Pitch Weekly, February 24 - March 2, 1994; Issue 302
CONNIE DOVER
THE WISHING WELL
TAYLOR PARK MUSIC
If Enya sounds like a voice from the heavens, Connie Dover's is a voice of the earth. Where most "Adult Contemporary" singers gravitate to an elitist, upper-crust audience, Dover remains a folk singer in the truest sense of the word - one who performs music meant for everyday people.
A native of Missouri, Dover's latest album The Wishing Well shows the weighty influence of rural sensibilities. This isn't to say that a song like "Where Shall I Go? (A Cowboy's Hard Times)" would be at home on an Alabama album; Dover's campfire ballads are more subtle than those of Nashville, and her voice has none of the hayseed qualities of a singer residing in Branson. The fresh-fiddled "Weston," composed by the singer, is an equally novel and inventive "Country" exploration.
The Wishing Well glides with remarkable ease from quintessential old Western folk songs to traditional ballads of Scottish and Irish culture. Even a delicate Gregorian chant sung in Latin, "Ubi Caritas," doesn't seem out of place. Credit a predominantly mild (though never dreary or plodding) pace, along with a reliance on relatively simple arrangements, for the album's tonal consistency.
Of course, what really makes the album work is the strength and diversity of its vocalist. Dover wears various faces throughout, deftly handling songs for every emotion, from the passionate "Willie of Winsbury" to the solemn "Siuil a Ruin." Never maudlin, never plain, her voice is easy to embrace in a way that conventional "folk singers" sometimes aren't.
In all, Connie Dover has created an album that shouldn't be pigeon-holed into any one genre, but should appeal to those looking for something to take them away from an increasingly commercialized culture. Inventive, elegant, and extremely enjoyable after a thousand listens, The Wishing Well is an impressive addition to the local, and national, music culture.
KANU Flint Hills Special, Vol. 1 Iss. 4 - February 1994
CONNIE DOVER
The Wishing Well
If Connie Dover's wish was to make a brilliant CD, it certainly came true! Her exceptionally pure and evocative voice wraps itself around a wonderful collection of songs, from an ancient Latin hymn text to the haunting Huw Williams song, "Summer Before the War." Of course, there's plenty of marvelous traditional Scottish and Irish music along the way, from the Gaelic romp "At Hay Cutting Time" to a deliciously decadent ballad of betrayal, "Hugh the Graeme." Goosebumps are guaranteed when you listen to Connie's gentle but yearning rendition of "Laddie, Lie Near Me." A new twist to this album: cowboy songs. After many months spent working, and singing, on a Wyoming cattle ranch, Connie brings a sense of the wide open spaces to Bill Staines' "Where Shall I Go? (A Cowboy's Hard Times)" and the traditional song, "The Colorado Trail."
Of course, there's more to the success of this CD than Connie's voice and astute sense of song selection. Phil Cunningham provides just the right approach to production, wit supportive musical accompaniment that enhances, rather than overwhelms, the vocals. With musicians such as Aly Bain, Manus Lunny, Christy O'Leary, Brian McNeill and Cunningham himself, there's a smooth but never sterile sound to this CD, one of the most delightful releases imaginable.
Dirty Linen, June/July 1994
Connie Dover
The Wishing Well
Taylor Park Music
In her solo recording, and her outings with Scartaglen, Missouri singer Connie Dover has always impressed me with her voice. It's earthy, not Enya, and yet as evocative as any of the more popular Celtic women singers now hitting the big time. The Wishing Well hits pay dirt (sod?) for her, in an album that not only displays her warm and beautiful tones, but finally gives her the musical bed she deserves to lie in. Produced by Phil Cunningham, recorded in Scotland, it features the sizable talents of guitar/bouzouki player Manus Lunny (Ireland), fiddlers Brian McNeill (Scotland) and Aly Bain (Shetland), as well as Cunningham's keys, squeezebox and whistles. The opening track is a stunning mix of pop and tradition, and the rest of the album only gets better as it moves through ancient a capella and even a cowboy song.
The Note, February 1994
CONNIE DOVER
THE WISHING WELL (Taylor Park Music)
Say "beautiful music" to anyone whose musical tastes are even slightly hipper than someone who likes elevator music and you're likely to invoke thoughts of that nauseating goo pumped out by radio stations whose goal in life is to provide musical wallpaper of the blandest sort. That's a shame, because, as it happens, the best two words to describe this new album are "beautiful music," albeit not with the pejorative meaning that's grown up about them. But, to quote Phil Ochs, of all people, "in such ugly times as these, the true protest is beauty."
As anyone who chances across the evening news or picks up a newspaper now and again surely knows, this is a pretty ugly world. But Dover's album of mostly traditional songs from Scotland and Ireland reminds us that violence, lust, betrayal and war span the centuries, but it also makes the case for beauty as an antidote to the hopelessness these maladies engender. Equally at home in Gaelic, English and Latin, she brings out the haunting nature of the words and melodies in songs such as "Siuil a Ruin," where a young girl says goodbye to her war-bound lover, or "Hugh the Graeme," the tale of a man framed for a serious crime by his adulterous wife and her lover, a bishop. With the variety of two cowboy songs, an ancient Latin hymn and an original instrumental piece, The Wishing Well is a gorgeous and endlessly interesting set of music, abetted by many of the foremost instrumentalists in traditional Celtic music. Dover has achieved the difficult task of making an album of quiet beauty, without leaving out the passion and without slipping into New Age boredom. Get this CD, stick it in the player, build a fire and stretch out on the floor. Oh, did I say to program your CD deck to repeat play? You'll want to listen to this one all evening long. And for many evenings to come.