If 2008 was the year the masses finally became acquainted with the extraordinary talent of Glen Hansard through his Oscar-winning song with Marketa Irglova under the name Swell Season it’s likely that Hansard would be the first to tell you how many others shared that long journey to the top with him. Perhaps foremost among them is Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Hansard’s longtime fiddle-mate in Irish band the Frames.
Many Swell Season concerts this past year began and ended with this album being played over the sound system an appropriate gesture given that Mac Con Iomaire was a member of Hansard & Irglova’s touring ensemble (which consisted primarily of Frames members in a more stripped-down acoustic context). Mac Con Iomaire frequently was given a solo turn during those shows to perform “Red Shoes”, a hypnotic number enhanced with looped and layered samples of the violinist’s rhythmic bowing:
“Red Shoes” is just one example of Mac Con Iomaire’s stylistic range on The Hare’s Corner, which is admirably varied given that it’s an entirely instrumental affair. The eleven tracks are by turns jaunty, moody, swelling, swinging, subtle, peaceful. They’re also quite evocative of Mac Con Iomaire’s home country, a connection the artist underlines by listing all the song titles in both English and Gaelic on the disc jacket.
While fiddle is front-and-center throughout, Mac Con Iomaire (who also apparently played guitar on the disc, though the credits don’t specify it) wisely called upon a small handful of supporting musicians to accent the atmosphere. Most notable are the piano contributions of Catherine Fitzgerald; there are also occasional touches of drums (from his Frames mate Johnny Boyle), bass (from Karl Odlum, brother of longtime Frames member/producer Dave Odlum), trumpet, and harp.
While the tempos and colors vary from track to track, The Hare’s Corner sounds and feels remarkably cohesive as a whole. My favorite selections have changed from time to time over the months I’ve spent with the album from the enchanting melody of “The Cuckoo Of Glen Nephin” to the Nick Drake-ish drone of “Second Wave” to the steady, calm, reassuring mantra of “Time Will Tell” but the one that inevitably draws me back in is the closer, “Beaten Wings”, which gradually and gracefully unfolds its exquisite beauty over a five-minute span that can easily enough be set on repeat and played for hours, the soundtrack to a gauzy late-afternoon sky fading into twilight.
Colm Mac Con Iomaire discusses The Hare’s Corner.
