Britain is full of young talented folk singers and players. Niamh Boadle is one of them. She first came onto my radar some years ago when I shared a spot at Warwick Folk Music Festival with her band Tri. Since then she has made two albums including this one, and studied Irish Folk Music at Limerick University and British at Newcastle University.
Niamh’s main focus is her vocals, but she is also an accomplished guitarist, a fine fiddler and she also performs on bodhran, whistle and mandolin on this album, though mostly to accompany her singing.
Niamh wrote three of the songs on the album. My favourite is “Bill’s Missed the Last Boat Back,” a song for her granddad. It has a jazzy feel to it with a rolling guitar backing, including some nice runs between verses, and a soft piano played by Paul Sartin, the only session musician on the record. “Red Dust Road” is a softer, slower song, about a trip to New South Wales, Australia. I would not be surprised if more people than I are thinking about including it in their repertoire. Niamh’s guitar playing is supplemented by fiddle and mandolin, and on the choruses she has added a vocal harmony.
She also has a knack for picking suitable songs by others. Niamh does a nice version of Kate Fagan’s “Roll You Sweet Rain” and has had the good taste to include a song by Anthony John Clarke, “The Only Life Gloria Knows.” It is one of AJC’s best known songs and Niamh does it justice, not straying too far from the original.
There are six traditional songs on Maid on the Shore, many of them performed a capella, one of Niamh’s real strengths. She is in possession of a voice well suited for this, and without an instrument in the background she is free to add ornamentation to the songs, something she is a master of. My favourite among the traditional songs is “Creggan White Hare,” an Irish song she has oicked up from Karen Casey. She backs herself on bodhran, but since there are no chords she can sing in a capella style. A lovely song treated superbly.
My only regret is that she only has included one instrumental. Her fine fiddle playing deserves at least one more, but maybe on the next album.
Maid on the Shore is a big step forward for Niamh Boadle. Her Wild Rose was a good debut album, but this one shows she is on the move to becoming a big name on the folk circuit. She is not there yet, but give her a few years and she may be. I suspect that not that long from now I will boast about playing on the same bill as her. So check it out and be able to tell your friends, “Well, I heard her years ago, before she was a star.”
(Wild Goose, 2015)
Here’s a fine video of Niamh Boadle performing the title track:
And you can see another of Niamh performing Forget Me Nots, the opening track.
