Sometimes, you just connect with a CD — immediately, powerfully, viscerally. That’s how I reacted when I first heard Sinéad Lohan’s No Mermaid, a 1998 disc that few people heard and fewer bought (her Wikipedia entry claims that No Mermaid ‘enjoyed moderate success’ in Ireland, the UK and the US — which means she sort of got swept up amongst all the Lilith Fair stuff at the time).

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Lohan is an Irish singer/songwriter of immense talent and clarity of voice, and a masterful songwriter of great simplicity and effortless depth. Lohan’s material never sounds like it came easily to her, but rather appears to be the result of much consideration. Her lyrics — assertive, independent, searching — are elegantly crafted and thoughtful, exploring the highs and lows of human relationships.

The disc is produced by Malcolm Burn, former collaborator of Daniel Lanois and independently the mastermind behind the subtle but recognizable sound language of several excellent records by Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Blue Rodeo, Lisa Germano, Tara MacLean and Patti Smith. Where Lohan’s previous album Who Do You Think I Am (1995) — also quite beautiful — was a folky affair with conventional instrumentation and a couple of Irish radio hits, Mermaid takes on a mysterious sheen, a new commitment to really exploring instrumentation and rhythm. Burn’s tasteful electronic textures —never dated, never out of place, never pandering to the ‘trip hop’ and downtempo predilections of the late 90s — swirl around Lohan’s exquisite voice and simple picked or strummed guitar, engulfing her, challenging her to not be too sweet, cute or folksy. The contrast to Who Do You Think I Am is stark and fundamental; No Mermaid is a mature collaboration between two outstanding musical individualists that represents a unique moment in time.

Sinéad Lohan’s voice is a fantastic instrument. She sings in a way that’s profoundly unaffected and without artifice. To be sure, Ireland has a long history of accomplished female folk singers, and Lohan certainly and obviously carries an immense debt of gratitude to the tradition around which she grew up. What’s so touching about her vocals is her complete disregard for ‘runs,’ embellishments, coloratura — call it what you will, but there’s none of it here. This is sung as straight up as it gets. Lohan can definitely ‘carry a tune,’ as the saying goes. She may define carrying a tune on this record.

As with many artists whose records I have loved deeply, every so often I check in to see what they may be up to these days. I note with some sadness that Sinéad Lohan has basically disappeared from the music industry, and apparently from public life, altogether. She seems to have made the switch from performing and recording musician to motherhood/family life sometime in the early 2000s (a noble and important calling). Malcolm Burn’s website indicates that there’s a new album the two recorded together several years ago which remains unreleased. Her website hadn’t been updated in years and the domain finally expired sometime this year.

Perhaps waiting for another Sinéad Lohan record is an exercise in futility. As she says in ‘People and Tables,’ probably my favourite track on No Mermaid:

waiting for nothing confuses the mind
letting go pieces for no one to find [...]
i never wanted, i never wanted and i never got, i never got
i never wanted, i never once wanted and i never got, i never once got

(Sinéad Lohan’s previous record — while certainly no Mermaid — is filled with uniformly appealing, accomplished songs and also highly recommended.)

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Tina Malia is a singer-songwriter from California who writes and performs beautiful songs at the nexus of folk, world music and new age. That may not sound terrifically appealing at first glance, but somehow she manages to circumvent cheesiness by a wide, safe margin. Instead, she dresses up her earnest (and sometimes touching) folk songs with incredibly skillful arrangements drawing on a variety of excellent acoustic musicians using traditional folk instrumentation augmented by instruments like djembes, didjeridoos and marimbas.

I can hear traces of Peter Gabriel’s world music production heyday in the title track, Sarah McLachlan in “Beholding,” a pan-Celtic sensibility in “All Roads,” and so on. While this is proudly derivative music in the sense that it acknowledges its roots and wears them honestly, I also think that Tina Malia’s songwriting and production skills are so highly developed that she more than stands on her own. For somebody this talented, it’s a conscious, intelligent choice to release her records on an independent label (best place to buy is either in Amazon’s MP3 store, link above, or at CD Baby). Those who still think major labels are the measure of quality should take a close listen and may realize this is better than much that’s come out of a major label in years.

On CDBaby, Tina is billed as a “tribal folk goddess,” which may be a good description, and her own website describes her background and history like this:

After studying sound engineering and classical vocal performance, she began her professional music career at age 18 as a producer, engineer and vocalist for a children’s music label out of Northern California. She then went on to produce two of her own recordings, and has just released her third “the Silent Awakening”. It features a rich, groove oriented, acoustic and electric feast [...]

Some listeners may love the musical depth and beautiful singing and playing on this record but be skeptical about the ‘new age-y’ tone in the lyrics. There’s a Sanskrit chant (track 8, “In Sunlight”) and a lot of lyrics about love, freedom and nature (the CD booklet’s cover page says, “To those who serve beauty”). But there are also lyrics a-plenty that seem to allude to sensuality, sexuality and faith. I think there’s depth here that I’m sometimes willing to let in, and sometimes not. The overall effect is tasteful and I never feel like I’m being hit over the head with consciousness. I’ll admit that lyrics tend to be less important to me than music, though, so your mileage may vary. I’m recommending this for the music – it’s some of the best playing and production I’ve ever heard in an independently produced record.

Tina Malia’s website has more, and her albums are available at CDBaby.

