Reviews
HI FI World, May 2004
EARLY HOURS Review
Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy has a distinguished pedigree, having written the renowned and oft-anthologised 'Only A Woman's Heart'. Her last recording YOLA also found success as a much-admired stereo hybrid SACD. EARLY HOURS demonstrates once again the gorgeous naturalistic recording style of YOLA, while upping the game in that is adds both the choice of a multi-channel version (mostly of an ambient soundfield nature but with some centre channel use for isolated or phantom-supported lead vocal, and some surround excursions for supporting instruments and vocals), and varies instrumental options by adding Calum MacColl (of the MacColl clan, and Brian Kennedy/Ronan Keating sideman fame) to the already excellent band. The album has been produced by McEvoy and her gifted pianist Brian Connor, and like its predecessor the sleeve proudly proclaims that it was recorded and mixed using analogue machines. The result is a wonderfully warm sound, faithfully reproduced with stunning realism in its DSD incarnation - particularly when conveying McEvoy's likeable Irish brogue
While YOLA had co-writes with Lloyd Cole and Henry Priestman, the songs here are predominantly originals in an acoustic folk vein, although a languorous take on Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee puts an interesting new spin on an old tune, and Bert Jansch's Where Did My Life Go? is a particular highlight. McEvoys songs are predominantly set to sturmmed or picked acoustics and real piano, with occasionsal use of other keyboards, ttumpets and fiddle as adornments. Bass and drums are used sparignly but effectively where appropriate, with a full rock arragnement only appearing on the up tempo Days Roll By and charming AT The End Of The Day. Recommended to those in search of a tranquil listening experience.
qxmagazine.com
EARLY HOURS review
NOT quite a household name, but one to give Katie Melau a run for her money. This lounge and country folk influenced solo female artist has a warm and rounded southern Irish accent. Lazy, breezy guitar solos are complemented by meandering vocals and insightful, pining lyrics. These heartfelt songs are full of life and at ease with themselves - for all the world to discover.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK (8/10)
Logo Magazine
EARLY HOURS review
While Thea Gilmore gets all the attention, the similarly gifted Eleanor McEvoy has been busy honing a far-more affecting brand of singer-songwriterly femme-folk. This is not the authentic, Olde English folk of Kate Rusby, this is folk as it was always imagined: universal themes of common humanity. The fact that she’s been overlooked for so long (this is her seventh album) is criminal, for the passion here - =harged by simple arrangements and the skeletal edge to her voice - is startling. Among the =andful of covers is a creeping, crawling take on Chuck Berry’s ‘Memphis, =ennessee’; you’ll know it from the words, but the arrangement takes it into a roadhouse at 3am. McEvoy’s intent here was to highlight the plight of estranged fathers, and without changing a single word she has =ade this modern standard do just that. Her own work is equally affecting, imbued with the beauty of Judie Tzuke and the wordplay of Suzanne Vega. that’s a pantheon that McEvoy is eminently qualified to join, now is the time for it to happen.
Gillian Nash
The Irish Post, 27 Mar, 2004
EARLY HOURS review
IT'S A bit of a hostage to fortune to call the first song of your album You'll Hear Better Songs Than This. Actually, I probably will, but all the same this is a seductive and somewhat chilling composition, and sets the scene for the rest of Eleanor McEvoy's latest album. Most of the material here is self-penned — the only exceptions being Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee and Where Did My Life Go? by Bert Jansch. The former track sees Eleanor in a somewhat Diana Krall mood — that is to say, cabaret blues style.
Even the title Early Hours is reminiscent of Tom Waits’ Closing Time, and is delivered in much the same style as the master of seedy melancholy. "Oh well, go ahead and play the blues if it makes you happy," as my old music teacher used to say, and obviously someone has said this to Eleanor. The only real interruption to the chosen genre is an unaccompanied song Anach Cuain. This traditional lament for a boat which went down off the west coast of Ireland is delivered with exquisite poignancy and controlled musical power.
Early Hours is certainly, as we say in the music business, 'something of a departure for Eleanor. I know we've been waiting for her to write another Woman's heart — and, indeed we're still waiting, but this will do nicely in the meantime.
