Review - Siochain - Peace by Peace
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Album: Peace By Peace
Artist: Siochain
Bonnie Declarificates: Síocháin, (that’s Gaelic for peace, if you’re curious) is a Celtic Rock band from Indianapolis. This album is cleverly titled Peace By Peace, and it contains most everything you’d think of when you think about Celtic music. That is, bagpipes, a tin whistle, fiddling, and a touch of bodhran. Toss in some guitars and a drum set - it is Celtic ROCK, after all, and you have Síocháin. To be honest though, it’s a bit more like trad leaning towards soft rock, I never felt tempted to do the things I am prone to doing when I listen to rock music. (Like dance, have immoral liaisons, and play records backwards and worship Satan. Or Cthulhu.)*
On to the part of the review where I pick apart the songs and tell you which of them makes me squeeee! With happiness, and which of them makes me squirm with discomfort.
Firstly, the awesome. Keg of Brandy is my favorite song on the album by a mile. Claudia Campbell is Síocháin’s lead vocalist, and if she doesn’t *quite* tear the house down with this performance, it’s a close call. There’s some very enjoyable guitar work going on here as well. Not only do I love this song, but it’s worth noting that so do a whole lot of other people, it was voted #1 song of 2008 on Marc Gunn’s Celtic Music Podcast.**
King of the Fairies is an enchanting instrumental that showcases the band’s musical chops, which are considerable. This is a pleasure to listen to and made it onto the i-pod along with Keg of Brandy.
Secondly, the good. Wild Mountain Thyme has more great vocals, especially the harmony. This is an upbeat rendition that sells the story of the tune, which we all know is about cruising for lots of girls. I appreciate the decision not to change the lyrics from “lassie” to “laddie” just because a woman is singing them. Interpret away, and I get why it happens, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. So, props there. I could have done without the … two bridges? I haven’t had a music class in way too many years, but I reckon there’s something wonky along those lines going on here.
Thirdly, the not so good. Pretty much everything else. Hate me if you will, I had a hard time getting into much of the album. Rocky Road to Dublin in particular grated on my nerves, and several of the songs went on and on interminably for no good reason.
Peace by Peace as a whole didn’t really light my fire. When I find myself not feeling a CD I listen to it more, just in case it’s something that I need to get used to, perhaps stylistically out of my range, new to me, etc. Unfortunately I think here it was the opposite situation, I was a bit bored. There are moments of brilliance and almost brilliance, but I often found myself tuning out. Maybe what the band needs is a little less síocháin and a soupçon of fearg (rage.)
*Mom, I know you read this sometimes. I don’t actually worship Satan. We can, uh, talk about the Cthulhu thing later.
**Celtophilia loves you Marc, mwah!
Mike Rambles Aimlessly: If I had to describe this CD in three words, I would say, “It’s pretty average.” If I had to describe it in two words, I would say, “It’s pretty.” If someone asked me to describe a CD in only word, I’d say nothing and walk away, shaking my head at the stupid things people ask me to do sometimes. I do like Peace by Peace, but I’d be lying if I said I loved it. The singer has a voice that I can only really describe as different. Sometimes it’s quite pretty, and other times I kinda wondered if it was coming from a real person. Rocky Road To Dublin, a song I know well, was almost impossible to decipher. That being said, Keg of Brandy was beautiful. I can’t explain the discrepancy.
As for musicianship, there’s a lot of stuff going on here, and pretty much all of it is positive. Love the fiddle, and all the other instrumentation to be found. I think I would have liked Amazing Grace given a more simple arrangement, especially taking into account that there are more than 2 minutes of buildup before the song breaks out in earnest. The whole thing struck me as a bit overwrought, I guess.
Perhaps I’m being a bit of a traditionalist here, but I had a similar problem with Wild Mountain Thyme. The song was made very long by a break at about 3 minutes, picking up the next verse about a minute later, but the song could easily have ended at about five and a half minutes. However, there was a whopping extra 2 minutes of the singer murmuring “will you go, lassie, go” while the music continued on behind. I’m not sure there’s any reason to stretch a track seven minutes long just because you can, especially with a venerated tune like this one.
King of Fairies is the runaway winner of the Mike’s Favorite Song award on this CD. I was captivated from start to finish on it, from the simply, two instrument opening all the way through the massive crescendo and back to the solemn ending. I had a hard time believing it was more than six minutes long.
One of my surprise favorites was the track called Lady Maryanne, which is essentially a country-rock-ish version of the trad song The Trees They Grow High, mixed with some lyrics from the Robert Burns poem Lady Mary Ann. Maybe it’s the Burn poem mixed the song. Okay, it’s taking me a while to work out exactly what it is, but I like it.
The last thing I’ll say about Peace by Peace is that it did something no other CD has ever done, which was grind Celtophilia to a screeching halt. Overall I’d say it is a good, if not great CD, but neither Bonnie nor myself seemed to be able to come up with just the right words to form a proper review. Part of that could just be our inherent laziness, but I’m attributing it to the band anyway. The disc is different, and the band itself is inscrutable. I couldn’t find any real info about them, either on the CD cover or their website. Another mystery added to the many life already provides.
If you want to find out more about Siochain, check out their website at www.siochain.net If you want to give a listen to Peace by Peace, you can always 
at cdbaby.