I went to see Leah Salomaa on the weekend at the Toronto Waldorf School, where she was performing a children’s concert. Leah sings and plays the bodhrán and piano while Chris Gartner accompanies her on guitar. This is done almost like a song circle, involving children and adults actively with gestures, movements and dance. Everyone gets to sing along, and Leah is excellent at getting even the most withdrawn to come out of their shells a little.

Back to the CDs, though. Both are exceptionally well recorded and sound great. The arrangements are simple and leave a lot of space for the songs to really shine. The music is a mix of Celtic, folk and bluegrass tunes, many adjusted lyrically to be more digestible for kids while not losing their charm for older listeners. For example, “Drunken Sailor” becomes “Bow Down Belinda” on I Like to Rise and Father Sun‘s “Mary Mac” has lyrics that are a little less, well, bawdy than the Irish original (then again, there seem to be so many variations on the lyrics that saying anything is ‘the original’ version seems a little meaningless).

Speaking of “Mary Mac,” it’s a fabulous tune and beautifully executed here – definitely my favourite and, I think, deserving of a place in any Celtic music compilation. The verses are sung to only the beat of the bodhrán (she has fantastic pitch!) and are interspaced with superb pipes and accordion playing. It’s a toe-tapping reel for sure, and one that I’m finding myself listening to over and over again.

Leah Salomaa’s website has information about how to book her. Her latest CD, Father Sun and Mother Moon: Soulful Songs for Children (2007), is available through CDBaby. I can’t seem to find I Like to Rise (2004) anywhere online anymore (you’ll have to go to a concert to buy it). Finally, I see traces online that there was a third CD in 2000 called Celtic Trio (I’m assuming this was ‘for adults’) but nobody seems to have it for sale anymore.

Update: Leah Salomaa has since written to me to let me know that I Like to Rise is available at http://www.firetheimagination.ca (her distributor) and http://www.parentbooks.ca, a Toronto store that also sells online. The Celtic Trio album was in fact never released (the record label didn’t make it), which explains why it’s not for sale anywhere. And “Mary Mac” was in fact originally recorded for that album, so maybe that’s why it has a sound that’s more appealing to my grown-up ears :) What a treat to get mail from the artist herself!

I was introduced to Afro Celt Sound System by my friend Jeff (at least that’s how I remember it; some of those mid 90s parties are a bit hazy :). They’re a UK-based crossover outfit that marries Irish traditional music with West African influences and wraps the whole thing into electronic/dubby sounds (guess that’s the “Sound System” part).

What’s great about ACSS is that they came right out of the gate with a fully formed sound – the first track on the first album already had all the elements they would develop and iterate later. I’ve always been fascinated by the swirly jigs and reels of Irish and Scottish music – my sense is that this is an Ur form of trance music because of its repetitive nature (and social performance for singing/playing along or dancing). And I really like bagpipes, fiddles, accordions and flutes. And I think the bodhran (pronounced ‘boh-ran,’ as I just learned yesterday) is a wonderful percussion instrument. So the idea of melding these things with West African music – percussion, guitars, koras, vocals – seemed like a good idea. In the same way that sometimes, what seems like a good idea bombs terribly and turns into a failed experiment, especially in the ‘world fusion’ department.

But Afro Celt Sound System pull it off resoundingly. In fact, they’re one of the best examples of how sensitive musicians can forge something net-new by merging age-old traditions (other examples may be Nitin Sawnhey and Nigel Kennedy and the Kroke Band).

Much of ACSS’s strength lies in strong production from founder Simon Emmerson and vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird. The production values on each of its 5 studio albums (there’s also a remix CD/DVD set) are very high. It’s all on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label and he even guests on a track (‘When You’re Falling’ on Volume 3: Further in Time). Other guests, spread across the records, include Sinéad O’Connor, Robert Plant, Sevara Nazarkhan, Jesse Cook, Eileen Ivers and Shooglenifty.

I like the gentle but pronounced progression in these albums – volumes 1 through 5 really do constitute a journey, a growth series for this band.

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Volume 1: Sound Magic flexes its wings, opens up possibilities and tries things out while staying close to a tribal/dance/electronica format in many respects, meeting the predominant genre of the day head-on. Even the slow, reflexive tracks have heavy bass lines and thick, dubby rhythms.

Volume 2: Release was the great coming-out of ACSS into the world or world music, a time – I seem to remember – when they toured a lot and were quite highly regarded in circles ranging as far as world music fans and trance/tribal house kids. Volume 3: Further in Time was searching, establishing more of a pop sound and leveraging some famous guests. It was musically very accomplished but perhaps not as exciting as the first two records.

Seed (no ‘Volume’ here but really Volume 4) was quieter and maybe a little confused. It was a more acoustically focused affair, more ‘ethnic’ and folky sounding. Then came Pod, a collection of remixes – some are excellent, but overall it’s probably not worth spending the money (however, the real selling point for me was the DVD which has the video for ‘When You’re Falling’). Finally, Volume 5: Anatomic seems to be the mature artist statement – a beautiful, measured, deeply touching and highly entertaining work.

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I certainly hope they’ll keep making music. I think (naively, perhaps) that the world needs more successful crossover acts. I find them musically more engaging and fulfilling than most ‘straight-up’ things I hear. I appreciate this for its subtlety and quiet beauty – which is not to say it’s quiet. Some of it is quite raucous, good for toe-tapping or dancing a jig.