MARC O’ REILLY – MY FRIEND MARX
2012 – Salt and Shake Records
4****
This is an unusual album with incredibly powerful, mainly acoustic guitar playing, on twelve songs that seem to encompass English and American folk music. There is also a strong bluesy feel with what at times has a strange haunting almost avant garde edge, even sometimes including a middle eastern feel, much of that often in the space of one song! It is almost impossible to categorise but most of the above probably qualify it as ‘roots music’ although an incredibly sparse and highly original version of it. Perhaps alt. folk/roots? Marc gets a beautiful sound from his mainly acoustic guitar playing with the quality of that playing at times being quite extraordinary. His
vocals have a pleasant warmth with a strong huskiness that manages to imbue the songs with a powerful atmosphere, so this is definitely not your standard acoustic folk music!
In a similar generic field there are other recordings that have song writing and singing approaching, or even at this level, but what imbues this recording with it’s greater quality is his guitar
mastery, which when combined with everything else signals a large degree of originality. The album is incredibly well planned and the song order must have needed considerable study to make an album that slowly builds it’s power as this one does. The song writing covers a wide range of subjects including philosophy, death, politics, murder, family, lost and found love, some using metaphor, others more open, but all guaranteeing a quite riveting listening experience!
The album starts with the slow build of the title track My Friend Marx, with it’s nice acoustic guitar introduction followed by Marc’s warmly expressive vocal’s, on a mellow sounding song made more so by the introduction of strings giving it an English chamber folksy feel on a tale that
questions our basic philosophy. There is some extraordinary acoustic guitar playing on Hail, a really unusual song that includes occasional piano chimes plus an excellent bass drum thump, with some nice harmonies eventually coming in to give the song further variety. It’s a tale that could easily be a metaphoric allusion to the end of a relationship or even someones life on this darkly haunting story that speeds up as it goes on. Lord Of War, is another unusual song again including, as the whole album does, some excellent playing with the eventual addition of electric guitar on a powerful anti middle east war (or anti George Bush!) song that is also a metaphor against the power inherent in all presidents, dictators, etc to promote war almost at will. Tell Old Joe has a strange middle east toned introduction that at the same time evokes the deep dark Mississippi delta, on an extraordinary song that is actually a bleak tale of a murderer that slowly builds into a powerful blues story. It has quite an epic feel to it and is yet another song that highlights his guitar mastery. Twenty Minutes For Two Years is dominated by his guitar and vocals and has some atmospheric violin and cello sounds in the background, on an incredibly emotive tale of losing a love that he had misguidedly seemed to think would last for ever and the wound that maybe won’t ever heal. There are also occasional moments of lightness as onFamily Reunion, a tongue in cheek tribute to these notorious family meetings, with
some restrained guitar playing and the addition of a little brass to lighten it further!
The other musicians that are used at times should also be congratulated for adding subtle colour where necessary, but never detracting from the power of the stories, the singing or the virtuosic guitar playing of this tremendously talented musician, who surely has a great future in roots music.
http://www.marcoreillymusic.com
4****
This is an unusual album with incredibly powerful, mainly acoustic guitar playing, on twelve songs that seem to encompass English and American folk music. There is also a strong bluesy feel with what at times has a strange haunting almost avant garde edge, even sometimes including a middle eastern feel, much of that often in the space of one song! It is almost impossible to categorise but most of the above probably qualify it as ‘roots music’ although an incredibly sparse and highly original version of it. Perhaps alt. folk/roots? Marc gets a beautiful sound from his mainly acoustic guitar playing with the quality of that playing at times being quite extraordinary. His
vocals have a pleasant warmth with a strong huskiness that manages to imbue the songs with a powerful atmosphere, so this is definitely not your standard acoustic folk music!
In a similar generic field there are other recordings that have song writing and singing approaching, or even at this level, but what imbues this recording with it’s greater quality is his guitar
mastery, which when combined with everything else signals a large degree of originality. The album is incredibly well planned and the song order must have needed considerable study to make an album that slowly builds it’s power as this one does. The song writing covers a wide range of subjects including philosophy, death, politics, murder, family, lost and found love, some using metaphor, others more open, but all guaranteeing a quite riveting listening experience!
The album starts with the slow build of the title track My Friend Marx, with it’s nice acoustic guitar introduction followed by Marc’s warmly expressive vocal’s, on a mellow sounding song made more so by the introduction of strings giving it an English chamber folksy feel on a tale that
questions our basic philosophy. There is some extraordinary acoustic guitar playing on Hail, a really unusual song that includes occasional piano chimes plus an excellent bass drum thump, with some nice harmonies eventually coming in to give the song further variety. It’s a tale that could easily be a metaphoric allusion to the end of a relationship or even someones life on this darkly haunting story that speeds up as it goes on. Lord Of War, is another unusual song again including, as the whole album does, some excellent playing with the eventual addition of electric guitar on a powerful anti middle east war (or anti George Bush!) song that is also a metaphor against the power inherent in all presidents, dictators, etc to promote war almost at will. Tell Old Joe has a strange middle east toned introduction that at the same time evokes the deep dark Mississippi delta, on an extraordinary song that is actually a bleak tale of a murderer that slowly builds into a powerful blues story. It has quite an epic feel to it and is yet another song that highlights his guitar mastery. Twenty Minutes For Two Years is dominated by his guitar and vocals and has some atmospheric violin and cello sounds in the background, on an incredibly emotive tale of losing a love that he had misguidedly seemed to think would last for ever and the wound that maybe won’t ever heal. There are also occasional moments of lightness as onFamily Reunion, a tongue in cheek tribute to these notorious family meetings, with
some restrained guitar playing and the addition of a little brass to lighten it further!
The other musicians that are used at times should also be congratulated for adding subtle colour where necessary, but never detracting from the power of the stories, the singing or the virtuosic guitar playing of this tremendously talented musician, who surely has a great future in roots music.
http://www.marcoreillymusic.com