Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish And Country Soul

Traditional airs 'Women Of Ireland', 'Carrickfergus' and 'Curragh Of Kildare' are evocative, stately and impassioned, respectively and alternately, and Rowland's bolshy old yelp has softened to a croon. He brings the kind of authority he didn't always have 30 years ago, along with a hard-won wisdom that gives him the character to handle this stuff sincerely.

It all makes for an excellent follow-up to 2012’s comeback album, One Day I’m Going to Soar.

Eyebrows may be raised over the more idiosyncratic choices and interpretations, but Irish-parented Brummie Rowland’s emotional connection with these songs is audible. He invests them with warmth and character, inhabiting them rather than covering them.

A smart running order helps, but it’s the performance from Rowland and his cultured set of musicians that pulls the project off.

Unpredictable, completely dedicated, and honest to the core, it packs an emotional wallop and is yet more proof that Kevin Rowland is still standing, just as proudly as ever.

So really, Let The Record Show is a game of two halves, a little jumbled up perhaps, but one in which Rowland ultimately triumphs. [Jun 2016, p.90]