MALCOLM ROGERS ****
The Surrey Comet/South London Guardian
EARLY HOURS review
If anyone produces a better album than Eleanor McEvoy’s Early Hours this year then I’ll eat my hat, because this latest offering from the Irish singer/songwriter is as close to perfect as you will ever hear. The thirteen track album is mesmerisingly beautiful, Eleanor has married a number of styles from folk to jazz and blues to create a mini masterpiece.
An excellent mix of original songs and covers the album is strong both lyrically and musically. The lyrics are frighteningly honest and each song has something to say and a story to tell, be it Make Mine A Small One which is about Christmas’s past or a spellbinding cover of Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee. Then there is a haunting cover of Bert Jansch’s Where Did My Life Go written as a tribute to folk singer Sandy Denny.
"All the tracks were recorded live," said Eleanor. "We would go into the studio as a band and record each song together, there are no overdubs on here at all." Musically, the arrangements offer more by being kept simple, there aren’t layers of extraneous instruments which add nothing to the overall sound and can leave tracks sounding cluttered and as though they are about to collapse under the weight of their own self indulgence.
Early Hours is one of those rare albums which as soon as the last track is over you want to listen to it again and again and again, 40 minutes of pure aural pleasure. Early Hours is out on March 10 and if you only buy one CD in 2004 make sure it’s this one.
Gareth Foreman
IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE April 2004 Vol. 9 No. 7
EARLY HOURS review
Eleanor McEvoy will be forever connected to the mega-selling ‘A Woman’s heart’. One surprise that people who know her only from ‘Woman’s heart’ will get is that that particular song was atypical of her style in writing and delivery. McEvoy has a very Irishblues style that will entrance and lull even the casual listener. Her interpretation of “Memphis Tennessee” on this CD issuperb. “The D.J.” is for the men and women who power ourairwaves in the small hours and the unsocial times when we most needto have good music. “Ave Maria” is my favourite track. This is not Eleanor singing a hymn. Well, maybe it is, but not thetraditional hymn. In many ways it returns to the woman’s heart as itreflects on an old Ireland when devotion to religion, particularlyamong women was intense. With a spare accompaniment and a beautifulvoice this deserves a much wider audience. “Make Mine A SmallOne” is a typical phrase of Christmas but McEvoy uses it as ahook on a beautiful song of lost times and people.
“SlippingAway” gives us a tale that so many will recognise as a friend,relative or lover leaves our world. This feels painfully personal butyou must listen and listen closely. There is one example of Eleanor McEvoy fiddle player on this album. Itis only just under 2 minutes long but I love it. I could be wrong butI guess that the Butler’s in “Driving Home from Butlers”is a country pub near the pilgrimage site of Our Lady’s Islandin County Wexford and the home parish of my wife. Eleanor recalls thatthe tune was inspired by playing that small venue with local players -Brendan, Sean and Tom. It is brilliant to find a tune with roots whereall great performers find their roots - locally. With lyrics of herown compositions, some background and some lovely pictures this is agreat package from a very accomplished writer and performer.
Nicky Rossiter
Irish Times, 22nd April 2004
EARLY HOURS review
Nonchalance oozes from Eleanor McEvoy’s fifth and strongest album in an
11 - year career. She’s no longer trying as hard as she used to, no
longer thrashing and flailing in search of an identity. After 2001’s
excellent ‘Yola’, McEvoy’s creative juices have been given licence to
flow free, and even her left-field decisions (covering Chuck Berry’s
‘Memphis Tennessee’) somehow ring true, hinting at a gene pool that’s
two parts Irish, one part deep south. Contemporary social politics fuel
much of McEvoy’s writing; her grasp of church / state relations is
expressed with scalpel - precision and poignancy on Ave Maria.
Co-producer Brian Connor brings a forensic attention to the panoramic
sweep that includes a raft of radio - friendly tracks and a throaty,
naked reading of the sean nos ‘Anach Cuain’.
Siobhan Long
HOT PRESS 21st April 2004 Vol. 28 no. 7
EARLY HOURS review
Her last album, 2001’s Yola, saw Eleanor McEvoy move away from the
electric pop rock of her major label days to the more rootsy, acoustic
approach of her earlier work. It was a wise decision, both artistically
and commercially; the success of that album (particularly in the UK
where it won several awards) opened up a whole new audience for the
Wexford based singer-songwriter.
