Niamh Bury’s ‘Yellow Roses’ is a record that can lead the charge for the Irish Folk scene at a time when the competition is fierce. This is no small accolade, for sure, but with an album this strong, it is an almost unavoidable statement.
There are debut albums that you can praise for the potential they hint at, the promise of what might unfold and evolve in an artist’s progress further down the road, and then there are those like Yellow Roses, where an act arrives fully loaded and delivering the goods from the outset. Niamh Bury’s debut album is rich in ideas and fully occupied by able execution. The music is crafted imaginatively by a musical mind eager to unlock those rays of light in the sound that shine on each bar of music, subtly changing the colour and shape in ways that ensure there is never a dull moment, no periods where the listener will feel that the same ground is being covered. Yellow Roses is delightfully organic, too, proffering a hand-made feel that is so pivotal to great folk music that you can almost feel the impression of those guitar strings on your fingers as Niamh Bury chisels away at these songs. Then there is that voice on top of it all, strong in accent and pure in tone, a natural instrument rippling with youthful zest and yet simultaneously haunted by ancient ghosts; it results in these songs being sung with both conviction and grace.
Undoubtedly, the confidence and delivery of this record are central to the praise Niamh Bury is receiving currently, but still, it is no small feat to be lauded as a leading light on the Irish folk scene right now, which is a pretty fertile melting pot positively boiling over with musical treasure in 2024. Naturally, her apparent maturity is no fluke, there are years of nurture and positive diverse influence behind such a revelation. Growing up in a Dublin house with a mother who is a classically trained pianist, Niamh recalls, “there was always a lot of classical music in the house and my mum would often take me to the National Concert Hall. My dad is more like the folk side of me; he’s an amazing guitarist and singer. He’s a great showman and a storyteller.” Niamh herself has been honing those very same folk-based interests at grassroots level for some time, particularly in her capacity as a chief organiser of the singing session at Dublin’s Cobblestone Pub known as ‘The Night Before Larry Got Stretched.’
Naturally enough, Yellow Roses is a record with all these elements bubbling to the surface. The song Beehive might appear to drift past as in a dream, but the heavy elements of folk wisdom, myth and science meet head-on in the lyric. Bury original The Ballad Of Margaret Reed pulls on that aforementioned folk story dexterity in a tale of a widow burned at the stake on accusation of being a witch. Discovery presents with some ornate piano before some free-flowing acoustic pickings set a structure and that commanding voice demands your attention. By the time this opening salvo ends on a cloudburst of hazy shimmer, you are (as Niamh herself sings in the lyric) “not fooling anyone” if you think this album is not insisting you dive headlong into it. Who Am I To Tell Him? cautions against ill-informed judgementalism, while Bite The Bridle employs the tale of a horse showing discomfort or displeasure as a metaphor for our own tendency to ignore our physical needs.
Niamh’s closeness to family is apparent on Pianos In The Snow and the title track, which are odes to her mother on the former and her grandmother on the latter. Despite these ties that bind, there is also a vagabond-like restlessness evident in Simmering Pots, this being a song with taut shades of darkness and light reflecting on the comforts of domesticity and surrounding possessions set against the equally enticing pull of an untethered travelling light lifestyle. Everything Niamh brings to the table is exquisitely pulled together on refined closer Budapest; colourful piano with elegant cello and double bass strokes accompany the guitar before it retires, leaving them to gently caress the sun out from behind the clouds, a gorgeous few moments of reflection allowing the overall magic of this album to resonate with you a little longer.
Just like the candle that illuminates the aged ornamental ephemera on the front cover, Yellow Roses is an elemental source that beguiles and enchants in equal measure. It is a record that can lead the charge for the Irish Folk scene at a time when the competition is fierce. This is no small accolade, for sure, but with an album this strong, it is an almost unavoidable statement.
Watch her new video for Bite the Bridle, Directed & Produced by Myles O’Reilly:
Yellow Roses is out now on Claddagh Records (29 March). Order it here: https://niamhbury.lnk.to/YellowRoses
Niamh Bury will play venues across Ireland and the UK in April. Details and tickets: here.