Danny Boy – Tobin Mueller (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Covering other people’s songs can be a tricky business. You can either stay close to the original or aim to do something totally radical with it. Do the former, and people will ask why you even bothered, given that the new take is so similar to the original. Do the latter, and you risk the accusation of assuming that you know how to improve on an already established and loved song.

But Tobin Mueller comes from a world where interpretation of other people’s music is a cornerstone skill, a world of jazz and blues, a place rife with reimagination and reworking, of tribute to and celebration of what has gone before. In that world, there is an understanding that a song’s story never ends, that even the best-known version of a song, its shape, sound and style, is just what happened to be recorded on the day. There is always room for further evolution and experimentation.

I mention this because having said that there are two approaches to tackling such well-known songs, with his latest piece, the folk stalwart “Danny Boy”, Tobin opts for a third path. One that sits between the two, balancing the expectations of the traditionally minded with those who favour more progressive expressions.

The roots of this recording lie in his receiving a medical diagnosis that suggested that he only had a few years to live, and this was intended to be played at his funeral. Thankfully, he is still with us and still producing new music at an impressive rate, but the song, now the final piece on his understated collection, Best of Tobin Mueller, Vol. 5: Chill, stands as a universal gift to the world rather than a personal sonic epitaph.

Although the album itself is more themed around relaxed but inventive jazz moves, “Danny Boy” takes us into a more contemporary lounge vibe, but one that swirls with Celtic dreaminess and historical pathos suited to its Irish roots and one hundred and twenty-year existence.

And, as always, he has produced a video which only goes to heighten the musical experience, one full of solemnity and sorrow but perhaps, if though not directly, also a reminder of the cycle of life, of the bitter-sweetness of recalling those no longer with us and of how short a time we have on this earth to live and love.

It is sometimes hard to imagine how such well-known and often played songs could find a new lease of life, that is until you hear them exploring new sonic space. And that is what Tobin Mueller is so great at; the art of musical reinvention is something he is a master of.