Early Hours follows in much in the same vein, albeit with a much
stronger jazz influecne than its predecessor. Collaborating closely
with her keyboard player brian Connor, the album also features
long-time associates Calum McColl, Liam Bradley and Nicky Scott. As
with virtually everything she has done to date, the songs here are
immaculately crafted, sympathetically arranged and beautifully recorded.
Muted trumpet, cascading piano and brush-stroke thythms underpin the
opener “You’ll Hear Better Songs (Than This)” which sets the tone for
much of what follows. The sultry, late-night mood is continued on an
inspired interpretation of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis Tennesssee” - the
piano and bass arrangement making it sound like a cut from Miles Davis’
“Kind Of Blue” album. Things move up a notch or two on the pleasant,
mid-tempo pop of the recent single, “I’ll Be Willing”, while a
traditionally based intrumental, “Driving Home From Butlers”,
showcases her fiddle playing.
McEvoy’s lyrical themes concern the human condition - love, happiness,
and sadness, but she also tackles subjects such as religious devotion
(“Ave Maria”) and the death of a close friend on the poignant “slipping
Away”. the low -key mood is broken only by “Days Roll By” a dance-pop
number with a fulll band arrangement. A version of Bert jansch’s “Where
Did My Life Go?” is a brave choice and a beautiful song - but the
absolute highlight and one of the best songs she’s ever written is the
gorgeously melodic and heart rending “Make Mine A Small One”.
Early Hours is released on what’s known as a hybrid, multi-channel
Super Audio CD” (also playable on standard CD players). The surround
SACD mix alone will make this one for the audiophiles, but that apart
this is surely Eleanor mcEvoy’s best album to date.
Buy early, buy often.
Colm O’Hare
MOJO Review April 2004
EARLY HOURS review
Rich textures, beautiful songs and no regrets from the writer of ‘A
Woman’s Heart’.
It would be a tragedy - given the exquisite, understated magnificence
and warmth of these 42 minutes - if all Eleanor McEvoy were remembered
for is ‘A Woman’s Heart’ (to date, the best selling Irish album ever).
2001’s Yola refocused her on songwriting basics while pushing the aural
envelope with analogue production and SACD mixing / mastering - winning
hi-fi awards in the process.
Early Hours builds an entire sonic
civilisation on that foundation, adding Irish jazz maestro Linley
Hamilton on sublime trumpet / flugelhorn and Calum MacColl on gorgeous,
liquid electric guitar. Retaining the Yola/ dream team of Van Morrison
sidemen Liam Bradley (percussion), Brian Conor (piano) and bassist
Nicky Scott, this is a band to die for. With Eleanor’s Dido -before -
Dido voice and some of the best happy / sad songs she’s ever written
(plus deconstructed classics by Chuck Berry and Bert Jansch), this is
her White Ladder, her Life For Rent.
A triumph.
TV Now
EARLY HOURS review
(awarded 'album of the week')
Only a woman’s heart can write songs like this, and only an Irish
woman’s heart can sing songs like this. Eleanor McEvoy, arguably one of
this country’s most talented folk musicians, should be conscripted as a
soul teacher for every budding star. Lessons can be learnt from
musicians of McEvoy’s calibre. Norah Jones, Joss Stone - please take
note.
From the opening lines of her first track, McEvoy states her case
in point. “You’ll hear better songs than this / with no trace of
clumsiness”, she sings quietly, and effortlessly. “you’ll hear voices
pure and fine / voices far surpassing mine / phrases I could never play
/ you will hear them any day / played by people wearing younger
clothes”. And she’s right - you will hear better songs with melodies
that compliment the rhyme. You will hear better songs sung by people
wearing younger clothes. But you will not hear music this heartfelt
(Slipping Away), this honest (You’ll Hear better Songs), this gentle
(Ave Maria) this sad (Driving Home from Butlers) and this old fashioned
(Anach Cuain). You will not hear songs like this anywhere but on Early
Hours. And Early Hours is an album that sounds like it was written in
the early hours of many sleepless damp, wintery Irish nights. It tastes
of Guinness. It smells of earth. It sounds like lashing rain beating on
the windows of a stonewalled cottage. To steal a phrase from James
Joyce and Ulysses, “the snot green sea, the scrotumtightening sea” has
made this album what it is - a very Irish constant in a lopsided world.
