Silly Winds
(Rouseabout)
Some albums should be consigned to history at the earliest convenience, while others deserve resurrection and eternal life. Silly Winds is a compilation drawing on two of Cathie O’Sullivan’s albums from the 1980s. A long-time member of the Larrikins and subsequently an academic, O’Sullivan has an important place in the fabric of Oz folk music, and here you can learn why. Her singing, beyond that conventional Celtic-folk purity, has a rare vivacity, so the words carry all the sudden surprise of seeing flowers that had not bloomed yesterday. Nor does she espouse a rear-view-mirror perspective on traditional music and its self-penned counterpart, preferring to imbue it with a freshness of ideas and textures in harmony with the vivacity of her singing. In addition to her own Irish harp, therefore, she surrounds her voice with the brilliance of Cleis Pearce (strings), Jim Denley (reeds), Steve Elphick (bass) and Greg Sheehan (drums, percussion), four of the finest improvising players Australia ever produced. Another compilation, Down by the Green Bushes, is released simultaneously.