Facebook Slider

Lisa Loughrey, Workman’s Club, Dublin

It’s Friday the 13th and the low evening sun is casting long shadows through the haze of gorse fire smoke that is blowing over the city. Regular readers may remember Lisa Loughrey from her work with The Mariannes,and last year’s single , ‘Coming Up’. Tonight she’s back in The Workman’s Club for the launch of her debut solo EP, Plans And Schemes. Backed by Lucie Azconaga on fiddle and accordion, John Linnane on banjo and guitar, and Damien McMahon on upright bass,  the sun streaming in the windows of the Vintage Room creates a perfect atmosphere for Loughrey’s tunes. Together with the faux retro décor, it gives the impression, as she accurately observes, of “being in someone’s front room”.

She calls the crowd to a hush and introduces herself with an old Mariannes tune, ‘Lost With All Hands’. Her voice is so rich that the slight touch of reverb makes her sound like a chorus. The full band joins her on stage for the first of the new songs. This time it’s a legit chorus as the quartet all contribute vocals to ‘Annabelle’. The aforementioned ‘Coming Up‘ follows.

‘When You’re Older’ is a song inspired by an incident in a petrol station when a man asked the girl behind the counter for her number. He was driving an ice cream van and brought her a 99. His proposition was fruitless but it inspired a beautiful work of art. It’s a slow, traditional style ballad, and it is followed by an actual traditional song: a slightly jazzy reinterpretation of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ that appears on the new EP.

Lucie Azconaga’s accordion gives the Mariannes’ ‘God Fearing Woman’ a Jacques Brel feel. Loughrey picks up the bouzouki for ‘Dancing Plague’; a song inspired by the medieval dance of death contagion. A storming version of, folk hero, Maura Connell’s ‘Summer Fly’ feels particularly apt in the stifling twilight. It tastes like kisses, warm cider and midge bites down by the estuary. ‘Where Did September Go?’, “a song about letting time get away from you”, is strangely reminiscent of Nirvana’s Unplugged session. It’s probably a consequence of the accordion and the Leadbelly-ish rhythm of the tune.

A round of introductions and thanks for the band and crew is followed by the haunting ‘Sadhbh’ before the upbeat ‘Potters row’ closes the set. Loughrey has the rare power to make it seem, even in a crowded, sweaty room that she is singing directly to you.

Check out Plans And Schemes for yourself here

 

 

Rate this item
(2 votes)
Login to post comments
back to top