Castlewellan Celtic Fusion Festival
‘Irish Times’ 11th Aug. ’04
Notwithstanding the competition from Newcastle Herring Gutters
Festival, just down the road, this year’s Celtic Fusion festival, in
Castlewellan, got off to a flying start.
A somewhat low-key line-up might have tempted some of the audience to
leave their pacemakers on the mantelpiece, but once Eleanor McEvoy
launched into her fiery set, accompanied by nothing more than her
guitar, fiddle and glass-shattering vocal cords, we knew we were in for
a fearsome night of music. McEvoy has hit more than her share of high
notes with her last two CDs ‘Early Hours’ and ‘Yola’, and it showed:
quietly confident and enviably self-possessed, she lured reluctant
stragglers tentwards as she cherry-picked from a catalogue that spans
Chuck Berry (‘Memphis Tennessee’), Eleanor McEvoy (‘Easy In Love’,
‘Driving Home From Butler’s’) and, er, Eleanor McEvoy (‘A Woman’s
Heart’ etc.). A lone performer plying a singular trade with
considerable élan.
From the lonesome strings of mcEvoy’s guitar to the rabid incursions
of all five members of Lunasa, gaps were bridged, pelvic girdles
challenged and tunes allowed to collide in mid-air, where they
shattered into a million crystalline pieces, translating traditional
music into a currency everyone could trade in. Somehow Kevin Crawford,
Sean Smyth and company sail high into the ether with every live
performance, Taking their fuel largely from their most recent live CD,
The Kinnity Sessions, they wove flute, low whistles, p[pipes, double
bass and fiddle into all manner of exotic patterns, particularly during
the Bulgarian-scented set Split Rock / Djinovsko Horo. Killian
Vallely’s pipes are increasingly occupying a backbone position,
scaffolded by Trevor Hutchinson’s double bass and Crawford’s occasional
percussive excursions on bodhran.
After that we’d have figured on a slow-release sleeping pill, courtesy
of Don McLean, a headliner who clearly couldn’t believe his luck to be
topping a bill in his 59th year. But, backed by a four-piece band, this
was a man who had no plans for a cocoa-fuelled early night.
Her hurtled through a rollicking set that included Buddy Holly’s
‘Everyday’, Dylan’s ‘Masters Of War’ and a whole mess of his own
material, from ‘Vincent’ to that rarest or breeds the happy love song
(‘And I Love You So’) - and he caressed it lovingly, hammocked by a
fieldful of baking singers.
And back he came for an extended encore, telling us that we made him
feel 50 again - but really, it was the music that saved his mortal
soul. August weekends don’t come much more sublime than this one.
SIOBHAN LONG
'The Scotsman', 15 July 2004
EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB ***** (5 out of 5)
She may still be most widely known for the title track of the 1992
all-female compilation A Woman’s Heart, one of Ireland’s
biggest-selling albums ever, but Dubliner Eleanor McEvoy has since
capitalised on this early exposure to establish a durable career as a
singer-songwriter.
Her earlier solo albums pursued an increasingly rock-oriented
direction, complete with full band, but on this occasion, promoting her
recent fifth release Early Hours, it was just herself and the guitar -
and her set was a shining example of just how complete and satisfying
that format can sound when skilfully handled.
Most immediate among McEvoy’s assets as a performer is her velvety
voice, a mellifluous mezzo with bright soprano highlights. These
nuanced shades of expression, combined with her insightful lyrics and
fluent diction, align her much more closely with east-coast American
songstresses such as Dar William and Suzanne Vega than fellow Woman’s
Heart contributors like Mary or Frances Black. Many of her songs dealt
with the pains and pleasures of love, exploring such contemporary
contretemps as being dumped by e-mail (When the Rain Falls), and the
art of declining a proposition unhurtfully (My Own Sweet Bed Tonight).
