When Green Linnet issued the debut album by Maura and Pete Kennedy, it was as if the label had discovered in them the same creative collaborative spark that had existed in Richard & Linda Thompson some 20 years before. In Maura's voice and Pete's stunning guitar work, the rivers of British and... [+] Expand

When Green Linnet issued the debut album by Maura and Pete Kennedy, it was as if the label had discovered in them the same creative collaborative spark that had existed in Richard & Linda Thompson some 20 years before. In Maura's voice and Pete's stunning guitar work, the rivers of British and Celtic folk musics met jangly American rock and pop in a mix that was as heady and joyous as it was tight, startlingly well crafted, and emotive. The Varese Sarabande reissue of River of Fallen Stars is completely remastered and contains six bonus tracks and full liner notes by journalist Marc Fenton. Maura Kennedy's voice echoes former Austin dweller Lucinda Williams in its emotion, but it's cleaner, bigger, and rings like a bell out over the mix of entwined guitars and crisp shimmering drums. The title track that opens the disc is worth the price alone. As a host of guitars and thrumming bass usher in the melody, Maura sings: "There are poems in the seaweed/Down by the snowcross…the jangle poets, will sing their songs/While pilgrim travelers will listen from afar/And from down in the valley/Where the gospel horses run/All the way to the midnight bridge/Where the flags of victory are hung…." She sings it like an anthem, full of enough conviction to rattle and move the listener, but not enough to sound didactic. The 12-strings and wah-wahed electrics kiss and turn each other around in the changes. The pastoral images transcend time and space and become their own poetry in folk-rock rhythm. It would be easy to picture the Byrds (an obvious influence) singing this one. But it goes on, from the easy, shuffling rock of "Same Old Way" with its devastating hook to a solid, if overly reverent, cover of Thompson's "Wall of Death" to the driven power chords of "Winterheart." The sprawling folk forms on "Fortune Teller Road" are deep in the cut, rhythmically propelling Maura's voice into the seam where emotion meets everyday life and spills over. The lean, sweet, yet tough rock in "House on Fire" and "Run the Red Horses" rollicks in the songs' tight mellifluous execution and drop-dead gorgeous choruses. Of the bonus tracks, "Senedara Blessing," "Fog," and "Belfast" are newly issued tracks, and three more are instrumental versions of those on the album itself. Along with Life Is Large, River of Fallen Stars has dated well and sounds as stunningly fresh as it did in 1995. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide [-] Collapse

• songs
• similar
• videos
• eyeviews
• reviews
• download directory