Anyone who knows anything about folk music will have heard of Cara Dillon. Her new album created with Sam Lakeman ’Sweet Liberty’ sees a combination of traditional songs reworked and five original pieces by Sam and Cara themselves.

Sweet Liberty is one of those albums that from its cover and name you may expect insipid, flowery lyrics about the Irish countryside in the 1800’s. Don’t let this fool you! What we find is a delicately, observant, stunningly beautiful creation following the smallest shift in loves emotion.

Cara’s ability to create lyrical emotion in her voice is truly great and shows us why she totally deserves the position she has within the genre. Her lyrics and voice glides along effortlessly. Slipping into your subconscious it drifts through you, till it’s firmly placed in your mind. Her voice is haunting and the emotion she evokes fully establishes the listener in the story of the song, such as the mind of the men travelling overseas to new America and the many faces of love and loss of her songs characters. With her striking female voice, she sings often from a man’s point of view which gives the songs more weight and pulling power and an interesting take for the listeners.

This is conveyed most clearly in the controversial and political song ’There Were Roses’ which is a direct response to the ’common mans’ plight during the IRA problems in Northern Ireland. This strong song jumps out of the album along with ’Falling Like a Star’. A symbolic song with no clear meaning, it stands out amongst the other songs more obvious storylines. For this reason alone this is a true break through song as it defies what we consider folk music to be. However it is ’The Emigrant’s Farewell’ the final track that strikes me as the most vibrant and alive song on the album.

This album is more reflective in tone than her previous albums. The only negative seems to be the relative sameness of the beginning of the album. The order of songs means it starts very slow and reflective and builds to a more exciting, energetic finish. If the songs had been mixed up it would have created a better ambience for the listener. However on a cold winter night, curled up on your sofa wanting to remember the sunshine of the spring, listen to this album and I guarantee you will feel renewed.

Cara has managed on this album to create different slants on many common themes in traditional folk music. Cara is breathing new life into folk music and forcing it into new waters and enabling the genre to remain fresh. Long may it continue!