In a genre, Americana, where close-harmony duos spring up like corn, Oisin Leech and Mark McCausland have forged a singular path over five previous albums. Their progress has been evolutionary – useful in a country where “paying dues” is still esteemed – with each album recorded in a new town with a new producer. After the Fire After the Rain was made in New York City but is rooted in their native Ireland, its songs written in an old hotel in County Monaghan, hymning a land of “rain, dreams and storms”. It comes across, however, like the soundtrack to a gothic western – Cold Mountain, perhaps – full of desolate moods, intricate guitar-picking and sublime vocals pitched midway between the brothers Everly and Louvin.
Opener Fugitive Moon was inspired by the Boyne, but has mournful pedal steel and lonesome harmonica. Among guest luminaries, co-producer Tony Garnier is the duo’s ace in the hole. Bob Dylan’s long-time sideman lends the record its pulse, his double bass plucking out minimal, buoyant lines over which dance intricate guitars and the odd flourish of horns. The songs are reflective but potent, their ravages of fire and flood haunting and timely.
