Pianist
Phil Coulter
fills the songs on
Songs I Love So Well
with his warm Irish brogue as well as his familiar contemporary keyboard style. Large string sections soar beneath his romantic tales of love lost and remembrances of home. While
Coulter
's debut 1983
Classic Tranquility
was entirely instrumental, his live shows usually incorporated one or two vocal numbers. Over the years, the requests for his vocal pieces began to overwhelm the requests for his instrumentals, hence the impetus for this album.
himself admits his limitations as a classic singer, but the warmth and honesty of the man expressing himself through the songs written by his own hand far outweighs any technical abilities he lacks. Most of the songs revolve around the traditional Irish longing for home (
"Take Me Home,"
"Home From the Sea,"
"The Town I Loved So Well"
), as well as several songs about the pain of unrequited love (
"I Loved the Ground,"
"Keep a Candle in the Window"
), all with a gruff sentimentality somewhere between
Van Morrison
and
Leonard Cohen
. While the musical feel of these songs is closer to adult contemporary, the underlying essence is pure Irish romance. ~ Zac Johnson