Review: James Vincent McMorrow
It’s some vote of confidence in the drawing power of James Vincent McMorrow that he’s headlining St. Canice’s Cathedral at this years festival. What’s even more impressive is that he had sold out the venue days in advance. This was a hot ticket for sure.
Much like last years Canice’s Cathedral headliner Mick Flannery, McMorrow has had a breakthrough 18 months. The combination of a critically acclaimed debut album, live performances that spread word of mouth like wildfire and the ubiquitous Jools Holland slot (a must for any self respecting Irish up and comer) has propelled McMorrow far ahead of all the other ‘rising stars’ of the Irish music firmament.
As I had predicted, a handsome, bearded young man in a check shirt with a guitar did indeed fill St. Canice’s Cathedral with hordes of well dressed young ladies. You’ve got to give Mick Flannery some props for paving the way last year I guess.
In short, this was wonderful stuff. In long, McMorrow proved why he’s probably Ireland’s next big thing, not to mention ‘best’ thing. The amount of hype that is thrown at a lot of new Irish acts leaves me cold I must admit. And I don’t mind admitting that I was a little bit skeptical about McMorrow at first. Over the past few months though, I got well acquainted with his music and I found it to be much superior stuff to the output from the similarly hyped Flannery and insanely overhyped Villagers.
The Dubliner was a very witty, charming and relaxed host and played the crowd like an old pro, expressing his awe at playing his first cathedral, after previously playing 5 churches. ‘I don’t know what it is about me that makes people think churches.’ Maybe it’s the fact that his voice fills them so perfectly, and at one point he discarded his microphone entirely and sang without it. His 90 minute set predictably drew heavily from his tremendous debut (and to date only) album Early In The Morning with huge reactions to songs like This Old Dark Machine and Sparrow And The Wolf.
In between songs he regaled the throng with stories about meeting Akon at an iTunes showcase ('he's a pretty nice guy'), trying to conceal his Arsenal fandom at gigs in Manchester, asked the crowd for the final score in the Charity Shield and talked about his last trip to Kilkenny for last years Rhythm and Roots Festival.
There were quite a few cover versions in his Set but they were all impeccably chosen and played. Included were the folk song Silver Dagger, Sun Kil Moon’s Like The River and an amazing version of Midlake’s Roscoe (which he last played in Kilkenny in 2010). He finished by uncomfortably taking a very brief encore break, admitting he doesn’t like keeping people waiting for long, before finishing with a jaw dropping rendition of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game and a new song of his entitled Red Dust which he described as the ‘bedrock of the 2nd record.’
Based on this showing, there will be a lot of eager anticipation for his second record. Not least from all the smitten ladies leaving St. Canice’s Cathedral last night.
John
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