Declan Sinnott at Mad Hatters, Inverness, 23/4/2016. Review.
Declan Sinnott is very well known in folk circles. He formed the band Horslips, later worked with Mary Black and Frances Black and has now worked with Christy Moore for around 30 years touring the world and filling large venues wherever he and Christy play.
In order to create a more intimate setting for the audience, the star of our show had the house PA switched off,grabbed his guitar and a chair and proceeded to just play his songs and chat with us about them as he went.
Firstly we had been treated to friends Donald ‘Cigarbox ‘ and Rob Ellen a.k.a. The Slim Panatellas for a short set of fun and bunkum including one of my faves “Hotel Caledonia”. Resplendent in Kilt Rob twanged his Tea Chest and between corpsing Don played his homemade guitar. A yodelling lesson was even attempted and it was fun.
On to the main man then. The intimacy of having him unplugged and well ‘RIGHT THERE’ was a bit disconcerting at first but soon became a quite spiritual thing and the stories in between were interesting . He. Says he is touring as he was after all this time to bring out a second solo album “Window in the World” and this tour is a means of promoting that album. We have several songs from it including a song about a grumpy Winston Churchill ‘Lightbox’ all accompanied by Vickie Keating on backing and harmonious vocals.
A couple of covers are thrown in for good measure with the wonderful Tom Paxton song “Did you Hear John Hurt” we get Dylan and we also get several songs from the first Declan Sinnott album ‘I like the noise it Makes’. We even had a rendition of The Irving Berlin version of ‘Putting on the Ritz” Sinnott explains he first learned a different version of this song which he realised was a jokey version of the original Berlin version. I can’t get the Gene Wilder version from Young Frankenstein out of my head for days after.
This was simply a wonderful concert, perhaps next time more people may witness the opportunity.
Check out Declan Sinnott via his website.
