专辑简介

by Rick AndersonOne of the finest Scots folksingers of his generation, Andy M. Stewart spent his early career with the hugely influential Silly Wizard before heading out on his own and producing a string of excellent solo albums. This one was Melody Maker's Folk Album of the Year in 1983, and with good reason. Stewart has a warm tenor voice, a light touch, and exquisite taste in songs, and these simple, delicate arrangements set off his voice beautifully. On By the Hush he opens with the bittersweet "Haud Your Tongue Dear Sally," athen romps through "The Ramblin' Rover" before coming to a skidding halt on "The Orphan's Wedding," a sad, creepy tale of an accidentally incestuous marriage. Then there's "The Parish of Dunkeld," a song about a town that gets tired of its minister and hangs him before going on a collective drunk. Yeesh. But he sings all of these songs with such tenderness and empathy that you find your sympathies becoming complicated. "By the Hush" is about escaping the privations of 19th century Ireland for America, only to be conscripted into the Civil War; "They Wounded Old Ireland" is, of course, a lament for the war-torn North. Okay, so this sounds like a pretty grim program, and maybe it is. But it sure is pretty somehow. You just have to hear it.