"Conferma la rinascita artistica del musicista" (Italy)

(Most versatile album confirming the musician's artistic renaissance)

Let's Start Again has been reviewed in Roots Highway (Italy)
Click here to view in the original Italian. (The following is a (Google!) translation)

The sixth album by Bap Kennedy in fifteen years of solo career, frugal and thoughtful , was released two years after the successful The Sailor 's Revenge, who reported the singer-songwriter originally from Belfast to general attention . If the previous album , recorded in London , profited from the production of Mark Knopfler and the very presence of the guitarist and other musicians of his band , this time Bap returned to recording in Northern Ireland , relying on his old friend Mudd Wallace, with whom he had collaborated in the eighties and using the accompanying band live , composed by his wife Brenda on bass , drummer Rabb Bennett and virtuoso guitarist Gordy McAllister , with the addition of John Mc Cullough keyboards , mandolin Noel Lenaghan and pedal steel by Richard Nelson.
I thought that these choices would have resulted in a disc of ballads steeped in Irish atmosphere in line with the previous year; instead Bap has returned to focus on the matrix of American roots rock sound , while maintaining a low profile and preferring soft colors and tones and moderate , albeit with some soaring rhythmic than The Sailor 's Revenge, which reconciles the previous Domestic Blues ( produced by Steve Earle ) and Lonely Street. Kennedy confirms the quality of writing shy and refined to fit his voice melodic and melancholic and preference for an electro-acoustic sound characterized by the presence of pedal steel , which emerges already in the opener Let's Start Again . The pace grows in bright peasant roots of Revelation Blues, path from the violin by John Fitzpatrick, tempered by a relaxed If Things Do not Change , in which the lap steel carves out a special place . King Of Mexico smells like tex-mex between violin and accordion, while Song Of Her Desire is a sad ballad of crystalline beauty . Radio Waves brings us back to the sixties with a recognizable melody , backing vocals and a guitar in the fifties Duane Eddy , followed dall'honky tonk Texas Heart Trouble, with the bass of Brenda and a violin -style western swing and calypso by swaying Under My Wing , played with proper voice sore by the Irish .
The final part of the disc includes the mid-tempo country rock Strange Kid, the Caribbean Fool's Paradise that invites you to a few dance steps ( always without overdoing it ) and country old style of Let It Go with the backing vocals of his wife and l ' mixture of violin and lap steel that reminds us of the deep attachment of Bap against Hank Williams (remember his tribute album , Hillbilly Shakespeare , a few years ago , nda ) . A most versatile album of the previous year, which confirms the artistic renaissance of the musician, despite being perhaps less inspired writing, published as deluxe single and with a second CD that re- traces of the first solo albums , with the addition of unreleased versions , acoustic Jimmy Sanchez and Please Returt To Jesus , taken from the previous the Sailor's Revenge.

Paolo Baiotti