Brendan Foreman penn this review.
Midsummer’s Night starts strong with an eponymous “full speed ahead” set of reels. Exuberant and vigorous, the tunes in this set give each of the members of Dervish a full work-out. This is followed by the sultry “Sean Bhain,” in which the narrator bids the fair-haired Sean to have his evil way on her. The tongue-in-cheek vocalization by Jordan is a nice contrast to the sombre attitude of so many of the songs on end of the day.
From here, the usual suspects, the reels, the jigs, and the airs, all show up. Most of these are played with Dervish’s usual degree of excellence. It’s nice to hear, though, that they’re fooling around with the usual Irish method of arrangement. In the “Larks on the Strand” jig set, they severely slow down the standard pace in order to showcase Seamus O’Dowd’s excellent guitar-playing. And they include “Cairns Hill,” a lovely air written by Michael Holmes. This piece continually transforms itself as different instruments take over on the melody. It provides a great preface for the classic “There was a Maid in her Father’s Garden,” in which a somewhat malicious man returns to his love after seven years apart.
In their search for songs, Dervish have unearthed one that eventually became a standard on this side of the Atlantic, “The Banks of Sweet Viledee,” otherwise known as “The Demon Lover” or “The House Carpenter.” Telling of a up-to-no-good sailor who woos a woman away from her beloved house carpenter husband and her child, this song is played with a stateliness that belies the bitterness of its vocals.
Dervish seems to have made quite an effort to keep the moods slightly more chipper on this CD. The only real sad song here is “Erin Gra mo Chroi,” a sombre tribute to Ireland. The narrator of “Bold Doherty” may discover the inherent dangers with fooling around with a tinker’s wife, but with its swarthy rhythms and even proud boasting, this is far from a morbid song. Boosting spirits even more are the peppy “An T-Ull (The Apple)” a gaily philosophical meditation of past loves, and Sean McCarthy’s “Red-Haired Mary,” easily one of the most humorous jilted lover songs I’ve heard in a while.
(Whirling Discs, 1999)
