Eva Coyle - Down To The Shore (2022)

County Cork resident Eva Coyle is an exciting new voice in Irish music, with a poet’s gift for song and a fine, evocative voice to match. Down To The Shore is Coyle’s debut; it’s an accomplished and confident release on which much time and care have gone into its construction; indeed, Coyle has been at work on the album since 2018, and it has been well worth the wait.

There’s an intriguing mix on the album, with a sound that merges between traditional Irish vibes and a little more esoteric Swedish tinge with just some touches of folk, blues and Americana thrown in for good measure. And it works well; Coyle wears her Irish influences lightly here, but they are everpresent in both the arrangements and musical accompaniments as well as themes and song subjects.

Accompanying Coyle, who also plays piano and accordion, is Mattias Pérez on guitar and cittern and Sean O’Dalaigh on fiddle, and this compact choice of musicians and instruments gives Coyle’s vocals room to shine. It’s Coyle’s voice that stands out on what is a pleasingly chilled and engaging selection of songs. Coyle’s voice has that unique mix of innocence and experience, gentleness and steeliness, fragility and rock-like resilience – an entirely charming and hypnotic blend.

Opening track ‘Mo Chuisle’, roughly translated as ‘my pulse’, provides a fine taste of what’s to come, with Coyle’s sweet, gentle vocals perfectly harmonised by the unobtrusive accompaniment. The song starts softly before concluding in a crescendo of guitar and the fiddle of Nina Pérez.

Title track ‘Down To The Shore’ takes a traditional arrangement but layers it with some moody vocals and sweeping fiddle, whilst the penultimate track, ‘Wanderer’, is perhaps the most traditional of all ten tracks on Down To The Shore, with a fine Irish vibe and a timelessness which characterises the entire album. This is also due, in part, to the sensitive production by Brian Casey of Wavefield Studio, West Cork.

‘Cuilcagh Mountains’ sees Coyle begin with a darker, more dramatic mood. This haunting, mist-tinged track soon settles into a more hopeful and passionate song celebrating love, whilst ‘Take Us Home’ is a more playful, late-night dance of a song—a joyful little slice of summer fling which finishes with some playful piano.

Coyle’s soft, dreamlike voice lends itself well to ‘Dying Love’, a highlight of the album. It’s a simple but thoroughly effective little romance, whilst ‘When You’re Weary’, written by Athlone songwriter Bean Doyle, and accompaniment by Bean’s vocals, Katie Grennan’s fiddle and John Williams’ flute is a gentle, reflective track – a lullaby-esque call for a lover to return.

The closing track, ‘Wandering Sea’, features the vocals of Cork singer-songwriter John Blek and a fine duet between the two it is too; Blek’s more resonant voice dances effortlessly with Coyle’s mellower, more innocent tone. It’s a beautifully atmospheric and captivating conclusion to an equally alluring album.