After serving time in various bands, including Aussie-based Clann Zu, Waterford-born De Barra won rave reviews for his 2006 debut, Song Of A Thousand Birds, his distinctive, soaring falsetto drawing inevitable comparisons with Jeff Buckley, Antony Hegarty and even Thom Yorke.
This follow up, recorded in the same “abandoned room” in Dublin where he made his acclaimed debut, once again finds him in self-proclaimed “guerrilla troubadour” mode. Brooding, intense and drowning in melancholy, De Barra clearly inhabits a dark place musically and lyrically. He described the recording of this album as akin to “pulling teeth with rusty pliers and then shoving them back in again after dipping them in salt”. He’s not exaggerating, as is evident in his pained vocal delivery on songs such as ‘Scraps To Feed Bones’ and the slowly revealing opener, ‘Until The Morning Comes’.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. He displays a quirkier, whimsical side on the childlike ‘Brightest Star’. Throughout, he’s joined by Kila’s Brian Hogan on lapsteel and guitar, James Dunne from the RTE Symphony Orchestra on drums, cellist Mary Barnecutt and Cora Venus Lunny on violin and viola. Together they provide a subtle but unobtrusive sonic backdrop, the highlight being ‘Beautiful One’, an aching love song which alone deserves to cement his reputation as a major talent.