Songlines – Review of Goitse's 'Inspired by chance'

Songlines ‘Inspired by Chance’ review -­‐ (Given 5/5 star’s)

Their 2014 album Tall Tales and Misadventures saw Limerick quintet Goitse up the ante with a set market by variety, subtlety and pin-­‐sharp playing. Inspired by Chance finds them picking up where they left off in fine style. Even more to the fore is James Harvey’s dancing banjo and Áine Mc Geeney’s cotton-­‐soft vocals.

She’s heard on three contrasting songs. The poetic visions of ‘Ireland’s Green Shore’ are lent a pleasingly brisk and bright treatment, while the bittersweet imprecations of ‘An Bonnán Buí’ are set against her own baleful fiddle and Conal O’ Kane’s tentative guitar.

But it’s her touching cover of Finbar Magee’s World War 1 Lament ‘The Hills of Sweet Lislea’ that steals the show, with Tadhg Ó Meachair’s plangent piano prominent in the haunting accompaniment.

Elsewhere, the ensemble revels in tightly knit virtuosity, playing with enormous gusto in the delightfully tongue-­‐in-­‐ cheek ‘First-­‐Class Bananas’ and ‘Inspired’, a set of tunes written by Irish legends Tommy Peoples and Josephine Keegan. Martin Brunsden’s double bass adds a darker grain and weight to several tracks. Despite the album’s title, there’s nothing left to chance here; it’s an album on which Goitse step into a ripe maturity.

Michael Quinn

TRACK TO TRY – The Hills of Sweet Lislea

** The track “First Class Banana’s” was selected for Songlines compilation CD for their “Best new releases CD”.

Songlines Magazine
http://www.songlines.co.uk