Sean Millar’s album C48 was released on 26th September 2013, the follow up to his 2010’s acclaimed album ‘Of the people’ and his fifth solo album to date.
Taking inspiration from musical heroes, Seán describes the this folk inspired album “I undertook a crowd funding campaign to make this album so that I could afford to record it like a 1970's record with double bass, drums, guitar and piano - all playing live in the studio together! There were no click tracks used and the instruments and many of the vocals were recorded in straight takes. The recording gear was all original 1960's hand built desks which add to the warmth and organic feel of the album. I hope that the overall effect is like a poshly produced 70's folk album. My idea was to pay tribute to the artists like John Martin and Roy Harper whose work I admire so much”
The album was launched to a packed house on with Binzer Brennan filling in on drums for Mark Huggett Thursday October 10th as part of Dublin Theatre Festival at the Festival Club at Odessa.
‘C48’ was produced by Joe Chester who also plays piano and it features Steve Wickham on violin, Cian Murphy on double bass and top London jazz-drummer Mark Hugget.
Listen to the Album Now >
“A triumph”
★★★★★Metro Herald
“With C48 Miller has created a masterpiece. Another one”
9/10Hot Press
Why a folk album?
Seán explains the influence that folk music has on this new album “I feel the way some music is being made is killing it as an art form. Listening to classic 60’s and 70’s songs I realised few of the takes would have made it past the demo stages of most albums now.
The drummers speed up, the singer comes in a fraction too late on the chorus – but these are the things that make all of these songs irreplaceable (‘Small Hours’ by John Martin, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Dylan) and classic because people recorded performances not just lines.
Old fashioned production techniques died out not because they were inferior – as any engineer will tell you – but because they were too expensive. With this album I wanted to make music where the sound is as good as it can possibly be. I wanted to let the songs sing, let their art and craft and the quality of the performance be the main event.
I was 48 when I started recording this album. Maybe I’ll never get a chance to make one again so I wanted it to be good. I understand folk music, it’s my natural home. Sometimes in life it’s just time to go home”.
“Millar’s voice has gained an added timbre with age, and Joe Chester’s simple arrangements allow him to soar”
★★★★★Sunday Business Post
“Prescribed listening”
★★★★★Irish Mail on Sunday
“It has long been an open secret that the good Doctor, Sean Millar, is Ireland’s greatest living singer-songwriter. You won’t hear a better album of original material by an Irish artist all year”
★★★★★State Magazine