Daniel O'Donnell
Stand Beside Me
★★★★★ (Out of 5)
DANIEL O’Donnell has a new 2CD and DVD package just out.
There will be no chance of escaping Stand Beside Me — even if you wanted to — because it will be advertised on TV and everywhere else and I am sure Daniel will be popping up on chat shows all over the place.
The two CDs contain 52 tracks but if you have never seen the Donegal man perform, apart from the occasional song on a TV show, then I strongly suggest you watch the 42-track DVD. He really is a supreme showman with a good sense of humour and you can see why people warm to him.
One of the nice things about this DVD is the way he involves the band and the excellent backing singers as individuals, showcasing their considerable talents. It looked like a happy camp. Indeed one of the highlights was the truly superb rendition of Merle Haggard’s great song Silver Wings with a terrific lead vocal by drummer Nigel Connell.
Backing vocals came from Trionagh Allen (wife of singer Tony Allen) and Leon McCrum who contributed beautiful harmonies, as in fact they did throughout the whole show.
There are no surprises in the choice of material because Daniel knows his audience inside out but it is delivered with sincerity, natural warmth and a lot of professional, but very relaxed, style by a man on top form with a great bunch of musicians behind him. He clearly loves his job.
His duets with his very talented longtime singing partner Mary Duff certainly added to the show’s variety and she does perform some solo numbers.
Stand Beside Me will almost certainly be another chart entry for Daniel and deservedly so.
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