Donal Hinely
We Built A Fire
Scuffletown Records
By David Pilot
 Here's a 2002 release
that didn't gain a lot of steam until 2003, but when it got rolling
it did its share of damage. Mentioned on Best Of lists from
NPR to Just Plain Folks, Donal Hinely's heartworn We Built
A Fire was a critical success. The twist is that for once
the critics got it right. You know us writer types, we like
to sit back and fawn over the genius of the giants in the shadows
and tell you folks out there in Reader Land just how little you
really know about good music. Just this once, forgive us, and
get this record in your player. I swear you won't regret it.
Hinely's a Texas boy, though much of what's in his repertoire
doesn't necessarily sound that way. There's no "Texas"
sound per se, of course, but we all sit up for Townes and Bob
Wills and Stevie Ray; they're instantly recognizable and defining
characteristics of the music the state so regularly breeds.
Donal Hinely sounds exactly like none of these. But, and this
is a big but, he found his musical soul at thirteen years of
age when his old brother (and mentor) Terry got him into Dallas'
legendary Poor David's Pub for a Steve Fromholz show. The
knowledge of what a storyteller could really do found a receptive
audience in the Bros. Hinely, and as the years and locales flew
by the two of them made music as real and as beautiful as it
comes. Terry, for example, made himself a glass harmonica, only
to discover later that the invention had existed and been used
frequently as far back as Mozart and Bach. The brothers refined
their skills on the water-filled glasses and began to play traditional
medieval and Celtic/Irish music at the Dallas-area's Scarborough
Faire and other renaissance festivals. Donal wound up in Australia
and Europe for an extended period, singing on street corners
for his meal money and working his way back eventually to the
renaissance faire world. If you've been to one of the faires
on a midsummer's long afternoon and heard the music over a flagon
of mead or beer you know the magical feeling that hangs in the
lingering rays of sunlight as they caress the resting trees.
If it was Scarborough Faire you went to, you probably heard
the Hinelys' music. Over the years there were several CDs from
various bands and projects focused around that traditional sound
and the glass harmonica, but time and an Oak Cliff driver eventually
took big brother Terry and left Donal here with nothing but memories
and a vision. That's where We Built A Fire comes in,
and it's as welcome an entry as I've seen in quite some time.
Donal's life experiences have been well used, ultimately honing
what can only be an innate albeit now finely polished and keen
eye for the observation of human foibles in life's sharper moments.
From the beautiful longing for freedom of "Gasoline"
to the triumphant losers inhabiting "Drunkard Moon"
this is a journey that'll make you want to stop and smell the
roses while you listen.
Like two weary veterans they stagger down the street
All in their own parade
Each had a dream they could not redeem, sweet music that fell
out of tune
So now they waltz to the verses full of car horns and curses
Beneath the cover of a drunkard moon
Collaborations abound here as well, as if Hinely's work wasn't
strong and searing enough on its own. From the Trent Summar
co-write on "4225 Wellington Arms" and its soul-ripping
walk from a bedroom to a front door through the lovely and painful
duets Kim Richey adds on the title track and "Easier,"
the additions only serve to accentuate the whole in a manner
that deserves to be called art. Musicians from Will Kimbrough
(guitars) through David Henry (cello, and a producing credit
as well; he's worked the mojo for acts like REM, Widespread Panic
and Yo La Tengo previously) step in with perfect sensibility
to frame, support and embellish the beauty of Hinely's vocals
and the near-mystical chimes of that glass harmonica. An amazing
instrument, that one, ethereal and surreal and timeless. And
here, put to exceedingly good use.
But for all the aural majesty, the lyrics that comprise We
Built A Fire are the show. From love to Armageddon and
back, the subtleties that matter and the shadows they live in
can't avoid the songwriter's spotlight. There's the disappearing
while evolving sense of Americana in "Henry Ford,"
which reminisces and enjoys simultaneously:
But it's the traveling life I love the most
And with these wheels I go coast to coast
But once I'd like to see how it was before
When we were moved by beauty, not Henry Ford
It's not all wistful nostalgia, though; pick up the protagonist's
boots in "Hey Paul Revere" and try these on for size.
It's a snapshot of a day in the life of a modern militia man,
ever the more poignant for the sweeping, near anthemic swell
of music that illustrates the beliefs empowering the man's soul
while the lyrics lay his unnoticed reality starkly bare:
And he's filled with a sense of higher purpose
To defend his home from government intrigue
He's so excited he can't wait to join his comrades
As he slips into his camouflage fatigues
Hey Paul Revere, you got my ear
One if by land, two if by sea
Spread the word, there's a brand new revolution
And it's gonna save us all from democracy
Taken individually, the songs from We Built A Fire
prove accessible and lovely to the ear; their consistent musical
ballet is mesmerizing. It's that second, closer listen, where
the stories come to life, that sets this one truly apart, however.
An at times astonishing record, bursting with lyrics so simple
and so incisive you'd swear Townes must have been ghostwriting.
Maybe those Texas roots aren't so distant after all.
www.donalhinely.com
Contact David Pilot at: editor-at-rockzilla.net
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