Cara Dillon – A Thousand Hearts

Realistically there is only so much that one can expect when it comes to the genre of Irish Folk music. Yet regardless of your opinion on it, you most definitely have to appreciate the raw musical splendour associated with the genre, and Cara Dillon certainly does it justice with a beautiful merger of tunes in her new album A Thousand Hearts.

After initially hearing the album it is evident that an incredible amount of time and passion has been poured into every last crevice of it, and the production really is faultless. Upon hearing it subsequent times, you begin to recognise and unravel the story that it tenderly expresses – and what a wonderful story that is!

Three upbeat, traditional treasures featured on the album are Jacket So Blue, Moorlough Mary and Shotgun Down the Avalanche, which exhibit both Dillon’s matchless voice and the instrumental ability of her outstandingly talented band. On the other end of the spectrum though, My Donald and River Run are slower, more stirring songs that tell tales of love, loss and pain; topics that most can relate to, unless you’ve been living under a rock your whole life.

What about the rest of the album then? It’s conventional, and that point cannot be stressed enough. Yet despite the album not being particularly experimental or fresh, it does what it says on the tin and delivers a concoction of traditional Irish tunes that will be treasured amongst those who appreciate the beauty of Irish folk music. Hopefully as time progresses, more will fall into this category. 

Keira Trethowan

A Thousand Hearts was released on 19^th May 2014, for further information or to order the album visit Cara Dillon’s website here.

Watch the video for Shotgun Down the Avalanche here: