Dancing With Seagulls
Release Date – February 2004
BP-RHCD004
Download this album from Amazon or iTunes
Produced by Simon Goodall at Front2Back studios in Worthing
Track Listing
- Dancing with Seagulls – (lyrics)
- Sail Away – (lyrics) – (video)
- Who Am I – (lyrics)
- Treasure – (lyrics) – (video – BBC1 TV)
- Brothers – (lyrics)
- Streets Of This Town – (lyrics) – (video)
- The Birds Are Still Singing – (lyrics)
- Stand Together – (lyrics)
- Jesus To The World – (lyrics)
- Innocence – (lyrics)
Reviews
The Phantom Tollbooth
This indy release from UK singer/songwriter Rob Halligan (not to be confused with Ceili Rain’s Bob Halligan) is a pleasant and welcome musical treat. Halligan has one of those cool British singing voices that help provide a nice framework for this batch of solid acoustic/gentle electric pop/folk/rock treats. Seagulls features several high-points that will have you singing and strumming: “Sail Away” highlights Halligan’s vocals a very nifty vocal crescendo ala’ James Blunt (without Blunt’s overindulgent tendencies), the gentle anthem “Who Am I,” the ringing challenge of “Jesus to the World,” and the final cut “Innocence” that features Halligan on vocal accompanied solely by an electric guitar for a unique twist. Dancing with the Seagulls is a collection of tunes that will appeal to aficionados of intelligent acoustic folk pop-rock…fans of John Mayer, Jeff Buckley, VOL, and Bill Bragg will enjoy this.
CrossRhythms 9/10
Rob Halligan last graced these review pages as frontman for Coventry-based rock band Goldsmiths. That was a while ago and these days you’re more likely to find Rob out there playing live strumming an acoustic guitar and singing some of the excellent songs captured here. No doubting that he’s a fine songwriter with a neat turn of phrase, a poignant thought and a catchy tune and for this album, he’s employed Simon Goodall as producer. The result is a well constructed collection of songs featuring the cream of British Christian sessioners. Highlights include the folky title track which sees Rob reminiscing about his troubled younger life. “Jesus To the World” is a dramatic gritty challenge for the Church to reach out to others. Two songs were written as a response to 9/11 when his father died in the World Trade Centre. “Stand Together” is a song of hope in the midst of tragedy and a rallying call that has since been updated on a charity single raising money for Tsunami victims. “Streets Of This Town” is a more personal response to his father dying after a trip to New York for the memorial service in mid-September 2001 with images of a city and a heart in pain looking upwards for some answers.
