Eamon O'Leary - The Silver Sun (2021)

To a large extent Eamon O’Leary flies under the radar, his new album The Silver Sun is not likely to change that, though it is as well-crafted a release as you are likely to hear this year. Having moved to New York from Dublin in the 1990s, his profile has been low despite appearing live and collaborating with the likes of Beth Orton, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Anais Mitchell and Sam Amidon.

Recorded in a single afternoon, The Silver Sun captivates with its fragile blend of guitar, mandola, pump organ, Mellotron, piano, electric guitar, bass and fiddle. Yet there is nothing raw about these recordings. They are filled with musicianship, musicality and emotion. The opening notes of Benjamin Lazar Davis’s pump organ on The Living Stream establish a framework that highlights O’Leary’s guitar and voice. Swirling Mellotron only adds to the song, creating a fragile flower of sound.

As a songwriter, O’Leary seems to have mastered the traditional framework, yet within that, his lyrics reveal an amazing gift. On Bernadette, he sings “I met her in the market town/ My blood was up her hair was down.” It seems such a simple phrase, yet the crafting that goes into making something so visual and graceful is rare. Singing with Elise Leavy, the two find a way to merge their voices to bring the most out of a lyric.

Initially sounding like classical music from the old British Airways commercials, The Birds Sing tells a tale of love grown cold. There are questions aplenty, but answers are few. “Go ask the twelve months of the year/ Go ask the ships at Sea/ And if they give you answer love/ Come and tell it unto me.” The guitar and mellotron create a fragility that accentuates the heartbreak of their love grown cold.

Sister in Song questions the moments of a relationship or a perceived relationship. As the guitar sets the scene, O’Leary sings, “I know you from somewhere/ I’ve seen you round/ You look familiar/ Have I passed through your town?” The questioning continues throughout the song, moving from the traditional to a party at a correspondents’ ball, yet at the heart, this is still a folk song rooted in frameworks that go back hundreds of years.

O’Leary’s gift is that he has established a way to merge the traditional with the modern, keeping folk music fresh. Where Bonny Light Horseman gives their music a jazzier edge, O’Leary is more rooted in a classic sense of folk. Houses and Lands opens with a simple admonition, “Harden your heart/ Spit on your hands/ Put all things in order/ Your houses and lands”, yet goes on to remind that there is much that we need to make sure we don’t forget, people, places, music. It’s a haunting moment.

With The Silver Sun, Eamon O’Leary has created an album that reminds of the things we may have forgotten over the past twelve months. He extends to us the “forgiveness of time.” In these days we need to hold on to that and to each other.