John Doyle – The Path of Stones
Compass Records – 1 May 2020
John Doyle is a name that, for me, has come to epitomise the very best of Irish or, increasingly, Irish-American folk. In addition to his solo work, he’s made innumerable guest appearances on albums as varied as the bluegrass of Tim O’Brien, the Gaelic song of Julie Fowlis and the rather more rocky folk of Linda Thompson. But perhaps most tellingly, his distinctive voice and style of accompaniment have been at the heart of so many outstanding collaborations. In the late 90s with Solas, with his continuing membership of the McGoldrick, McCusker and Doyle trio, with his more recent work with Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary in The Alt and as part of the multi-generational super group Usher’s Island (with Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Mike McGoldrick and Paddy Glackin). In all these guises, John has been making startlingly innovative and polished music for over 30 years. His latest project, The Path of Stones, has delighted me on so many levels, none more so than, while nominally a solo album, it nevertheless continues John’s habit of collaboration with the very best Irish and American musicians.
All ten tracks are from John’s pen, though the opener, The Rambler from Clare, has the traditional lyrics of a ballad from the time of the 1798 Irish rebellion, leaving John to work his magic on the tune. The song has been in John’s repertoire for a long time; he says he can’t remember where he first heard it. It touches on a theme that is a familiar thread through his music, as an Irishman with a career based largely in North America, the pain of enforced emigration seems to have long struck a chord with him. Some of his most memorable songs have been the result, Liberties Sweet Shore from the 2011 album Shadow and Light frequently comes to mind. Being set around the time of a rebellion, The Rambler from Clare has a few other themes of persecution to explore, but the end result is the same, a young man forced to leave home and family for a perilous journey across the Atlantic.
The focus changes for the remaining five songs on the album, at least three of them could be described as love songs, though with John’s oblique way with lyrics the messages might be considered somewhat mixed. But there’s nothing mixed about the quality of the songs. The album’s title track, The Path of Stones, is outstanding in its simplicity, and that alone gives it an ability to instantly raise the hairs on the back of your neck. It’s one of only two tracks on which John is the only performer, his voice adding the vocal harmony to choruses and the final verse. His accompaniment consists of two guitar lines, from a six-string and a twelve-string, backed, after the vocal finishes, by chords from a harmonium. Simple, but oh so powerful.
On two other songs, John has enlisted Cathy Jordan, the vocalist and bodhrán player from Dervish, adding texture to the choruses and final verses. On the gently lyrical Lady Wynde, her voice clearly separates from John’s, spreading the pitch of the vocals. As with The Path of Stones, John provides Lady Wynde, with a gentle, but even more sparing, guitar accompaniment, but here enriched by fiddle and cello passages from Duncan Wickel. John and Duncan, also Irish born and now transplanted to America, have toured together frequently in recent years and this shines through in the easy rapport evident here and on the other three tracks that feature Duncan’s fiddle and/or cello. On Teelin Harbour John and Cathy’s voices are more tightly merged, giving the faster-paced song a vitality appropriate to a tale of fishermen threatened by a gathering storm. It’s typical of John’s storytelling that the song doesn’t resolve the question of whether they make it back to Teelin Harbour. The dramatic story of these lyrics demands an arrangement to match, and it’s provided in large part by John himself, demonstrating just how much of a multi-instrumentalist he is. On the track, he’s credited with bouzouki, guitar, 5-string guitar, fiddle, harmonium and keyboard. Cathy Jordan adds bodhrán and a second fiddle part comes from another of John’s long-time collaborators, John McCusker.
The intricacies of the Teelin Harbour arrangement have similarities with that of The Rambler from Clare, with John, again, providing the core with a bewitching mix of mandola, guitar, mandolin and fiddle alongside Duncan Wickel’s fiddle and harmonica from Rick Epping. I’m not aware of John and Rick having recorded together before, but Cathy Jordan is a direct connection as she occasionally teams up with Rick and Seamus O’Dowd to play as The Unwanted. Rick has journeyed in the opposite direction to John, a California native, he’s migrated musically and, at times, geographically, eastwards to Ireland. His harmonica playing is an easy and very effective fit to John’s music.
Describing instrumental aspects of the Teelin and Rambler tracks leads nicely on to the album’s four instrumentals. Three of these are tune sets, firstly Coolaney Reel, a set of three reels that has John providing most of the sound: guitars, bouzouki, harmonium and keyboards. Cathy adds bodhrán and the third member of John’s long-standing trio, Mike McGoldrick, brings in his flute. Secondly, a pair of jigs from John and Duncan, Naoise Nolan’s and finally, Knock a Chroí, a mixed set, an air, a jig and a slip jig with John playing all the instruments. Three tracks that provide exactly what one would hope to hear, modern compositions in traditional style from musicians who perfectly understand their genre. The fourth instrumental track, Elevenses, gives us something a bit different. John and Michael McGoldrick, John providing a guitar rhythm and a mandolin tune with Michael’s flute joining to weave patterns around them, eventually taking over the tune. It may not be Celtic but, boy, is it good.
It’s been a long wait since John’s last solo album, nine years, but he’s hardly been idle in the interim, so there’s no real cause for complaint. Especially now that we can bask in the delights of an album that delivers just about everything one could have hoped for. Excellent musicianship, not just from John, but also from a perfectly assembled cast of guests, abundant evidence that John’s song writing is maturing as steadily and assuredly as a cask of Jameson’s 18 Years and an album that mixes songs and tunes into a heady cocktail that leaves you with a warm, self-satisfied glow. And, yes, all of that imagery came from repeatedly listening to The Path of Stones while stone-cold sober.
Pre-Order The Path of Stones out on 1 May via Compass Records: https://CompassRecords.lnk.to/pathofstonesWE
Photo Credit: Stacie Huckaba