DAVY SPILLANE
Pipedreams
TARA3026

Pipedreams was the fourth album release from uilleann pipes and low whistle player Davy Spillane. The album, co-produced with Davy by renowned guitarist Anthony Drennan, is substantially new material composed by Davey. Pipedreams is the culmination of a musical journey that Davy started with his 'Out Of The Air' album in 1988 and later progressed with his 'Atlantic Bridge' and 'Shadow Hunter' albums. Along the way Davy and his band, comprising some of Ireland's finest musicians have pioneered a unique style and sound that combines Irish traditional music with, jazz, blues and rock influences.

For the recording of 'Pipedreams' Davy and his band who include Anthony Drennan on electric and acoustic guitars, Tony Molly on bass guitar, James Delaney on piano, organ and synths, and Paul Moran on drums and percussion are joined by old friends from 'Moving Hearts' days Noel Eccles on percussion, Keith Donald on sax. As well as ex Stockton's Winger, Tommy Hayes on Bodhran and Andrew Boland on keyboards.

REVIEWS

"For Celtic folk-rock of the smoothest order, it's hard to beat uilleann piper Davey Spillane, whose latest excursion, 'Pipedreams' takes him yet further into the realms of jazz, although there are still remnants of tradition to be heard - 'Call across the Canyon', for instance, with his fluid piping insinuating itself around elemental cross-currents of percussion, didgeridoo and vocal whoops, suddenly reveals itself as a slowed-up reel. Once again, he has surrounded himself himself with first-rate rock and jazz musicians - some of them, like saxophonist Keith Donald and percussionists Paul Moran and Noel Eccles, old hands from Spillane's Moving Hearts days, and there are substantial shades of that band's sound in tracks like 'Undertow' (another more traditional set). Other tunes, like the North-Africian-flavoured 'Mistral', with its querulous sax and keyboard carousel, or the swaying Indian grace of 'Rainmaker', sound all geared up for the 'world music' market.
The musicianship is superb all round; Anthony Drennan's electric guitar employs less of the slide work that flavoured the last album, and James Delany's keyboards add touches of delicate tonal wash or brassy chunkiness. Spillane's piping is more fluid than ever, although one can't help pondering the fact that although the disc's cover picture shows Spillane nursing a fully plumbed-up set of uilleann pipes, drones and regulators glittering purposefully, you only really hear the chanter on these recordings.
One is reluctant to carp however, on hearing that chanter sing so eloquently in beautiful 'Midnight Walker'. In a similarly lyrical, if more brooding, mood, the album closes with 'Corcomore' played on unaccompanied low whistle - velvety, haunting and - for anyone who knows the ruins of Corcomore Abbey in West Clare - with just a touch of Burren bleakness."
Jim Gilchrist - Cencrastus

"Davy Spillane has a perfect pedigree. In a Crufts for musical diversity he'd be the odds-on favourite. The Uilleann piper's fourth solo LP is an aural fireworks display of solid playing and invention. Producers Anthony Drennan & Spillane have harnessed this seething energy to a sweetly melodic bandwagon, driven by Spillane's virtuoso playing. The well-oiled sigh of numb melancholy on such tracks as 'Shorelines' & 'Midnight Walker' slips into the shadows of eternal night on some great melty slabs of pipe, guitar and keyboards. The whole CD possesses a fiery emotional rush that just oozes class. For once, sumptuous is the word. It's certainly worthy of greater public acclaim, but to achieve the potential 'crossover' market, maximum radio exposure is essential."
GW - Folk on Tap

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