Her debut album, released a few years back revealed this talented County Clare native to be a gifted songwriter and a single-minded live performer, with a pleasantly distinctive voice. Since then Dawn Kenny has gigged endlessly around the country to quietly growing acclaim.
Her second album builds on the promise of the first, with an even stronger collection of songs, all written in collaboration with her partner Michael O’Toole. As with her live shows, which are mainly performed in a solo capacity, the piano is the lead instrument here along with acoustic guitars and a light rhythm section.
Highlights include mid-tempo numbers such as the opener ‘January’, ‘End of The World’ and ‘Seven Days’ all of which which weave their magic on the listener over repeated airings. Strings add even more texture to the gorgeously soaring ‘Somebody Knows’ while a version of The Rolling Stones’ classic ‘Ruby Tuesday’ showcases her wide vocal range which reaches the lofty heights.
Kenny’s lyrical themes mainly concern the emotional ups and downs of relationships as exemplified on ‘Ten Good Reasons’ (“You flattered to deceive…I’ve got ten good reasons to leave”) and the caustic ‘Straight Lines’ (…in between I guess, I never loved you less”). In fact the only negative might be the fact that a tad too many of these songs are similarly paced with little enough variation in the arrangements. But it’s a good record.