Mark Geary - 33 1/3 Grand Street

Independent - 2003 - 40 minutes

To the legion of troubadours who have come from America and made a bolthole in Ireland we can now add one of our own. Dubliner Geary left in 1995 and his time paying dues in front of New York's clap-stingy audiences gives '...Grand Street' the polar opposites of confidence and vulnerability between its grooves.

There is only one great track here: 'Obi's Chair', which sounds like a Latin-American take on Neil Young's 'Harvest Moon' - but arguably better is the fact that there are ten good ones behind it. Some may take more time to work than others, but none stay longer than they should. And while distance and regret aches throughout, it's an album that's more comfort than confessional.

Hopefully the further Geary goes with it, he'll still be able to find his way back home.

Harry Guerin

Tracklisting: Gingerman - Obi's Chair - Songs My Mother Taught Me - It Beats Me - Suzanne - Adam & Eve - Not Like Home - America - South - Volunteer - Here's To You