has shown herself as an artist willing to take chances with her material, and is comfortable with both contemporary songs and traditional material. ‘Ships in the Forest’ is built around traditional ballads with a few more modern tracks, and this is an album that weaves its way around some excellent Celtic ballads. In many ways this is a low-key collection, especially on the bleak ‘Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye’ and her dark reading of Joni Mitchell’s ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’, and these tracks highlight both the skills and versatility of Casey as one of the finest Irish vocalists around.
The album is full of some of the biggest songs from the Irish traditional catalogue, alongside one other cover of Martin Furey’s ‘Town of Athlone’, a stunning song that compares well against any of the material on the disc.
These songs are full of passion and life, but Casey is a singer of such skill and subtlety that she packs the emotion into songs without any show or dramatic use of dynamics; the delivery throughout is superbly understated but packed with feeling.
Her regular touring band is joined with appearances from Kris Drever and Niall & Cillian Vallely, but the real focus and highlights here are the songs and the stories.
Karan Casey has an excellent varied range of recent albums, but this traditional album is the best to highlight her excellent vocal abilities.
Track listing
1 Love Is Pleasing
2 Dunlavin Green
3 Johnny I Hardy Knew Ye
4 Black Is The Colour
5 Town Of Athlone
6 Maidin Luan Chincíse
7 The Fiddle And The Drum
8 Erin's Lovely Home
9 Ae Fond Kiss
10 I Once Loved A Lass
