By Colleen Taylor
How they do it we’ll probably never know, but the High Kings have produced yet another extraordinary album. “Grace & Glory,” their recently released fourth studio album, is aptly titled. The four folk singers are bound to feel the glory of this new work because it is wholly, proudly their own. It might also, on first listen, be something of a shock. The album marks the band’s most pronounced departure from their traditional Irish roots, as they venture more boldly into the country and Americana genres that, up until now, they had only dabbled in. Nonetheless, the album still sounds like the product of Ireland’s best folk band. This may be the Kings’ most different album yet, but it still reflects the harmonized Irish folk sound we have come to love. What distinguishes “Grace & Glory,” what makes it a crucial turning point for the band’s career, is that we can no longer think of the High Kings as the next generation of Clancys, Fureys and Dunphy. This time, Finbarr Clancy, Darren Holden, Brian Dunphy and Martin Furey have moved well beyond the paternal influence and forged their own trademark and legacy.
I love the High Kings for a number of reasons, but perhaps the strongest of those reasons is that each and every time they perform or record, the Kings make traditional Irish music new, fresh, and alive. Their music always keeps a faithful ear to the past, but it also harnesses the sound and the climate of present day. Perhaps this magical ability to enliven a cultural legacy is why I have now listened to the whole of “Grace & Glory” about 20 times in less than a week, without growing tired of it. The four singers’ harmonies, dancing with banjos and accordions, are better than a cup of coffee for starting the day. This album drives a single message home: great Irish music is here to stay.
My first encounter with “Grace & Glory” was, I confess, disorienting. The opening track, “Hand Me Down the Bible,” sounds, on first impression, more like an opening to a strictly American country album than it does an Irish folk album. One of the four, Darren Holden, leads a separate, solo career in country music, and the country intonations of his voice lead the way on this first song. (In fact, his country influence can be heard on a number of tracks on the album.) But then, when the chorus to Phil Coulter’s “Hand Me Down” commences, the song transforms into something neither country nor Irish folk, but a new, third genre, that exists somewhere in between the two—a place only accessible through the individually rich and perfectly matched voices of the four Kings. The excitement of this new, third musical style quickly becomes enchanting and welcoming for the listener. The song demands you sing along.
This idea of a third, not quite Irish, not quite country genre seems to be the thematic link of the album. The more traditionally Irish songs, like “Spancil Hill,” “Follow Me Up to Carlow,” and “The Green Fields of France” receive fresh, country-esque reinterpretation, while the more Americana songs, like “Good Night Irene,” and “Early Morning Rain,” get a taste of the High Kings’ Irish identity. But this bifurcation erroneously simplifies the effect of the album. The multi-generic influences blend in a far more sophisticated way throughout the twelve tracks. Indeed, to classify this music under one genre or another seems not only crude but unjust to the impressive vision the High Kings have achieved in this new album. The four musicians have announced it as their “best work yet,” and having listened 20-something odd times, I can’t help but agree. “Grace & Glory’s” so-called “genre” is best dubbed as the one-and-only High Kings sound.
Some of my favorites on the album are “Schooldays Over” and “Kelly the Boy from Killane.” “Schooldays Over” might qualify as one of the more noticeably different songs on this album. It involves a bit of bluegrass, which enables the band to showcase their amazing voices in a new venue, alongside their banjo and flute instrumentation. Most of all, “Schooldays” encompasses incredible vocal tenors of these singers’ skill. Then, in “Kelly the Boy From Killane,” the High Kings exercise all their musical muscles. They demonstrate some amazing percussion to start, powerful balladeering, and—most trademark of all—their exquisite harmonies. This song goes from fight song to ballad and back again, making it impossible to sit still listening to “Kelly the Boy from Killane.” As for the less upbeat songs, “Ride On” is a melancholic narrative ballad that reflects the High Kings’ flare for drama as well. These songs, like all the others on the album, reside in the new exciting musical plane the High Kings have found, where their songs gather the energy of many genres, many places at once.
Perhaps what I’m getting at with all this “third genre” discussion—the genre that is neither strictly Irish folk nor fully American country, but something that bridges the two—is that as much as the High Kings have influenced Irish-American culture, maybe, in some small way, their years of touring the States have had an influence on their musical style as well. I think “Grace & Glory” captures twenty-first century Irish-American national culture, where some ingredients from the new world melting pot make their way back over to the old country to reverse-galvanize the multicultural milieu. These incredible songs evince the cultural benefits of immigration, reverse migration, and the constant interchange across the Atlantic—a cultural directive that now goes both ways. The High Kings pay equal tribute to the Irish and American songs that have made them who they are. But most importantly, they’ve allowed those influences to naturally complement one another so that nothing comes across as fake or forced. Instead, it sounds truly original, fresh, modern, and, most importantly, absolutely Kingly.
Everyone should listen to this album. Catch up with Irish fans who have been praising the album at the band’s live launches in Dublin, Cork, and Galway. Check out “Grace & Glory” on Spotify, iTunes, or thehighkings.com
Colleen Taylor writes the Music Notes column in the Irish Echo each week.
