Phil Callery as a singer is careful to avoid any obvious emotional flourish or sense of easy display. His tone is filled with a deep-rooted integrity, a rare sort of honesty. His interpretation allows a great deal of emotion to be implied, to linger between the lines and within the melody, thus making the songs both memorable and powerful. His diction is perfect, as is his control of his breathing. He gives each line and phrase its full due. It is clear from the way he approaches each song that he has put careful thought into how it should flow, how the narrative should be controlled, modulated and then let slowly loose. There is in what he does a rare mixture of modesty and ambition. The modesty means that the song comes before the singer; the ambition means that the song and its singing have an aura which is definitive, pure, exact and beautifully tender.
Colm Toibin
Read more...