Album Review: Colm Kirwan – (self titled)

Warm Me Sugar / A Whole Lotta You / Bad Enough / You Know That You know / Jumpin’ In / Never Alone / Rain / No Anchors / I Love The Way You Love Me (featuring Victoria Shaw) / A Thousand Wild Horses / The Lumber Song (bonus)

Go back a few months and I had never heard of Colm Kirwan. I stumbled across him whilst researching for country artists from the UK to feature on the website and a few people suggested him to me. I clicked on his website and was hit by The Lumber song. Normally, if a website plays music at me as soon as I go on it, I hit the mute button while I browse, but  with this, I was instantly curious and let the song play out. After that, I lost count how many times I replayed it.

The album was produced by Victoria Shaw who is known for composing superb hits such as Garth Brooks’ The River, and John Michael Montgommery’s I Love The Way You Love Me (since made famous by Boyzone and also featuring on this album as a duet between herself and Colm) She also co-produced Lady Antebellum’s Debut album which went on to win her a CMA award for single of the year with I Run To You.

The Album starts with Warm Me Sugar, a great start to kick off the album, closely followed by another upbeat number, A Whole Lotta You, which is full of a mixture of both Colms Irish roots and the modern Nashville sound. A mixture that has been branded as ‘Celtic Country’ and one that Colm is very happy to associate himself with. You can hear a classic example of this in the line “A little penny whistle and a little banjo, a little sawdust floor, a little do-ci-do”.

The very start of Rain (co written by Colm) sort of reminds me of the start of John Andersons Seminole Wind. If you listen to the eerie string bit before the beat kicks in, you’ll hopefully hear what I heard.

There are a couple of balady type softer songs on the album too. You Know That You know has lovely lyrics about how you know when you’re in love and you think you know what to expect, but even still, when it hits you its still a surprise and ‘you know that you know’.  Never Alone is a kind of hope or wish for a loved one. Beautiful lyrics and one that well worth a listen

Overall, this is a great album from a still, relatively unknown artist and a brilliant, radio friendly mix of songs. If you havent heard of Colm yet, you soon will. This is one artist that is definitely going somewhere

Check out the video for The Lumber Song Here