Distant Shore

Singer/harpist Órla Fallon makes greatest use of her angelic voice on her second album, Distant Shore, although, toward the end of the disc she does play a medley of airs on her harp. This is contemporary Celtic music to the point of being folk-pop with an Irish accent, really. It is similar to Enya (if without nearly as many overdubs) and Clannad, in that sense. Fallon sings of true love and faith and angels in a mixture of her own compositions, traditional material, and, in the case of "Voices on the Wind," a cover of a Little Feat song. Her gentle tone and careful phrasing suggest optimism, but there is always an undercurrent of melancholy in Celtic music, and it comes out explicitly at the end in her rendition of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times," which she begins unaccompanied. Still, this is a lovely album of warm ballad music effectively played and sung.