CHRISTY MOORE
GRAFFITI TONGUE
Twenty five years after Christy Moore, Liam O'Flynn, Andy
Irvine, Dónal Lunny and their band Planxty harnessed the words
of Woody Guthrie and the reels of antiquity to the modern form,
ushering in a musical renaissance in Ireland, Christy continues
to produce songs of unbridled historical, political and spiritual
breadth.
Beginning with 'Yellow Triangle', a lament to the apathy and
political cowardice that accompanied the rise of Nazism, his
latest CD 'Graffiti tongue' is an eclectic journey inspired
by that characteristically powerful guitar and a legendary voice
that paints pictures so vivid, tears well at every crossroad.
'North and South of the River', written in collaboration with
Bono and The Edge from U2, will take its place with Phil Coulter's
'The Town I Loved So Well' as the most poignant cry for reconciliation
of the tragedy of Northern Ireland.
A long time republican, when Christy sets his voice to work
on lyrics such as: 'Can we stop playing these old tattoos/Darling,
I don't have the answers/I want to meet you where you are/I
don't need you to surrender', then turns his tongue in 'Minds
Locked Shut' to the British Army's indefensible killing of 14
civilians in Derry on 'Bloody Sunday' 1972, it's a singularly
moving experience.
Along the journey there are excursions deep into the spirit
of Celtic history in the fiery 'God Woman', a gentle lampooning
of the British who 'never claimed George Best' but had the nerve
to ordain Irish Nobel Prize winning poet 'Seamus Heaney from
Londonderry' as a 'British poet' in 'On the Mainland', and a
eulogy to that icon of Irish rock music, Rory Gallagher, in
'Rory is Gone' (to play the Blues in Heaven).
It's not exactly party music, but as 'Graffiti tongue' confirms,
few can deliver a song with the subtlety, passion and force
of Christy Moore.