The pleasures were celebrated in the ardent, blues-accented It’s Mine,
and the joyously tender Easy In Love, while elsewhere her material
roamed further afield, with a softly poignant lament for the Catholic
Church’s recently exposed betrayals, Ave Maria, and a hauntingly
minimal, slowed-down version of Chuck Berry’s Memphis,Tennessee.
SUE WILSON
BBC Wiltshire
Correspondent Kelly Stooke recently caught Irish singer/songwriter Eleanor
McEvoy's gig in Salisbury. Read her review
and listen to the exclusive interview.
click here
YOLA review
"I cannot fault any aspect of this disc. It's a mature statement. The
production is superb and the songs are 'crafted'. Her already-established
fan base will love this . one of the flagship Irish folk releases of the
year."
Shaun Belcher, BBC Radio 2
YOLA review
". the glorious simplicity of this release feels like a homecoming in every
sense. Backed by three superb musicians, the live-in-home-studio
performances are beautifully restrained, and the vibe of both writing and
sound has a warmth and contentedness redolent of gazing through rain-lashed
stone-cottage windows in Wexford - which is, as it happens, pretty much how
it was."
Colin Harper, Mojo
YOLA review
" .a class act. One listen to the opening song on 'Yola' confirms that this
CD realises her true potential as a resourceful and gifted songwriter .
Eleanor is an original, clearly enjoying her role as a songwriter without
any apparent pressure linked to her transatlantic success."
KW, Get Rhythm
YOLA review
" ... In one word, the album is brilliant. The album draws every dimension
out of the guitar and paino combo and the use of bass guitar and drums is
subtle and spot on. It's the perfect soundtrack to that candle-lit dinner."
Adrian Phelan, ri-ra
YOLA review
"In 1994, after picking up a clutch of Irish awards, she released her
self-titled solo debut to much the same acclaim,. And yet that remains the
only one of the albums to be released in the UK. Matters are put to rights
with this, her fourth and undoutbedly best release."
David Yeats, Birmingham Post
Hot Press 4th Dec 2002
"A Woman's Heart - A Decade On" (Dara records)
Ten years ago the first Woman's Heart compilation landed upon us, launching
and consolidating careers and alerting us to the welter of female talent
about the place, not least the songwriting class of Eleanor McEvoy who
provided the ground-breaking title track.
Ten years on we come upon a timely update showcasing some of the artists
featured on the first album as well as a pleasure cruise through some not
catered for back then.
The opener, Sinead O'Connor's 'This Is To Mother You', sets a sublime
standard that is maintained almost non-stop through to the hidden version
of the title track by Emmylou Harris and Mary Black.
Among the heady cornucopia of established Irish acts you'll find Maighread
and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill (with Donal Lunny), Mary and Frances Black, Sharon
Shannon (never mind the Wild Bulocks), Mary Coughlan and Maura O'Connell.
The Corrs, aided by The Chieftains, breath new life into 'I Know My Love'
and Mary Black duets with Marcia Howard for a thought-provoking setting of
William Blake's 'Poison Tree'. Dolores Keane teams up with Tommy Sands and
Vedran Smailovic for 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone', Pete Seeger's
classic song sitting comfortably alongside Dylan's 'To Ramona' from Sinead
Lohan. Meanwhile the unlikely pairing of Altan and Dolly Parton hit the
spot with 'In the Sweet By And By'.
Of the comparatively newer generation, Juliet Turner delivers a magnificent
'Sorry To Say' and Cathie Ryan proves she's a real find with the lilting
'Carrick-a-rede'.
The inclusion of the dramatic 'Fields Of Gold' from Eva Cassidy and Alison
Krauss' evocative 'Down To The River To Pray' suggests that Dara may have
evoked the grandmother rule to fit them in, but then such fine music pays
little attention to birth certs.
And then there's 'Please Heart, You're Killing Me', another gem from the
pen of Eleanor McEvoy. And that's where we came in, all of ten years ago.
Irish Music Magazine 2002
Eleanor McEvoy - Yola
Eleanor McEvoy's music has gradually returned to its acoustic roots over the last few years. Abandoning the full electric band of yore, she now prefers to work in tandem with keyboard player Brian Connor and her music breathes more freely as a result. Yola, her first independent album after sojourns with Geffen and Columbia is a stripped down, primarily sparse affair with subtlety as the keyword. Lyrically emotional landscapes of the personal and romantic kind generally flourish throughout Yola with one exception, Last Seen October 9th a quietly profound meditation on a missing person.
