Before we start, a gentle round of applause ladies and gentlemen please for a solo artist completely writing, making and releasing their own album. Such is the mountain that Kevin Barry has climbed (I personally know how steep a path that this is). So, Kevin's album "Looking for Murphy" whats it like? Well its an excellently recorded, hand carved body of work that Kevin has clearly painstakingly nurtured, polished and tweaked throughout the whole process. What you get is a eclectic collection of very personal and personable songs in the same ballpark as Peter Gabriel or if Thom Yorke of Radiohead had been locked in a studio for a couple of months his own. There's no genre chasing or faddy fashionista posturing here, its just very compelling.
There are some seriously grown up emotions peppered throughout the songs such as the heart-wrenching dark balladry (and stand out track) "Under your spell" that is nudged slowly along by the clever use of some ethereal strings and piano which could easily be used as a Tim Burton film track. Kevin plays and experiments with sounds and instruments in his songs to provide the listener with a unique but compelling musical experience from the (slightly) more uptempo 'Pain in my head' to the 'Sledgehammer'-esque 'Tell it like it is'. Every song stands on its own merits and are hugely listenable.
This an album of the highest quality forged in the fire found only in the belly of someone who really believes in what they do. Buy it.
Kiernan has so much passion for music you could feel his music right through you on the night, his vocals had rhythm and a flow to them expressing every tone to the beat of the music, if you like Maroon 5 with a dash of Counting Crows then you would enjoy Kiernan live, at his best on the night is when he took up to play the keyboards this added even more soul to the night and showing off just one of his many musical talents, the band really gelled together at the gig it was pure soul and full of adrenaline, I could not find any flaws or in any way not to go and see Kiernan live again it was a great show and looking forward to his new album which is due for release in 2008
Review by T.Halpin
GIG RATE: ****** ROCKSTAR
ARTIST OF THE MONTH APRIL 07
"NEW AGE ROBIN HOOD"
This album is full of surprises with some sleek r&b tones ringing out with plenty of jazzy feel, with his fantastic voice and lyrics Kiernan blends all of his tunes really well together, this album is surely a good listener.
LET GO JOHN DOE - This song has a lovely funky jazzy feel through out the tune, vocals sound great really strong and suited for this style of music,great song.
CREATION - Here is a good tunewith flowing melodic gutair, vocal glide over the song this is very well constructed, excellent.
I got a chance to check a few tunes recorded by this artist from dublin great composure on his gutair and very constructed lyrics i would say we will hear a lot more about Kenneth Conway in this coming year.
WHERE WE USED TO GO - This song has a country blues feel coming from the gutair very well laid down over the mix vocals have a nice laid back feel complimenting the song very well, a Sunday afternoon song to chill out to.
GIMME A REASON LET U GO - Very strong vocals in this song really on top of the melody its got a great folk rock feel, gutair sounds great nice picking around the melody.
It was a pleasure to be back to see keith live, Keith was supporting Picture House on the night he started the night off on keyboards with "Midnight Sun" and his melodic piano tune "Ment to be a dreamer" Keith moved from his keyboard to take up gutair and played some more of his cracking tunes like "Everybody knows" and "If i should fall". Keith was very enjoyable to watch, overall it was a excellent performance from Keith, he finished the night out with "At the end of the day" . After the gig i had a chat with Keith and he was telling me about his new album he is working on, Keith will be producing it himself and it will feature a lot of talented session players, this will be something to watch out for this year.
