Blackbirds & Thrushes

Niamh Parsons | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 27, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 27, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Green Linnet
• ASIN: B00000IN41
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,286 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Irish songbird Niamh Parsons has built an esteemed career fronting the Celtic band Arcady and her own band, the Loose Connections, but also as a soloist with a catalog that sprawls from magnificent-days-of-yore balladry to contemporary rockist folk. Taking flight here on the lissome and lovely Blackbirds & Thrushes, Parsons flitters and soars with her silver-water voice spinning gold from traditional tunes largely learned from other singers at the renowned Goilan singers club. Pipes, whistles, acoustic bass and guitar, and piano ring round the rosy tones of broken vibrato that make magic of simple alliterative or rhyming refrains such as "Rye fol de dol diddle dol day" or "When cockle shells make Christmas bells / Then I would lose my love for thee." Reminiscent of Sandy Denny-era Fairport Convention, the band provides sparse framework--chops so righteous as to play and sing with equal measures of abandon and restraint. Parsons wends her chords around each note, refracting the sound against warm light, bending, breaking, and infusing each note with clarity and conviction. --Paige La Grone

Product Description

Blackbirds & Thrushes by Niamh Parsons

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars she sings of earth and sky, December 8, 1999

By 

Jeff Sauer (Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackbirds & Thrushes (Audio CD)

Niamh Parsons'BLACKBIRDS AND THRUSHES has become one of my favorite recordings. She breathes new life into the "celtic" music world. While I have read of comparisons with other singers, Ms. Parsons voice reminds me of a not-so-dark June Tabor.While I love and collect Ms. Tabor's recordings, I tend to listen to them in quieter, introspective times. BLACKBIRDS AND THRUSHES seems to transend moods with it spare, beautiful melodies and Niahm Parsons' voice that sings of earth and sky and life.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely and Fresh, March 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Blackbirds & Thrushes (Audio CD)

Of all the celtic albums I've bought recently, this one is by far the best. Ms. Parson has an absolutely lovely voice, and it is much, much more expressive than average. Just as important, she's done a good job of choosing her songs--all of them traditional, but with a fresh feeling to them. "The Water is Wide" is almost always beautiful no matter who's performing it, but who'd have predicted that Parsons' singing could render the Irish "Fear a Bhata" (Man of the Boat)so haunting and filled with longing that it need not be translated for the meaning to come through? An excellent recording.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Folk Lovers Must Have, March 19, 2002

By 

Scarlett Witman (Reading, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackbirds & Thrushes (Audio CD)

Niamh Parsons has a rich, mellow voice which was made to sing traditional irish folk. Some songs are very lilting and melodious and others are meditative. The Maid on the Shore creates a very vivid picture to the listener. If you like irish folk, Niamh Parsons would fit very well in your collection.