Chimerical landscapes abound in Did I Hurt You a melodic acoustic ballad its graceful melody gently underscored and a revival of I hear You Breathing In with just Connor's piano backing emphasizes the back to basics approach. The gospelly Something So Wonderful provides a suitably atmospheric closer while the up-tempo I Got You to See Me Through and Easy In Love provide perfect radio ear candy. Yola has Eleanor McEvoy's distinctive vocals and articulate lyrics resonating afresh and proving that she is one of Ireland's finest singer/songwriters - a welcome return to form.
John O'Regan
Netrhythms.co.uk Feb 2002
YOLA review
In 1992 McEvoy became a star in Ireland on the strength of Only A Woman's
Heart, a song that went on to become the foundation of the A Woman's Heart
anthology, an album that remains in the Irish chart to this day. In 1994,
after picking up a clutch of Irish awards, she released her self-titled
solo debut to much the same worldwide acclaim. And yet that remains the
only one of her albums to ever be released in the UK.
Matters are put to
rights with this, her fourth and undoubtedly best release. And while only
available via a small label, it does come in the spanking new Super Audio
format, though I daresay she's going to be rather more occupied thinking
about her new baby than what her disc sounds like on your system. Taking
its title from a now virtually extinct South Wexford dialect
(metaphorically underlining her own musical language), the album is
something of a return to her musical roots, eschewing technology for a
three piece backing with guitars, drums and bass augmented with piano and
viola to produce a laid back homely feel with the atmosphere of
rain-washed windows, leafy smells and mists over the fields.
It's no
surprise to learn the Wexford weather was a major influence on the
melancholic yet generally upbeat songwriting. Mixing in jazz and folk
influences, at times reminiscent of Suzanne Vega (Isn't It A Little Late
surely patterned after Tom's Diner), the songs are generally concerned
with relationships, their upsides and downsides, the opening uplifting I
Got You To See Me Through balanced, for example, with The Rain Falls, a
witty break-up song in which the guy deletes the girl by e mail while the
album closes with twin celebrations of love as salvation, I Hear You
Breathing In and Something So Wonderful, co-written by Henry Christian and
part inspired by Tom Hyland of East Timorese Solidarity. The stand-out
however has to be the simple piano ballad Last Seen October 9th, a song
for lost loved ones written after McEvoy saw a notice board in Kansas full
of details of children who had gone missing. Listen to it with the
background in mind and it's hard not to get choked up.
Mike Davies
Mojo magazine November 2001
YOLA review
Back-to-basics triumph for the icon of Irish womanhood, named after arcane
Wexford dialect.
Cast for ever in a certain light, illuminating the unlikely borders between
tweeness and rage for her early 90's authorship of universal gender anthem
Only A Woman's Heart, McEvoy has spent the time since in trying to define
her audience. Recorded adventures in guitar-band rock and then
machine-based pop may not have harmed the intrinsic qualities of her
song-writing - always mischievously infectious in construction and
attractively honest in tone - but, coming as it does after a lengthy period
spent trying to crack America, the glorious simplicity of this release
feels like a homecoming in every sense. Backed by three superb musicians,
the live-in-home-studio performances are beautifully restrained, and the
vibe of both writing and sound has a warmth and contentedness redolent of
gazing through rain-lashed stone-cottage windows in Wexford - which is, as
it happens, pretty much how it was.
Colin Harper.
Acoustica At The Olympia 7th August 2001
Irish Music Volume 7 Number 3 - October 2001
Eleanor McEvoy and Brian Connor (piano) opened the show. McEvoy has long
ditched her electric band of some years standing and now prefers to play in
a duo format with Brian Connor. Choosing material from her last two albums
'Yola' and 'Snapshots' and occasionally glancing further back with the
cutting 'Precious Little', McEvoy's focus was definitely on the current
crop of songs from her observant pen. While her lyrical stance still
concerns matters of the heart the incurable romantic now shared the
spotlight with a tougher steely front. Best of her brief set was 'Easy To
Lose Hope' dedicated to Veronica Guerin that developed into an almost
anthemic quality. On this showing Eleanor McEvoy's muse is alive, vibrant
and very much kicking.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE 6th May 2001
Yola
Eleanor McEvoy
Blue Dandelion Records
As well as being quite the most appealingly titled album in ages, Yola is
a tender testament to McEvoy's writing ability and her considerable
singing talents. It is an evocative album set at a walking pace that
draws you into McEvoy's mellow, melancholy world, painted with that
rounded Wexford drawl.
