Sometimes you can tell when an album is going to be under appreciated. Two songs into Clair Tierney's "Of The Deepest Dye" and I just knew that there was a reason why it had taken over a year for this album to find its way to Bluesbunny Towers.
Not that there is anything wrong with the album - for there isn't - but it sits somewhere between sensitive singer songwriter territory and traditionalism. Traditionalism in Scottish music inevitably means regurgitating the past and while Ms Tierney does throw in a historical reference or two ("Mary" being the obvious example), there is nonetheless a distinctly modern perspective to her lyrics. "Mr D'Arcy" is more a reference to Colin Firth and consequent insecurity and indecision than Jane Austen and that particular perspective is also exampled in "How". It is an interesting line to take that, in all truth, works better than you might expect. Traditionalism is all very well but so many of Ms Tierney's contemporaries fail to adapt and therefore fail to make what they perform relevant to these modern times.
Perhaps the most endearing thing about "Of The Deepest Dye", however, is that it presents, with warmth and intelligence, a rather romantic view of the world developed of a rose tinted view of the past. Ms Tierney makes for an unassuming poet and, to return to my original statement that this as an album that would most likely be under appreciated, I wonder how many would have noticed that amongst the endearing sweetness, there is also a search for redemption.