Adds Up Nicely
Hailing from the south coast of Ireland, a young Don Scannell was a bit of a music protege on the piano playing 12 bar blues to Beethoven sonatas. However, it was not music that he turned to after leaving school, instead he became an accountant. Admittedly it is not the most rock and roll profession to have but maybe it worked out for the best as Don, now a bit more mature, experienced in life and now residing in London, releases his debut album "Three Silver Pieces".
The album was released last year in Ireland to mixed reviews but pretty much all of those reviews picked up that Don Scannell clearly has a talent for writing and performing. The downside is that at 12 tracks long, including the intro and outro, it just becomes a little tiresome.
Looking at the positives, "Three Silver Pieces" starts very promising with the haunting 'Intro (Shabby Rocks)' leading to the highly enjoyable 'Mystery' which showcases both Don Scannell's writing and piano playing skills to be right up there. The title track, 'Three Silver Pieces', continues this vein and the cello in the background works perfectly with the feel of the song.
It is from here that the album does tend to drag a little. The tracks still have something about them to show that there may be enough to think Don Scannell can produce something out of the hat in future releases but the majority of the tracks would be nothing more than background music in a film, in fairness 'Crimson' and 'Evoke The Night' would both make great sound clips for major motion pictures with their emotional undertones.
"Three Silver Pieces" does prove one thing; Don Scannell is too good of a musician and songwriter to be wasting his time as an accountant, sorry to any accountants reading this. His piano and finger guitar playing, especially on 'Lover', are pure bliss. Just need to come up with more of the good half of the album and he will be on to a sure fire winner.