Once again I find myself reviewing my favourite Scots/Irish/Hungarian band, and an act not to be missed when the opportunity arises. Tonight's gig was a stop on a short tour to launch their third album, Smallworld. The lineup remains as it was in my last two reviews of the band's live act, and it's good to see that stability enduring. They are Jack Badcock on guitar and lead vocals, Jani Lang fiddling and delivering the occasional, Hungarian, lead vocal, Andrew Waite playing piano accordion and adding some backing vocals, Bev Morris on double bass and the multi talented Ciaran Ryan on banjo, mandolin and fiddle.
A couple of familiar numbers to begin the night and then into the new material. It's mostly familiar Dallahan territory, songs of love and death, Hungarian ballads and sets of tunes surprise with the mix of influences brought into their arrangements. Badcock sings Mother, a plaintive Irish song of famine, Lang's huskier tones work well on the lively Dilmano in an arrangement that takes us a thousand miles away from Scotland, and Waite has written a beautiful melody for his latest nephew, Toby, while Sagan's mixes three original tunes into a set that constantly varies in melody and tempo. Plenty of their better know material mixed in to the set list as well.
Morris provides an imaginative and solid underpinning, Badcock's voice is distinctive, clear and deceptively easy to listen to, and the other three throw in improvisations and embellishments that add depth and variety to well constructed arrangements. They have a decent enough stage presence with some humour and information about the numbers. Their musicianship is not in question. So where was everyone? In what is effectively their adopted home town they only played to about seventy or eighty people. Dallahan are far too good a band to remain a secret to the few, and deserve a much wider following.
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