These First Few Months is a beautiful, gentle country album by Quillan Roe. It features simple, well-accompanied tunes that are a pleasure to listen to.

"On My Own" is a sad song of lost love that, while it features regret, it is far from maudlin. The plinky-plonk sound on "I Don't Want to Be Forgot" is a joy to hear with its guitar, banjo and bass complementing a very clear voice and intelligent lyrics.

There is a very definite poetry in this CD and this comes across to best effect in the track "The Tree," with its "spidery black against clouds that are dying." On the track titled "Happy," there is a beautiful beat and the song itself is nicely personal. My one qualm would be Roe allowing his voice to go falsetto.

So much of this album sounds personal, which is either true or a tribute to the writing, or both. "The Ring" is a song of this genre that in the right mood could, as we say in Ireland, "bring tears to a glass eye." There is a change of pace in "The Buckeye Tree," which is refreshing although once more the theme is lost love. This time it is the girl seduced by the big city. The combination of male and female voice gives it a lift and the harmonica is lovely. I was fascinated by the use of language, which although odd, worked extremely well. "When I awoke, awoke did me, I was alone."

"Falling" is another song displaying a great poetic insight. It appears to tell of a guy afraid to fall in love and is a highly crafted tale nicely performed.

This CD may not set the world alight but it deserves a careful listen, and Quillan Roe is a name and a voice to watch. Any of the songs featured here could take off if given fair airplay.

[ by Nicky Rossiter ]
Rambles: 23 February 2002