Máire Brennan - The Voice Of Clannad - Live

The band consisted of acoustic guitar, bass, drums, violin, bodhran, Uileann pipes/tin whistle, and keyboards. The Birchmere is not a huge place which helped to create an intimate atmosphere. The show started off with an emotional rendition of "Door Well," an instrumental from the new album, proving right away that Máire is a talented musician on harp as well as being a powerful singer. She then went into two songs from Fauim, "Na Buachailli Alainn" and "An Tull," both of which were as fresh as they were back in 1982. She then did the song "Oro" from her self-titled first solo album, explaining that it was a lullaby written for her unborn daughter even before she knew it was a girl. "The Light On the Hill" was next which was written about St. Patrick.

She followed with two instrumentals, the beautiful and poignant "Eleanor Plunkett" and a jig she claimed they had been playing for years and still did not know the name of, which she dubbed "Tripping To Alexandria." A flawless version of "Broken Pieces" from Lore was complimented by two songs from her latest album: "The Big Rock," (referring to her native Ireland, and which includes words from St. Patricks crest in the chorus), and then an incredibly inspirational version of "Perfect Time." She then delved deeply into the past from the first two Clannad albums with the show stopping "Nil Se Ina la" and "Teidhir Abhaile Riu."

Back to the recent past with "I Will Find You" and Alasdair MacColla" from Banba and Lore respectively. It was then time for some solo ventures, a solo Uileann pipe song "I Am Asleep Don't Wake Me," a pretty harp solo of "Bruach McCall," a violin solo which I think was called "The Whispering Drinker," then the whole band came back with "Sweeny's Buttermilk." She did a barebones version of the "Theme From Harry's Game," which was unique, especially for those of us who have heard lots of that successful song. She ended the show with "Heal This Land" and "Against the Wind." The crowd gave a standing ovation for what was a memorable and moving experience. For an encore we were treated to a spirited version of "A Mhuirnin O" from Clannad's Grammy winning album Landmarks.

This was Máire's first tour of the US since 1993's Clannad tour for the Banba album. The crowd seemed grateful to have the privelege of this rare opportunity to see one of their favorites. Máire said after the show that this was a tour to test the waters so to speak. She was near the end of a thirteen show tour that started in Los Angeles and went all the way across the US. If anyone has a chance to see this tour, don't miss it!