Description
It was my pleasure to record Jim Low’s songs adding my own touch. Jim is a prolific song writer, singer and recording artist, living in the Blue Mountains.
Martin Doherty and Leigh Birkett – A Tribute to Jim Low
CD review by Tony Smith – TN173 Oct 25s fortunate to have many skilled songwriters.
Fred, Bruce, John, Mark, Lyn, Maggie and Penny, to name but a few, write material that is world class.
Many other lyricists are relatively ‘unsung’ or at least their works are.
A tribute to the prolific songwriter Jim Low is long overdue.
It is appropriate that Martin Doherty and Leigh Birkett have corrected this oversight by recording a selection of Jim’s songs, because all three musicians are well known around the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
Along the way, these 11 tracks provide some 42 minutes of listening pleasure.
It is also good that this album has been recorded at Wallerawang by such long term collaborators as Doherty and Birkett.
Doherty is the main vocalist and plays guitar and bodhran, while Birkett provides backing vocals and plays guitars, bouzouki and mandolin.
Simon Watts supplies some melodious lacings with fiddle.
While Jim Low’s creativity is obvious in each track, the words to ‘Katoomba on the Hill’ were written by Irene Acland, and Martin and Lyn Doherty, who also took the cover photo, collaborated with Low on ‘The Journey’.
This latter track, which features Jim Low’s voice, is perhaps my pick of the 11 on this CD, but it has the disadvantage of being a reprise on the other songs.
This means that it does not stand alone as readily as it should.
The opening track is walking ‘With the Poet Lorikeet’.
This is a clear reference to Denis Kevans, another superb poet and songwriter from the area.
Folk music fans will know of Kevans’ perceptive and humorous takes on issues, but his lyrics on ‘Harrisburg’, by Midnight Oil, gave him broader fame.
‘A Special Place’ free from bothering has very appealing vocal harmonies.
Doherty enhances ‘The Broken Soldier’ in which a veteran wonders why he did not fall in battle and so become a hero in his country’s eyes.
‘Charcoal Annie’ is a more upbeat piece about an itinerant woman.
‘Mr Eternity’ shows why Jim Low deserves to be called a poet.
He displays that sharp insight for phenomena that most people take for granted.
‘Eternity’ was a word chalked on footpaths that people literally walked over daily.
Arthur Stace made it his work to remind people of a life beyond this earthly one.
The story is told through the eyes of a child whose comprehension of time is limited.
Doherty’s treatment of this song is perhaps the most melodious on the album.
This is thoroughly beautiful singing.
‘More Than A Name’ tells about researching the life of an ancestor, a transportee.
I thought when I saw the title ‘Polly Flood’ that the Mountains might have been in the grip of an election campaign, but Polly was a real person.
She was one of those generous individuals always on hand to assist even strangers in need, and she played some serious concertina as well.
Other tracks include ‘Journey’s End’ and ‘Eldorado’.
The cover photograph shows Birkett, Low and Doherty, most likely near the Brays Lane Studio.
Doherty wears a pendant awarded him by the Choctaw people for the support he showed them in one of his songs.
The Choctaw were removed from their traditional lands despite having fought for the USA and many perished on the Trail of Tears.
Despite their desperate circumstances, they donated to help relieve the effects of the Irish famine of the mid 1800s.
The arrangements on this tribute album are fine and so the mandolin and fiddle accompaniments are heard to great advantage.
Martin Doherty’s voice has soft Irish consonants but his diction is always clear and that is important because it allows Low’s lyrics to shine.
This album will ensure that Jim Low’s powerful songs receive much broader and richly deserved appreciation.
