The Best of Sean Tyrrell - Man for Galway

Although he spent time in the U.S. in the '60s and '70s, Tyrell has never found any renown as a singer outside his native Ireland. On the basis of this compilation, one has to wonder why. He's a magnificent vocalist who truly inhabits a song, as the cuts on this compilation (including four previously unreleased songs) show. He's perfectly at home with the tradition (such as with "One Starry Night"), interpreting the work of other songwriters ("Mattie" and "John O'Dreams," for example), or with his own material ("Lila's Crush/The Humours of Aine"). He's part of the great history of Irish singers, for whom meaning stands above all else, and his delivery is measured with a beautiful delicacy, yet the underlying strength is never far away. Covering a ten-year period (Tyrell was never in any rush to get into the studio, obviously) from 1994 on, this shows one of the Emerald Isle's best-kept secrets, and one who truly deserves to be out of the box.