If it didn't seem such an insult, it might even be called sensible: it is
measured, the spare arrangements always perfectly appropriate, beautifully
matched with the jazz and trad influenced pop songs. Made with a perfect
balance, comfortable yet engaging, musically daring without ever stepping
into avant garde territory, Yola is a beautifully atmospheric, simple
album to file under "after midnight only".
Matthew McGee.
IRISH TIMES WEDNESDAY MAY 2nd 2001
Yola
Blue Dandelion Records
Having recently extricated herself from a major record label, it is with
no small level of irony that this co-produced album is miles better than
Eleanor McEvoy's previous Rupert Hine-produced effort. It could be said
that she needed a change, not so much of direction but of space (head or
otherwise).While McEvoy herself must surely be biting her tongue over the
success of Dido (who occupies extremely similar sonic territory), she has
done herself proud by writing songs bereft of that singer's clammy
drippiness. "Last Seen October 9th" is a beautiful ballad for lost loved
ones, while "Something So Wonderful" (co-written with The Christians'
Henry Priestman) is a subtle gospel tune just aching for someone very
famous to cover it.
Tony Clayton-Lea
Review of Yola from Cluas
As the name for the dialect formerly spoken in Wexford, Yola was a
unique form of expression - a way to communicate for the inhabitants of that
isolated area. As the name for her current and fourth album, Yola is
Eleanor McEvoy's way of expressing in the language of music, her
viewpoints and thoughts on the world while she was temporarily residing and writing
songs in Wexford.
Eleanor's new CD is a stripped down, keyboard-lead affair with her
guitar often relegated to the background or made non-existent. 'Isn't it a
Little Late?' is just the bare bones of a repeated great feel, real-drummer
drumbeat overlaid by vocals. Though she touches on social commentary
with 'Last Seen October 9th' about missing persons, the rest of her songs
deal with matters of the heart.
The rain in Wexford apparently influenced her song writing. 'The Rain
Falls' is a modernised breakup song where the male uses email to delete
the girl from his life. However, where once her vocals would go from a
whisper to a scream of obsessive despair such as on the superb "Did You Tell
Him" from her last album, now she just goes from a whisper to a stream. The
stream of the rain on her window pane, gives way to the pains that
generate streams of tears, but her voice veers away from maudlin or vitriolic
extremes making her sad songs sound like upbeat melancholy. Perhaps all
those rainy days were tempered by good personal relationships?
The emphasis seems to be on the positive. The album starts with the
uplifting 'Got You to see Me Through' with its "sunshine from the skies"
and "rainbows in my eyes" and ends with two songs celebrating love as
the salvation from darkness. "I Hear You Breathing In" is "the heartbeat by
my side" at night, and 'Something So Wonderful" places love as the "way out
of the darkness" where her eyes are "blinded by something so pure".
If Yola was once a form of communicating in Ireland's Southeast, it is
now an album expressing the thoughts and musical ideas created by of one of
Ireland's best songwriters while she lived in the area. It is on release
now on her own label, Blue Dandelion Records.
Barbara Lindberg
(Irish based webzine -
www.cluas.com)
Hot Press May 2001 - YOLA review
Girl On Top
Eleanor McEvoy - Yola (Blue Dandelion Records)
Following the unprecedented success of her song "Only A Woman's Heart"
in 1992, Eleanor McEvoy could have taken to her easy chair and basked in
the accruing glory and the mounting royalties, stirring only to attempt to
rewrite that song every couple of years.
It is much to her credit, and our good fortune, that she's since
courageously opted for the road less travelled, and this spirit of
adventure is nowhere more in evidence than in "Isn't It A Little Late?"
on Yola. She serves up this track with just her own vocals and a full kit
of drums plus a few words from Yola, a disappearing dialect which
apparently resulted from a collision of Middle English with Irish.
