Enda Kenny – Heart Tattoo

CD Review by Graham Blackley

Heart Tattoo is the seventh studio album by Melbourne-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Enda Kenny.

Listening to this accomplished album, it doesn’t take long to understand why the Irish-born Kenny has won the Port Fairy Folk Festival song-writing award on two occasions as his lyrics envelop the listener into vividly drawn worlds that inspire both recognition and understanding.

On opening track King St. he playfully yet astutely encapsulates the character of so much nocturnal street-life when he drawls, “There ain’t no kings on King Street/ in the hours before the dawn/No princes on that Princes Bridge/from midnight until morn.”

On the tender Jodie, a song which has the sophisticated lilt of Leonard Cohen’s classic work, Kenny ably (and with gentle humour) conjures the significance of those everyday relationships that give our lives both richness and colour whilst making us feel part of the world in which we live: “You can walk in feelin’/Like you haven’t got a dime/ And leave like you’re a millionaire/All it takes is thirty minutes of her time/ And did I mention? She cuts hair.”

The rich seams of melody that run through this album complement the evocative lyrics while the musicianship on display is of the highest order.

Heart Tattoo is a sterling example of modern and sophisticated folk music at its best.