Don McLean and Christy Moore

I have two Christy Moore albums. I played and blogged Smoke and Strong Whiskey CD the night before I went to Ireland last year.

And in a bizarre freakish coincidence, what comes up alphabetically on cassettes to play two nights before I went to Ireland? Yup, Don McLean. Taped off vinyl. It's on the other side of Christy Moore's really really superb Voyage album, also on vinyl, but really needs to be on CD, because the vinyl jumps, and the tape runs out.

Pat reminisced about how Voyage kept her company on many journeys. It is a superb travel album, sadly, that is not currently possible because I don't have a cassette Walkman.

Part of this 'blogging all the records by forty' is an attempt for me to work out favourite songs and favourite albums. I didn't even need to go through this exercise to know that Voyage would make the list of Best Albums. It has some really great songs on it, but the album is even greater than the sum of its parts. I owe an unpayable of debt of gratitude to Helen-in-Glasgow for introducing me to Christy Moore back in the Southend days.

There is not a weak song on this album. The Voyage is a simple but beautiful love song. All for the Roses is a wonderful ballad about a person. The words really bring out it. Bright Blue Rose is musically fabulous - a bit of country guitar here, Uillean pipes there.

But the very best track on the whole album is Farewell to Pripchat. A song about Chernobyl, in 1986. For me, it changed the world. It's all but forgotten now, but the effects remain. My cousin spent a number of summers working in holiday camps in Moldova with affected children. Elena's Pictures tell a story.

I think Christy Moore's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is quite possibly the best ever recorded.

I have one Don McLean album - American Pie, which I bought mainly for the title track. Seminal song. When Madonna covered it, she totally lost any respect I had for her, and I haven't liked her since.

The album as a whole is pleasant, and a reasonable cassette-mate with Christy. Although I suspect when I eventually get Christy on CD, I probably won't play American Pie half as often.