The Reckoning by Sharon Shannon.

A cold but beautiful sunny morning. I have been dancing around the kitchen to my new CD called The Reckoning by Sharon Shannon which arrived a couple of days ago. I ordered this album because I have enjoyed Sharon’s cheerful lockdown sessions on the internet during the long months of this pandemic. Not only the music but also introducing us to her house and her pet dogs and cats. When I opened the package, I found that there was also another CD included for free. I haven’t played that one yet, so I’ll tell you about it another time. I now have five albums by Sharon in my collection. It has been a remarkable achievement to produce this album during a lockdown because Sharon and her collaborators were not able to record in the usual way. They all had to record remotely in such locations as Galway, Bath, Lanzarote, Copenhagen, London, Dublin, Quebec and other places. Craig Mulvagh deserves a lot of praise for helping to produce such an enjoyable album in difficult circumstances.

Right from the first notes of the uplifting opening track Merry-Go-Round which Sharon wrote with the great Donal Lunny you feel more optimistic and the toes start tapping. Festival goers will love this music in the summer if we are allowed out again. The title track The Reckoning was written with Jon Allen who sings the lead vocals. Daddy Shannon’s Jig / The Bealacana Polka is dedicated to Sharon’s dad. Bealacana is where she comes from in County Clare. I see that Unlocked was partly recorded not too far from me at Black Earth Studios in Bath. It features Susan O’Neill on vocals. The Beast From The East has some great guitar playing by Albert Serrano and piano by Luke Dunford. Harmony Hall is named after a venue that Sharon played in Japan last year. It features a group called Dreamer’s Circus who I think are Danish friends of Sharon because it is partly recorded in Copenhagen. I have shared a video of Sharon and Dreamer's Circus to this blog page if you would like to hear it. Silver Dollar / Audrey’s Polka features some wonderful viola playing by Maire Breathnach.

I love the next track Off To Californee (Mursheen Durkin Revisited). When I was a kid, in our house we had the original record of Mursheen Durkin by Johnny McEvoy. This version is produced by reggae legend Dennis Bovell and features spoken words by Linton Kwesi Johnson. It was an inspired idea to bring Ireland and Jamaica together, and the result is brilliant. Timbuktu is another track partly recorded in Bath with Justin Adams on guitar and drums. Refrains d’Irlande is another of my favourite tracks. It is sung in French and features a French-Canadian group called Le Vent Du Nord. Their contribution was recorded in Quebec. This album certainly is diverse multi-national world music. The Jolly Roger features Sharon on electric guitar for the first time. She had never played instruments with a plectrum before but set herself five days to master this tune. It was great fun watching her play the guitar on Facebook back in the summer. The final track is quite poignant because it is dedicated to her pet cat Pixie who sadly passed away recently and is called Pixie’s Farewell. Congratulations to everybody who worked together to produce this great album during very trying times. Listening to it, you would never have guessed that it was recorded remotely all over the world. Let’s hope that by the summer we will be back to some semblance of normality and Sharon can play her great music to a live audience again.