Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Purveyors of excellent roots rock, Dublin's David Clare Band are a bunch of tight musicians backing the excellent singing and songwriting of one David Clare. The band include some pretty cool keyboard contributions from Emmaus member Ronan Johnston and collectively they have the roots thing pretty well nailed. Obvious being Irish boys there are some Celtic musical inflections here and there but mainly this is classic roots music that has wide appeal. Clare's passionate songwriting takes some surprising twists and turns so you get a humorous observation about the ridiculousness of stalking in "The Stalker Song" and the "Irish Lament" takes in the histories of those Irish folks who have left the nation to seek fortune elsewhere. Meanwhile "Aileen" is a mournful song of unrequited love which sees Mr Clare unable to escape from his strong feelings and move onwards. David Clare manages to attack life and love, faith and issues with keen insight, good humour and a heart that searches for redemption.

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