Barry Moore has built up a reputation as a singer/songwriter
playing the various clubs in and around Dublin since 1976. More recently, he has toured the UK and
Germany as a member of Inchiquin. His music is contemporary and for
the most part self penned. One of his first songs Wave Up To The Shore was recorded by his
brother Christy in 1976. Barry was born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare in 1955.
With the exception of Lonesome Robin, learned from Guy Carawan and written by Bob Coltman,
and Black Is The Colour, a traditional song learned by Hamish Imlach, the songs were written by
Barry himself. Deep Is The Night was written in Berlin during the winter of 1974. Bury My
Heart At Wounded Knee is based on the book of the same name by Dee Brown, which is a history
of the American West. As in "Bury My Heart", man's right to freedom is the theme of
It's Not Good Enough. The instrumental Little Martha And Me was inspired by the
playing of Duane Allman and Dickie Betts.
Guitar tunings are normal tunings other than following:
Girl and Little Martha And Me: DADF#AD
It's Not Good Enough and Sweet For Sue: DADFAD
Jenny Of The Sun: DGDGBD
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: DADCAC
Irish folksinger Barry Moore began his recording career
with this record, some ten years before he moved to New York and adopted the performing name Luka Bloom.
His name, however, is not the only thing that has changed since Treaty Stone was released in 1978.
The singer had not yet developed the acoustic-electric DAD/GAD tunings, and the downstroke-heavy, right-hand
technique that were to become the hallmarks of the Luka Bloom sound. But if the guitar work on this record
isn't as original or distinctive as later material, it is nonetheless more complex. There are several lengthy,
fingerpicking solos in a style similar to instrumental fretsmiths like Leo Kottke, Preston Reed, and
Phil Keaggy. In arrangement and song selection, the album bears more in common with mid-'70s
John Denver than '90s Luka Bloom. Songs like "Lonesome Robin", "Jenny of the Sun",
and "Deep Is the Night" display the sort of sunny, nature-loving, acoustic mellowness that
characterizes Denver's best work. Outside of the Irish traditional ballad "Black is the Colour",
which receives a much more lighthearted treatment than the solemn version on the 1994
Bloom album Turf, Treaty Stone is not really a Celtic folk album. In fact, the title track and
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (which Moore later introduced to the Indigo Girls, who then
released their own version as a single) reflect Moore's interest in the plight of the American Indian.
Regardless of its origins, Treaty Stone is an excellent folk album, demonstrating that this
Bloom is sweet by any name.
Review by Evan Cater
AMG - www.allmusic.com
