By Pete Roche
Raised in Bundoran, County Donegal, the talented Diver sisters attended college in Dublin (Trinity and Leinster) before relocating to New York together to pursue music fulltime as Screaming Orphans. You see, the Diver sisters have been playing music all their lives; Therese Marie (keyboard, accordion); Grainne (guitar); Angela (bass, violin); and youngest sis Joan (drums), recorded their debut, Listen & Learn, in the fashion of other female-lead bands like The Cranberries and Corrs.
The Orphans devoted the next ten years dividing their time, and CD releases, between rock & roll and traditional Celtic music. Circles (2005) and East 12th Street (2009) showcased the Orphans’ feisty, full-blown electric sound, while their accompanying “partner” releases Back to Dublin (2005) and Belle’s Isle (2009) found the ladies revisiting the Irish jigs, reels, and folk songs they grew up with. The quartet cultivated a healthy following on the outdoor circuit; they were a highlight at Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival in Berea the last three years running.
The Screaming Orphans just issued another pair of terrific-sounding discs, now available on Amazon or via their website www.thescreamingorphans.com. Lonely Boy is the next chapter of the hard rock version of the band, while The Jacket’s Green indulges the Orphans’ quieter, acoustic side. Plugged or unplugged, the Divers know how to carry a tune—and their angelic voices permeate both discs with beautiful, beguiling harmonies.
Recorded by Kevin Lowery and Emmy Award-winning Irish actor Alan Cook in Kinlough—just south of the Divers’ hometown—Lonely Boy is a boisterous, ten track set of accessible alternative rock celebrating the dreamer in all of us. “Beautiful Girl” encourages a bullied youngster to “hold [her] head up high” and surmount the self-doubt begotten of body image. The piano-powered “Maria” tells the sad tale of a girl who loses hope to heroin.
The polka snare of “Say Hello” underpins a workplace vignette wherein the narrator pines for romantic attention from a colleague. Elsewhere, however, the Divers’ message veers from amorous desperation to female empowerment—and gender equality. “Scream a Little Louder” builds from subdued guitar and keys to a bold, carpe diem crescendo in which the singer warns others not to patronize her. The album’s longest cut, “The Strong Survive,” condemns the greed and mean-spiritedness pervading our times and encourages people to fight apathy rather than submit to the “panic everywhere:” Nothing’s ever gonna change / It all stays the same / Nobody even seems to care / Comin’ and going… the fear is growing.
Each Diver sister has impeccable pipes, but together they achieve haunting, four-part harmonies that soothe—and soar. “I Must Away Now” (aka “The Night Visiting Song”) tells of lovers who brave a tempest to spend a night together, while “Lark in the Morning” follows the courtship of a ploughboy and maiden “pretty Susan.”
The earnest “Down by the Glenside” would make rebel songwriter Peadar Kearney proud. “Whisky in the Jar” is an exuberant, snare and bass-fueled romp through the Captain Farrell number, replete with extended solos by each of the sisters. The album wraps up with a medley that mashes World War I era super-fiddler from Sligo Michael Coleman’s “Bonny Kate” with reel “Jenny’s Chickens.”
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