Tony Reidy’s The Coldest Day in Winter

cover, The Coldest Day In WinterThis album is an independent release by Tony Reidy, a singer-songwriter from Ireland, and was recorded and engineered by Brendan Minish at Raheens, Castlebar, Ireland. Tony Reidy writes all the songs bar one. As a rule I like to listen to singer-songwriters, and in particular, songs I have not heard before. Afterwards I ask myself: was there a particular tune on this CD that caught my attention? Were the words in the songs interesting and did they carry a hidden message that entertained me? The Coldest Day in Winter is a testament to Reidy’s work.

It becomes immediately clear that Tony takes his inspiration to write songs from life in his part of Ireland and everyday things around him. In the song ‘The Country Man’ he is content and happy living on the land. In the next song ‘Like A Wild Thing’ a man is not so content, having to work in an office with a computer while he dreams of the land. There is a complete change of theme and lyrics in the song ‘Kitonga’ as he muses about the life of a hungry child in Kenya. The title song for the album ‘Coldest Day in Winter’ is a dirge about meeting an old flame at a friend’s funeral on a freezing cold day. In the song ‘Black Pudding Music’ he is a bored musician working in a paint shop. Then in the ‘The Mountainy Man’ he is a drunkard battling with the life inside his head. The only song Tony did not write is ‘Cul an Ti’ (words by Sean O’Riordan), written in Gaelic.

To sum up: Tony’s lyrics are quite good. The album has a nice cover and inset booklet containing all the lyrics, but for entertainment value the tunes leave a little to be desired. Tony may not be the best singer I have heard, but he sings from the heart and soul, which I think is more important in folk music. If it were down to me to offer constructive advice, I would tell him to team up with another musician who has slightly different musical taste and see what develops. I feel Tony will not get the recognition he deserves with this album as a singer-songwriter. But if only a more recognised performer, say Martin Carthy, had heard one or two of these songs and arranged them in his style, then they might be more readily accepted and — who knows — may become folk standards.

So if you are a singer with imagination, looking for new good material, get a copy of this album.

[Update: You can hear Tony Reidy’s music on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.]

(Tony Reidy, 2002)

Peter Massey

Born in 1945, Peter Massey, Senior Writer, is now living in the city of Chester, England with his wife Sandra. Now medically retired he worked for 35 years in the shoe business. He has been a semi-professional musician and singer performing mainly traditional / contemporary folk songs for over 38 years as part of the duo (and sometimes trio) 'The Marrowbones'. His musical interest started at the age of 14 with Rock 'n' Roll and by the time his seventeenth birthday came along he was already playing rock 'n' roll and R&B in and around the local dance venues and clubs such as the Cavern in Liverpool. Thankfully he was saved from the evils of rock 'n' roll when he discovered real music and folk clubs. His collection of recordings houses over 3500 folk songs alone. Other interests and hobbies include Computers and Amateur Radio (he has a class A G4 call sign) His latest project is 'The Little Room Studio' dedicated to making 'live' recordings of folk artists and producing their work on to CD using a portable digital recording studio. To date he has written and composed over 12 folk songs and co-wrote with Gordon Morris another 10 that have been recorded on CD. The song writing has continued and they have another 10 songs in the pipeline not yet recorded to CD. Favourite music / bands at the moment are Steeleye Span, The Battlefield Band, Little Johnny England and Fairport Convention, (in that order), and much admires the work of Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Roy Bailey, Vin Garbutt, and Bob Fox, to name but a few! You can visit the crummy Web site here and read about The Marrowbones and how to get your free songbook.

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