Karan Casey
On Sunday evening, the Waterford songbird Karan Casey was winding up her two and half week U.S. tour with a stop at the Fairfield Theater in Connecticut hosted by Shamrock Irish Traditional Music Society.
Casey gave another bravura performance along with her current band of Caoimhin Vallely, Kate Ellis and Ross Martin in support of her latest CD "Ships in the Forest," released a year ago on her own label.
The crowd was disappointing for this marvelous theater, where the performers are at eye level and as close as can be. Few performers take advantage of that as well as Casey, who inhabits her songs and delivers them in a personal manner right to your heart and soul.
Maybe it was the post-traumatic March 17 syndrome at work that diminished the turnout for the Sunday evening show, but the hundred or so people who did come along sat in rapt attention for both sets which featured some sensational piano playing by Vallely (Casey's brother-in-law), cellist Kate Ellis and Scotsman Ross Martin, both in accompaniment and in their instrumental sets.
These performers, particularly Vallely and Ellis who performed on the CD, add the right kind of texture to Casey's performance that allows her to shift stylistic gears so smoothly during the show.
Casey has now done five solo albums exploring many songs from contemporary Irish singer/songwriters, the traditional Irish folk canon both under the sway of Frank Harte and other singers, American jazz and blues singers as well as American and British folk.
Getting inside the material and storyline are important for her so her interpretation and performance on stage connects with the present day listener no matter the vintage of the song. A hardy perennial like "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya" with Vallelly's piano arrangements becomes a very different ballad than you heard before.
In the second half she moved dramatically from the patriotic ballad "Dunlavin Green" to a song in Irish, "Maidin Luan Chincise," closing with "I Once Loved a Lass" without pause from one number to the next, or breaking her hold on the audience which gave her a rousing applause at the conclusion of it.
Sensing she had the audience where she wanted them to be, she launched into the Billy Bragg song "Distant Shore" that titled one of her albums, coaxing a "well-done" chorus from the audience who were further encouraged to join in the chorus of "One I Love" after that.
Taking advantage of the intimate setting, she moved in front of the mike and sang without amplification drawing her audience closer to her and in harmony for the chorus.
A rousing standing ovation assured a welcome and successful end to another tour.