REVIEWS OF "THE COLDEST DAY IN WINTER" Tony Reidy's name first came to notice from "Like a Wild Thing" the title track of Co. Mayo band Ceide's debut album reviewed enthusiastically in these pages some time ago. Coming from a farming background in Co.Mayo, Tony Reidy is well acquainted with rural life, and a strong sense of communal experience emerges from his material. His second album "The Coldest Day in Winter" reveals a sharp concise lyrical talent with a nose for detail and a forthright vocal delivery. The Country Man and Like A Wild Thing offer two diverse accounts of rural life the former a vivid word picture depicting a farmer content in his role as provider and man of the earth while the latter depicts a common scene in recent Irish life with small farms closing down forcing many young farmers to make their life working in cities. Like A Wild Thing captures a computer programmer whose heart is elsewhere and the helplessness of his condition "I feel like a wild thing trapped in a snare." Otherwise, Kitonga a pen to an adopted child in Africa and Woman Sitting in a Dark Cafe haunt different inspirational boats while the humerous Black Pudding Music depicts the pub and wedding musician's lot. The ghosts of fellow Irish songwriters Mick Hanley and Mickey McConnell occasionally scurry through Tony Reidy's vocabulary, but the results are finely wrought songs of substance and life experience. The Coldest Day in Winter is a pleasant aural surprise unveiling a highly promising Irish songwriting talent. www.my space.com/tonyreidy John O'Regan....... fRoots Magazine 2002 Singer-songwriter Tony Reidy was born in Ireland and his music is a pleasant mixture of his singer-songwriter qualities and Irish traditional music. He chooses to record eleven songs that have a poetic and strong ballad feeling. The music is sober so you can concentrate on the lyrics without being disturbed by complicated instrumental accompaniment. It's clear that Reidy gets his inspiration from artists like Dylan but on a song like Draiodoir dubh he has a Nick drake sounds as well. Tony Reidy recorded this debut cd on an older age than most starting musicians. It's like on this cd he reflects on his life and makes us part of his country and his history. He does it in a beautiful and impressive way. This Coldest day in winter might turn out to be one of the warmest album in the 2002 singer-songwriter scene. Eelco Schilder.... Folk World CD Review Tony Reidy "The Coldest Day in Winter" TRCD01. 11 tracks, 39mins 53secs "He had his own outlook on life/ It wasn't always right/ Sean nos mixed with alcohol/ Bruce Springstein and Tom Waits." Well, whatever about the alcohol and the mix he refers to in his song, The Mountainy Man, singer/songwriter Tony Reidy's own general mix of material and music styles is a wonderful assortment altogether. Indeed, those lines quoted might just be about himself - he is the mountainy man, observing the quirky world from his hillside cottage. Speaking of quirky - the songs listed on the back cover and in the CD notes are not in the usual order from 1 to 11, but are scattered around the page in a random, shuffled order. Perhaps he's saying, "Here's a few ould songs I put together. You can listen to them in any order you want." Most of Tony Reidy's song/poems are a quiet meandering through 'life's rich tapestry', with here and there a sharp comment on some of the harsher realities of life. In his song, The Country Man, the first line of every verse is "The country man is happy," and the pictures are of lambs racing round the walls, and the smell of whins in the nostrils; but in the following song Like a Wild Thing he parodies the subject of the title - the country man's new state - which sadly is worse than the first; he has gone to the big smoke where he gets a job sitting in front of a computer: "Farewell to the land where I grappled with stones/ Farewell to the hills (where) I got soaked to the bone ..." And having second thoughts, he realises that maybe he has sold his birthright for a mess of pottage: "...farewell to my place/ To make a living I must sit at a chair." All the songs but one (Seán Ó Ríordáin's "Cúl a' Tí) are Tony's. He is a gifted painter of word pictures, and a dab hand at fitting lyrics to a well structured tune; his guitar playing style is uniquely his own, and his playing weaves around word and melody as effortlessly as Mississippi blues singer's - most appealing. He is well served by his backing musicians, Brian Lennon, David Munnelly, and not least, by the Pat Early quartet. Looking for a song to sing on your next album? You could find a gem or two on Tony's new CD. Aidan O'Hara......Irish Music Magazine 2002