Sailor’s Revenge
Bap Kennedy
Label: Proper American
Release Date (U.S.): June 5, 2012
Review Date: June 3, 2012
Incredible partnerships with some of the best and brightest names in music mark the solo career of Bap Kennedy. Whether working with the great Steve Earle on Bap’s first solo album, Domestic Blues, or with Van Morrison on Kennedy’s tune, Milky Way, or with the Pogue’s Shan MacGowan on the tune, On the Mighty Ocean Alcohol, Bap always finds himself aligning with quality, top shelf talent.
His latest solo effort, Sailor’s Revenge, is no exception. Having caught the attention of Mark Knopfler with his album, The Big Picture, that landed Kennedy a guest role on one of Knopfler’s tours, the relationship led to Dire Straits front man to produce Kennedy’s latest CD.
Sailor’s Revenge is one of those CD’s that you just want to pop into your player and start driving down the longest, loneliest stretch of highway that you can find and never, ever stop. Yes, the whole album is that good.
Three randomly picked Boomerocity favorites would be:
Shimnavale – this opening track of the CD is about a small neighborhood near Newcastle in County Down, Ireland. Kennedy says of the song, “The song is about traditional things like goin’ away and comin’ back, misfortune and looking back on an idyllic childhood.”
Probably the most poignant song on the album is Jimmy Sanchez. The song was inspired by the youngest of the Chilean miners who were trapped for 69 days in the San Jose mining disaster. Bap was inspired by Sanchez who said that God had put him in that mine so that he would change.
Finally, The Right Stuff, is a tune originally recorded on Bap’s Howl On album and, at Knopfler’s insistence, was re-recorded for Sailor’s Revenge. The song explores the philosophical implications of looking at earth while standing on the moon.
If you love the sounds of Guthrie, Dylan, Springsteen and Eagles all rolled into one great sounding, unique package, then Bap Kennedy’s Sailor’s Revenge is an album that you’ll definitely love listening to. I highly recommend buying it today!
Written by Randy Patterson
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