CD Reviews

Released in 2018. Cliona's second album and my favorite of the 4 she has released so far (when this review was written). Her first album was titled "Straight To You" and is probably my second favorite of them. Close call with her latest album of this writing, "The Dolly Songbook". I also like her third album "Little Darlin'", but felt it was a bit short compared to the others.

Anyway, this review is about the album "Secret Love". And one of my favorite female singers of today, Cliona Hagan, from County Tyronne in Northern Ireland. I think she's got a great singing voice! She sings a mix of modern and old Country music, which I like (especially the old songs). The album is also a good mixture of ballads and up-tempo songs. Me especially liking the ballads "Old Flames", "The Band Played An Old Time Waltz" and "Country Found Me". Among the faster songs my favorites are "The Wilder Your Heart Beats", "McCarthy’s Party" and "I’m Movin On". The last one mentioned also covered by Elvis Presley, among others. The title song "Secret Love", which is more mid-tempo (I guess), is also one of my favorites in this album.

The first track, "The Wilder Your Heart Beats", is an old Jim Reeves tune. On this album, Cliona decided to speed it up a little bit. When doing so, she realised it was very short. So for the first time in her career, she decided to do a little songwriting. So while this originally is a Jim Reeves song written by Jim Meredith, it has a little bit writing by Cliona also in the lyrics. I thought the result was very good!

The CD itself is a beautiful digipack with very fine photos of Cliona and a little booklet with information. Several songs from this album, as well as Cliona's other albums, can be found on YouTube as music videos and even live performances. Feel free to check them out. If interested, you can buy this CD from Sharpe Music if it's still available. Or you can try eBay. For more information about Cliona, please visit her website: clionahagan.com.

Meikel - November 2021.