THERE IS an argument to be made that Irish folk, while it has an outstanding repertoire to draw from, is often over-reliant on that repertoire, and this is stifling the creation and addition of new works to the cannon.
The battle between the 'nothing new needs to be added' purists and the 'evolve or die' new folkies is always a source of tension within the music. How much preservation can you do before you reduce the music you love to nothing more than a fossil? How far can you push the genre before you lose sight of its essence?
For some time Eddie Keenan has been, by far, the most interesting presence in Irish folk. He understands that tension and walks the fine line to ensure his music is rooted in the values and traditions of Irish folk, at the same time, creating new songs for the idiom which are fresh, forward looking, and of high quality.
Proof comes in this latest release from Keenan (who is The Driftwood Manor ) in the form of 'Spring', which fuses a traditional a cappella folk melody and, earthy spiritual chanting, backed with an electronic/hip-hop style beat, and make them sound natural bedfellows.
More conventional, but no less impressive are the Irish folk/American roots hybrids 'Fire and Brimstone' and 'The Moon', and the atmospheric waltzing ballad and harmony vocals of 'The Fox and The Bear', at once aware of the great folk music of the seventies, but also a fine, modern, compositions in their own right. This is Keenan at the top of his game.
