Ciaran Lavery, an Irish singer/songwriter, performed an intimate solo set at New York City’s Rockwood Music Hall on June 22nd.
Playing to a small, darkened room, a reverent silence took hold of the audience the moment Lavery began his first song. Switching back and forth between acoustic guitar and piano, his sparse accompaniments allowed his gentle, hushed voice to soar. With introspective, narrative lyrics, Lavery is a poetic storyteller. His ballads pull at your heartstrings, his words run the gamut of emotional experience. As a performer, he makes meaningful eye contact with each member of his audience, drawing his listeners further into his world.
In-between songs, Lavery continued his stories, revealing his sense of humor. Speaking of nervousness on an airplane, he once tried to relax by watching, as a dog lover, Marley and Me. He wasn’t, however, aware of the ending. Lavery also had a revelation while listening to the radio on a long drive, attempting to figure out the meaning of the genre “soft rock.” With a creeping sense of dread, he put it together: he is soft rock. Lavery easily pulled laughs from his listeners’ throats as he framed simple, universal experiences as ones of casual mirth.
Coming out of a very successful year with a new album Sweet Decay that has already risen on some of the most acclaimed foreign charts is Ireland based singer/songwriter Ciaran Lavery.Not only has he had the opportunity to play on some of the biggest stages and has gathered thousand of dedicated fans, but he has the skill and talent that support his rapidly growing success. Recently, he has been awarded the Northern Ireland Music Prize for is 2016 album Let Bad In. Along with this tremendous achievement, Lavery has acquired over a million followers on Spotify and he doesn’t plan to stop there.
Throughout this wonderful album, Lavery explores self-growth and reflection through his smooth, hypnotic beats and rhythm. Vocally, it can be said that he has a very melodic voice that blends easily with the beautifully composed guitar and percussion portions of each of the tracks on the album. This attribute of Lavery’s sound is especially highlighted in, “Bones 4 Blood,” which is then followed up by a much lighter track, “Wicket Teeth.” Without a doubt, however, one of the greatest skills that this up and coming artist exhibits is the ability to fill each lyric with the appropriate emotion that almost seems tangible in the atmosphere as one sits and enjoys the musical masterpiece that Lavery has put together for his fans. In he future, this international star hopes to move his success across a grander demographic and hopes to continue to perform for adoring fans that appreciate the poetic lyricism of all of his music.
Ciaran Lavery makes me glad I’m a writer for fear that I would pronounce his name like a 1st grader attempting to read Shakespeare. You can tell by his name that he isn’t from the U.S. and with his track “To Chicago” all of you American men could learn a thing or two. With Valentine’s Day approaching my best advice is this, if you want to get some warm and tender loving, put “To Chicago” on for your girl and it’s a sure win. It’s an upbeat, simple, toe-tapping love song that is a million miles away from what has been the top 10 industry standard.
The acoustic guitar isn’t always just for those depressing cry your eyes out ballads. The guitar line in “To Chicago” is fun, and like love, it’s unconditional and without a deceptive hidden agenda.
Reminiscent of a song you would hear playing over the speaker system of your local drug store and while the line is long the ladies are sure to daydream away of a concert where they are the only audience member and Ciaran is singing solely to them.This is the kind of song that yields hope in thinking love like that does exist. It’s not generically sappy or holding hands skipping in the perfect meadow. It’s realistic. It’s a spontaneous road trip, sharing laughs when the map flies out of the window and there is no cell signal, opening a can of soda and it fizzing over and your lover giggling as she pats the couple of droplets from your shirt. All the pop song elements are there, but the lyrics are creative and uniquely written.
Overall this is a very refreshing love song that is sure to pull at the heartstrings, and possibly make a slew of listeners flock to Ireland ready to marry Mr. Lavery.
“To Chicago” is out today and the album it appears on, Sweet Decay, will be released April 13th. Keep up with Ciaran Lavery here.
