Ronan Tynan

With Ronan Tynan having already overcome numerous obstacles and achieved commendable results, it should come as no surprise that the former Irish Tenor's latest release, The Dawning of the Day, is a collection of faith-based songs that have been particularly inspiring and important to the singer. Everything on the album, from the Vince Gill-penned "Go Rest High on That Mountain" (Gill also sings on Tynan's version of "Morning Has Broken") to "The Lord's Prayer" to the post-9/11 title song (whose words were written by Mary Fahl), strives to attain that kind of controlled intensity that accents Tynan's evocative voice so well. Because if nothing else, the singer is able to inflict emotion into anything he performs (not that anything titled "Be Still, My Soul" needs a lot of help with that anyway), trilling his Rs mightily on "God Bless America," weeping the Spanish lyrics of "Via Dolorosa," doing everything in his power (and that of his producers) to make his listeners feel the music as strongly as he apparently does. The songs are all religiously themed, some more overtly than others (the aforementioned "Via Dolorosa," for example, as well as "23," which quotes the famous Psalm), and some incorporate full orchestral scores while some stick with a simpler acoustic guitar and strings format, but all work to stimulate feeling in their audience. All of this, of course, means that the album can seem a bit overdone and affected, but its overall effect just depends on whether or not this is seen as a drawback. For fans of the Irish Tenors or Ronan Tynan, the answer will most likely be that it is not, which should make The Dawning of the Day thoroughly enjoyable. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide