Shadows Of You

Kate is a singing (and sometime songwriting) native of music-drenched East Clare and this is her second album.

Produced by Ted Ponsonby with a supporting cast that includes the incomparable Martin Hayes, Tola Custy and Eddie Lynch, it’s a generally unadventurous affair, treading the ground already well-trampled by Mary and Frances Black et al. In fact, tracks like ‘Play On’ and ‘Grosse Isle’ could just as easily have come from a Frances Black album ten years ago.

That said, Purcell has a pleasant and somewhat wistful, if emotionally limited, voice and she scores by virtue of the fact that several songs are either her own thoughtful solo compositions or co-writes.

With Irish solo performers of the calibre of David Kitt, Nina Hynes and Gemma Hayes making albums that are redolent of the times we live in, Purcell’s effort suffers by comparison. It’s pleasantly harmless but ultimately uninspiring stuff.