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[jaybee]

[mcq]

This performance has literally haunted me since I first heard it during the original broadcast of Transatlantic Sessions. Alison Moorer's version of Carrickfergus is the best, most deeply affecting, performance of this song I have ever heard. This is a song that is regularly sentimentalised in the most mawkish and shallow way but Moorer really channels the sheer desperation and acute weariness that lies at the heart of the song. There is no extravagant emotionalism here but, rather, an unaffected simplicity which I find profoundly moving. She simply stands at the piano and sings. You see her visibly responding to each and every word in the little subtle inflections that animate her face and which are echoed by a gently drunken sway. The impression is that of Moorer singing the song to herself and inwardly ruminating on its meanings. The result is a performance that really takes the listener back to the essence of the songwriter's inspiration, that of a man weary of life, and crippled by the pain of loved ones that are long gone, and an inability to carry on with this life.

It is an inherently natural performance. Nothing is forced. This is an essential factor when singing ths song because it is a song about somebody defeated and crushed by the cumulative force of life's losses. The tone is one of passive acceptance and weary surrender. Moorer sings like one genuinely exhausted. It is a private and interior performance rather than a public one. She is reaching into herself when she sings this song and it seems to resonate deeply with her on a personal level. The result is an intensely moving experience.

[jaybee]

This performance has literally haunted me since I first heard it during the original broadcast of Transatlantic Sessions. Alison Moorer's version of Carrickfergus is the best, most deeply affecting, performance of this song I have ever heard. This is a song that is regularly sentimentalised in the most mawkish and shallow way but Moorer really channels the sheer desperation and acute weariness that lies at the heart of the song. There is no extravagant emotionalism here but, rather, an unaffected simplicity which I find profoundly moving. She simply stands at the piano and sings. You see her visibly responding to each and every word in the little subtle inflections that animate her face and which are echoed by a gently drunken sway. The impression is that of Moorer singing the song to herself and inwardly ruminating on its meanings. The result is a performance that really takes the listener back to the essence of the songwriter's inspiration, that of a man weary of life, and crippled by the pain of loved ones that are long gone, and an inability to carry on with this life.

It is an inherently natural performance. Nothing is forced. This is an essential factor when singing ths song because it is a song about somebody defeated and crushed by the cumulative force of life's losses. The tone is one of passive acceptance and weary surrender. Moorer sings like one genuinely exhausted. It is a private and interior performance rather than a public one. She is reaching into herself when she sings this song and it seems to resonate deeply with her on a personal level. The result is an intensely moving experience.

I saw her sing this, the day after she'd learnt it, in the Olympia when she was supporting Steve Earle. Apart from stumbling throught the words a little, she hit this interpretation running, it was a very impressive rendition, and like yourself, to date my favorite of this classic.

If only her sister's recording engineers could do a "just a little lovin" quality session with her! I find her far less syrupy!!

[mcq]

Many thanks for that, Jaybee. I would love to see her sing this live. She really has nailed the song's essence like nobody else has. I have seen too many "after hours" performances of this song in pubs where you see somebody launch into a drunken rendition of it and completely wreck it. As a song, it deserves far more respect. I always think it's interesting when a singer takes up a song and, in the singing of the song, makes you hear and see new things that you never knew existed. Johnny Cash did the same with Danny Boy.

[jaybee]

Interesting you should mention Johnny Cash.

She does another truly wonderful cover on Mockingbirds of "Ring of Fire"

Fits with the "should be better or completely different" school of thought on whether a cover version is worthwhile or not....

[jadarin]

From his new album out in march..

[jadarin]

[jadarin]

[Friendlyfire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR8KGam3m9Q

Those germans have football and music well under control, love this vid.
eoin.

[Derek]

For Star Trek & Audi Fans
Zachary Quinto vs. Leonard Nimoy: "The Challenge"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... PkByAkAdZs