Description
Only One Name is the sophomore album by the British/French Celtic folk duo Rodney Cordner & Jean-Pierre Rudolph, released on the Dutch Gospel label GMI Records (Gospel Music International) in 1985. The album was recorded at Secret Studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland; with Andy Kidd producing. It’s considered the fifth album by Rodney Cordner.
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Happy As The Day Is Long” – 2:37
A2. “Fooled By Fear” – 3:00
A3. “Strange Trinity” – 2:34
A4. “Sämele” – 3:54
A5. “The Other Side Of Town” – 3:22
A6. “The Bride” – 3:14
Side Two
B1. “What’s The Difference?” – 3:30
B2. “Gathered In” – 2:30
B3. “Ireland” – 3:55
B4. “Paddy John’s Swarbsody No. 2” – 5:25
B5. “Let Us Go Out With Joy” – 2:32
I’ve gone through a few significant musical moves since 1973 when I was 10 and all of the forms of music that I like now, I can trace their evolution in my life, how I got into the genres, the significant songs, artists and albums etc. After a major shift through the jazzier end of music in 1990, the following year saw me get into Irish folk and folk rock big time and I long attributed this to a combination of a documentary on Irish music I saw at the end of ’90 (it was a programme over here called the South Bank show; I’d love to see it again, just out of sheer curiosity) and some stuff that a colleague taped for me at start of ’91. He had suggested that we do each other a tape of off the wall stuff we were into (the jazzy and avant garde stuff I did for him caused his wife to ask whether I was a strung out drug fiend!) and he did me one filled with Irish folk. I only really dug one song on it («Irish ways and Irish laws») but I was sufficiently intrigued to enquire more and I bought loads of great albums.
But recently, I remembered that my travels into Irish folk had actually begun four years earlier at the end of ’86 when I bought and imbibed “Up hill and Down Brae”. In 1986 I had begun listening to music after a year of not listening to anything at all as I was unsure what I should be listening to as a new follower of Christ. I wouldn’t wish the process on anyone but it was useful. I didn’t have a clue who was who in “Christian music” so I’d just get records from the library or buy them and take a chance. Of that initial batch came the likes of Larry Norman, Andrae Crouch, John Pantry, the Winans, the Hawkins, Bryn Haworth, Phil Keaggy, Adrian Snell, Kerry Livgren/AD, Bob Dylan, Kenny Marks, Don Francisco, Edin-Adahl, Stewart & Kyle, Ed Raetzloff … and this one. To this day, the only thing I can think of that might have attracted me to this album is the fact that there was a violinist on the back and having liked Larry Norman’s «Last Supper», I was in experimental mode.
It was a while before I got around to listening to it because I had bought a consignment of about 15 LPs, and when I did, I wasn’t particularly blown away. I kind of thought it was OK musically, a bit twee in places. But one thing did really stand out at the time and that was some of the lyrics. I was having a hard time in a very legalistic church at the time and some of the words were like a beacon in the darkness and a clarion call to my beleaguered being; the freedom that the lyrics spoke of and the challenges that they portrayed were like standing under a waterfall…
«What’s The Difference» like most of the tracks carries a resonance even now as Cordner makes the very pertinent observation that there should be a difference in the thinking, outlook and actions of a person who has God living in them and if there isn’t, then there’s something drastically wrong. The other point in the song that was crucial for me then (and even more so now) was the freedom from rules and outward showing (but not order) that comes from having God living inside.
«Gathered In» introduced me to a tune that I later discovered has all different lyrics depending on where you go in the North or Republic of Ireland ( I know it as «The gunner McGee”) and lyrically draws heavilly on the psalms of people like David in asking for a heart drawn to God.
«Ireland» and «The Other Side Of Town» both concentrate on the country in question but in totally different ways, one very reflective, the other kind of upbeat, but both demonstrating the problems of the two nations … and the solution. They both fuse modern thinking and happenings with the important and decisive past events of betrayal, death and resurrection of the messiah in a way similar to U2’s «Sunday bloody Sunday» from a year or so before.
«Paddy John’s Swarsbody» (I haven’t a clue what that means!) and «Let Us Go Out With Joy» lighten the mood somewhat but «Fooled by fear», «Strange Trinity» and «The Bride» all drip with a seriousness that may or may not be easy to miss. And while «Happy As The Day Is Long» is easilly the most joyous piece I’ve heard Cordner and Rudolph do, «Samele» is by turns the saddest. It was dedicated to, I think, Rudolph’s recently departed brother. It’s the most beautiful ‘lumpy throat’ inducing piece.
For me the LP is not as strong or varied as “On the other Hand” yet it grows more and more powerful as the years go by and it is a far more “Irish” LP than it’s predecessor, Rudolph’s violin, mandolin, whistle and pipework being just as instantaneously subtle but progressively rewarding. It’s also the most scripturally correct LP that I’ve heard though it’s taken me 20 years to realize that one.
I’ve felt for a long time that as a lyricist, Cordner was one of the most gifted to emerge from the whole Christian genre. Along with John Ylvisaker, Bruce Cockburn and T-Bone Burnett (and also at various junctures Larry Norman and Phil Keaggy) and too few others, he had a way of painting pictures with words without forcing his songs “to be about God” as such. And consequently, they are saturated with the Lord but in a way that’s not contrived and is at turns humourous, sad, sarcastic and entertaining.
I used to think that those artists that seemed to be on the “outside” of the church circuit like Cockburn, Bono and co were in danger of becoming loose canons and self willed rebels but a while back I began to see a different picture and it’s interesting how often these kind of artists’ art burns with the fire, insight and concern that God so eloquently expresses through his spirit. There’s nothing that glam about being an artist on the move, whatever our celebrity culture might be trying to push to the contrary. [grimtraveller, 2008]
CREDITS. Produced and mixed by Andy Kidd. Recorded and mixed at Secret Studio, Belfast, Northern Ireland. All Arrangements by Jean-Pierre Rudolph. Sleeve Design and Photography by Spring Graphics. Back Photography by Laurens Hoddenbagh.
Musicians: Rodney Cordner (Vocals), Jean-Pierre Rudolph (Fiddle, Low Violin, Mandolin, Tin Whistles, Fife), Ivan Muirhead (Guitar).
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