That track is just one of eleven delicately crafted songs which not only
explore the intricacies and disappointments of relationships, especially
"The Rain Falls" in which the narrator gets the big E via e-mail, but
touch on other subjects too, as on "Last Seen October 9th" where McEvoy draws
a heart-rending picture of the forlorn search for a missing girl.
Apart from her warmly expressive, lived-in voice, Yola also brings is
the subtly evocative piano of Brian Connor who gets the mood for each songs
with sometimes miraculous precision, but McEvoy herself must be
applauded, in this age of kitchen sink productions, for having allowed her songs to
fend for themselves among the generally uncluttered arrangements.
"I Got You To See Me Through" celebrates the mutual support that a great
relationship can offer. In "Dreaming Of Leaving", a writing
collaboration with Lloyd Cole, she identifies with the plight of a woman trapped by
domesticity, while the more upbeat "Leaves Me Wondering" argues the pros
and cons of an established partnership. But "Something So Wonderful", a
collaboration with Henry Priestman of The Christians, is a true delight,
one of the most convincing gospel-tinged pop workouts to be heard in
quite a while.
Yola, McEvoy's fourth album, is a brave rejection of the predictable in
favour of a more adventurous following of one woman's heart. Yo, L.A.?
Jackie Hayden.
IRISH EXAMINER 30th APRIL 2001
Paul Dromey
Paul Dromey hears how Eleanor McEvoy found inspiration in a missing
persons story in America.
Eleanor mcEvoy's status among the top echelon of Irish songwriters is well
acknowledged. But in recent years extensive touring commitments in America
have meant that Irish audiences have seen very little of her. Now she's
back with her stunning new album Yola and a 16 date acoustic tour which
takes her all over the country with her pianist Brian Connor.
Yola is a collection of new songs and grew out of Eleanor's collaborations
with the highly respected Connor with whom she toured in America.
"Many people told me that what Brian and I were doing would make a great
recording. So, we set out to recreate that live concert feel but with
high-quality studio sound. I broke my hand about two yers ago and that's
why I originally brought a pianist in. As soon as I heard Brian play, I
thought to myself, 'God, what have I been doing playing piano all these
years when I can work with somebody like this.'
"Like me, Brian has a classical music background. He studied with John
O'Conor and went on to the Guildhall in London. Then he decided that he
didn't want to be a concert pianist and went into jazz.
"For such a good player, he's so restrained- his accompaniment is
beautiful and I have complete confidence when he's playing with me. I can
speed up, I can slow down, I can stop but, no matter what I do, he's
there. It's such a pleasure to be able to work with him."
The interaction between voice and piano on Yola are quite exquisite and,
as with all great arrangements, the spaces are as important as the notes
themselves. For Eleanor, it's a return to her musical roots.
"For a while, I got very into going electric and trying different styles,
even light hip-hop. I had left a lot my classical and acoustic background
behind but, after I broke my hand and began playing guitar again, I
thought, 'gosh, acoustic guitar sounds so beautiful'."
Many of the 11 intimate songs on Yola focus on relationships and the
sublime and stripped-back arrangements allow them to speak for themselves.
The two most fascinating tracks are Last Seen October 9th and the closing
song Something So Wonderful. The latter was co-written with Henry
Priestman of the Christians and was inspired by certain people's utter
dedication to causes. Eleanor had Tom Hyland of East Timorese Solidarityin
mind. Last Seen October 9th has more sinister origins.
"It was a sunny day in Kansas and it seemed like the safest place in the
world. But the notice board was full of details of children who had gone
missing in this one area. It put a shiver down my spine. Back here, there
have been so many cases of women disappearing in recent years. Even while
recording the album, I'd walk out of the studio and there was a poster on
a lamppost of yet another guy who'd gone missing."
Most of the songs were written and arranged in south-east Wexford, and
area that had once been so isolated that it developed its own tangent
dialect of early English mixed with Anglicised Irish. This dialect, now
extinct apart from a few words, was called Yola and Eleanor has borrowed
it for the title for her fourth and finest album.
