Review in 'HOT PRESS' by Patrick Freyne
The lovely artwork for Kevin Doherty's third album makes a statement by featuring a photo of the songwriter with a guitar and a typewriter. The notion that songwriting is comparable to writing, when you look at most opportunistic stream-of-conciousness tunesmiths,is pretty laughable, but Doherty is a writer. He's remembered that, in the past, folk and country music was a vehicle for old memories and new ideas rendered prettily into words. So amid the guitar picking, sturdy backing harmonies, piano pounding, double bass plucking and to-be-expected tales of times past (like his great tale of the emigrating Irish on 'Tugboat') he drops in refreshing lyrical gems all about economic times present ("there's panic on the plains of mammon" he asserts on 'Mammon'). All in all, it's well above average and very close to great...
Patrick Freyne
Review in 'Maverick' magazine by Loudon Temple
On this side of the Irish sea most who know their great trad music from the mediocre will hold Donegal's Kevin Doherty in high esteem for his work with loveable folk superheroes, Four Men And A Dog. But, in Ireland he is also known and respected for his solo work and stints he famously filled with the new bluegrass wild boys 'The Pyros'. Now, Doherty has just released his third solo album, entitled 'Telegraph', and been on the road promoting the work with a band of seasoned old hands, including bass player Paul Moore, guitar all-rounder Conor Brady, pianist and composer James Delaney and Des Lacey on drums.
The themes celebrate his Irish-to-the-marrow character, Donegal's love of Americana, re-visit old sores - the misfortunes and injustice experienced by his fellow countrymen and women down the years and remind us that things are pretty rotten to the core these days as well, both at home and abroad. If that sounds remotely dry and hard to swallow, fear not; he has a rakish Dave Allen – style about him, a sparkle in the eye and a knack of pulling humour to the surface to lighten proceedings.
He collaborated with contemporary film-makers to create visual backdrops with newly commissioned work and archive footage as well as audio montage to compliment the material, and the end result powerfully confirms his right to a place at the top table. Now and again I found myself thinking this was what it was like when Van the Man was at his peak, or, as another classy song impressed, that Nick Lowe would have been proud of that. The over-all musical tone of the presentation resembled what it's like when Geraint Watkins gets up off his backside and puts a top team of players together.
'Love and Money' driven by bowed double bass, was Tom Waitsy in scale and depth; 'Mammon', bristling with gospel-goodness was gorgeous, and 'The Stars will be our satellites tonight'- a song about trying to make contact with loved ones to let them know you're safe amid the horrors that surround you in New York the day the Twin Towers came down was extraordinarily beautiful. It was, said the man who wrote it, designed to celebrate 'the triumph of the imagination'.
...If Mr Doherty and his band passes through a town near you don't even give it a second thought. This is one that's definitely worth the ticket price.
Loudon Temple
Review in 'The Irish Times' by Joe Breen
This is Kevin Doherty's third solo album, and the Donegal-born singer-songwriter just gets better and better. There are few inventive writers who have such an easy and winning way with melody, and certainly only a handful who have managed to create a signature sound so rich in Americana. The more one listens to this warm, understated album of fine detail, the more there is to hear. For instance, James Delaney's rippling piano frills in the gorgeously soulful Country Music are typical of the lightly applied but brilliant splashes of colour that enrich each song.
Doherty wrote and produced all 12 tracks, and they cover a wide area, including many topical references, not least the faux music hall of A Brief History of Our Times, and a fascinating retelling of the Irish story in the epic Tugboat.
Doherty's soulful, unhurried tenor and sceptical, slightly amused attitude sets the tone throughout for what is undoubtedly one of the year's best albums.
Joe Breen
Review in 'The Mid-Ulster Observer' by Declan Forde
The Belfast 'Telegraph'
I remember a certain uniquely miserable ambiance that hung around Belfast on a Sunday afternoon. A deserted city centre with Saturday night's discarded chip wrappers making a run for it, trying to rustle their way out through security barriers in Royal Avenue. How things change over a generation. On a recent Sunday afternoon Belfast was a much different place, shops were open and churches were closed. I was there to see the show 'Telegraph' in the Black Box as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.
The brain child of Kevin Doherty and Eleanor Methven, it is an amalgam of visual, verbal and musical imagery. The songs from the recently released CD 'Telegraph' of course are both the springboard and the centre piece. All are written by Doherty and performed by the songwriter and his tight band of musicians (keyboard, upright bass, drums and lead guitar). The style is eclectic, veering from country to jazz with a hint of doo-wop and some Donegal folk for good measure. Kevin Doherty, a member of Four Men And a Dog, is a writer with an enviable gift for melody, 'When I Dream' was a personal favourite, and the author of stand out lyrics
'Darling wait, Darling watch
darling listen
See that Irish firmament burn-
ing there so bright
I'm a thousand miles away but
I'm singing just for you
The stars will be our satellites
tonight'.
(The stars will be our satellites tonight)
Doherty fronts the band and weaves the songs through his own easy rapport with the audience. The visual images compliment the words and music, from James Joyce and Nora Barnacle to Hank Williams, Mother Maybelle and Dolly Parton. All are grist to Doherty's story mill. The link is the whole notion of the invention of the wireless and the sense of communication of situations, both real and imagined framed against a (literal) back-drop of the streets of Dublin, American highways and popular culture.
In creating and developing this show Doherty said that he wanted to “expand the traditional notion of the gig”. It takes a brave performer to push the boundaries and to deviate from the norm and, like his namesake, the photographer/artist Willie Doherty from Derry, in 'Telegraph' Kevin Doherty twists and turns cinematic convention around making a very individual statement of artistic integrity. The show in the Black Box was much more than a showcase for new songs: it was a stand alone piece of theatre reminiscent of an old German cabaret, an entertainment that encompassed both the biting and the caustic with the lyrical and romantic. It was, quite simply, an unforgettable experience.
Declan Forde