Richard Gilpin

Item: Beautiful Mistake
Author: Steve Stockman

Beautiful Mistake

(2001)

Reviewed by Steve Stockman

Apple Music TIDAL Spotify

Label independentThe Phantom Tollbooth2002

celtic folk singer-songwriter

It is six years since I heard Richard Gilpin in a Portrush Bar. I sensed that he was a busker giving everything to his dream of writing and performing his songs to whoever would listen. I listened and I tucked his name on the back. There was something about the songs he was playing and the performance that told me to remember the name.

Since that Portrush gig Gilpin has moved from being a busker to a fully fledged member of all who can play in the local scene as evidenced in having the likes of Rosemary Woods, Steve Cooney, James Devlin and particularly the legendary Henry McCullough formerly of Wings, Joe Cocker et al, all involved on the record. Since that Portrush gig Gilpin has moved from his native Lisburn to Donegal and there is much evidence of that in the traditional spirit of the album. Sometimes it's just plain and literal traditional as in "Far Far Away" with its mandolins, fiddles and accordions and on "General Munro" which is actually a traditional tune. Since that Portrush gig though probably beginning before it, I also sense that Gilpin has moved his paradigms of faith and life from a conservative hedged in life experience to looking across the horizons of living. This is evidenced in the progressive and seeming freedom of how God pops up in songs like "Stronger," "Coaxed The Devil Out of Me," and "Nothing Like Love."

There is much variety abounding too. The opening "Tears In the End" could be touted around the country end of Nashville and make a wee publishing fortune, whereas "Nothing Like Love" would sit more comfortably in the new wave alternative community currently being flagged up by Ryan Adams. McCullough's guitar is like a thread to hold the canvas together and has rarely been used so well and with such precision and perfection. There are stories, love songs, spiritual wanderings, and the sad and poignant "Still No News" about those who are only found in Missing Persons posters.

I am not convinced that all the songs work equally successfully and my other main question is how marketable this is outside that gig going fraternity that know what they want without radio stations influencing them. But then I do not get the feeling that the radio is the habitat where Gilpin will find his artistic satisfaction. He seems less interested in cash tills ringing and more interested in honing his craft. Beautiful Mistake is an encouraging part of that honing process.