Summerhaze
Cathie O'Sullivan
Jarra Hill through Larrikin Entertainment
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
Potential buyers of Cathie O'Sullivan's fascinating album should ignore the dreadful packaging. Through some strange lapse of judgment, Larrikin has made this vibrant and surprising album look like something out of the K-tel or J & B catalogues.
I wouldn't be surprised if many record shop owners, on the strength of the dreary cover design, consign Cathie to the sad company of Tony Barber, Patsy Biscoe and Barry Crocker. Such a hideous fate would be totally undeserved.
O'Sullivan is possessed with alluring yet confident voice and songwriting ability that is truly poetic and challenging. Contrary to the publicity blurb's assertion that she is a "folk" singer, O'Sullivan's style cannot so easily be typecast.
The track "Sweetheart" is contemporary and sophisticated folk-pop. "Rain" uncovers a very able jazz singer not afraid of the surreal and unusual. "Foggy Dew" reveals a traditional balladeer devoid of maudlin excess. The instrumental "Care" is an almost classical piece. At times her voice is reminiscent of Sinead O'Connor or the lead singer of the Cranberries. Her arrangements suggest parallels with the work of Laurie Anderson.
O'Sullivan's hypnotising voice is made all the more pleasing by some very competent backing musicians. Again, "folk" music it is not. If anything the majority of tracks would fit more easily into the jazz pigeonhole. The instrumental highlight must be the fabulous alto sax work of Michael Horton on "Rain".
Cathie O'Sullivan told Green Left Weekly that apart from listening to her parents sing on country drives and 12 years of classical piano training, her most important musical influences were in the Irish Club in Sydney. At the time there were many Irish labourers working on building the city's expressway system, and they brought with them their fiddles and accordions. She was soon "firmly embedded" in the Irish music scene. "I was also a child, I must stress a young child, of the '60s."
O'Sullivan also holds a degree in social anthropology from the ANU in Canberra, where she is now based. "I'm interested in other people, in how we're all the same and how we're all different. I think that's been a theme in the lyrics I've written in the last several years."
How does she describe her music? "Australia is the land of the great pigeonhole. It's a real bugbear for people involved in crossover forms of culture, which is as common as dirt overseas ... I would find it hard to describe what I do apart from saying it's mine. It's Australian contemporary music. I draw on every influence that's happened to me and every tradition."
Summerhaze features the very moving song entitled "Fear and the Other". O'Sullivan told Green Left Weekly how that song came about: "I wrote a few years ago, at a time when Cambodia was erupting again. I followed it with some horror, and it led me to muse that a lot of these people are now refugees in Australia ... We have people who have been victims of torture and atrocities. We know they are refugees, but that part of it is seldom exposed. Australians try to ignore their experiences and therefore the people. This song was saying we can't disown those people's experiences."
O'Sullivan is deeply sympathetic to the Irish people in their struggle to be free. The song "Foggy Dew" deals with the Easter uprising and the courage of the freedom fighters of Dublin fighting against British rule. "I've been singing that song for some time, and I've done a couple of tours around English folk clubs. The English people love the song as well ... I was a bit nervous about singing it but I had people coming up giving me extra verses."
Cathie O'Sullivan has produced a very pleasing, adventurous album that is well worth searching for.