Imelda May - Acoustic Versions, Volume 2 (2017-2023)

Last month (April 2023), I posted Volume 1 of acoustic performances by Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May. Here's Volume 2.

For whatever reason, May hasn't been doing as many acoustic performances in recent years. (She did some during the Covid pandemic, but I posted that as a separate album.) So the first six songs are from 2017, then there's one from 2020, and the last three are from 2023.

All the songs here are officially unreleased. None of them were done in front of cheering audiences. Generally speaking, they come from in-person radio station appearances.

The album is 37 minutes long. That's a bit short, so if she does some more acoustic performances in the next year or so, I'll probably add those in here.

01 The Girl I Used to Be (Imelda May)
02 Black Tears [Solo Electric Version] (Imelda May)
03 Sixth Sense (Imelda May)
04 Call Me (Imelda May)
05 When It's My Time (Imelda May)
06 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Imelda May)
07 Don't Let Me Stand on My Own (Imelda May & Niall McNamee)
08 Can't Say (Imelda May)
09 Just One Kiss (Imelda May)
10 Dreaming (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15291480/ImeldaM_2017-2023_AcoustcVersionsVolume2.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos of her playing an acoustic guitar in recent years, so I just went with one of her smiling face. I forgot to keep track where this one is from exactly.

Imelda May - Acoustic Versions, Volume 1 (2009-2014)

I've been collecting acoustic performances by the great Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May for some time now. But I found enough that seemed too long for one album, but not quite enough for two albums, so I waited until more came along. She finally did another acoustic session a few weeks ago (as I write this in April 2023), so I have enough for two short albums. Here's the first one.

May doesn't have a strong acoustic focus to her music. But sometimes when she's promoted her music, she's appeared at radio stations and performed by herself or just with one guitarist. (In this time period, she was married to guitarist Darrel Higham, and he usually played the guitar while she just sang.) These acoustic versions are very nice, in my opinion, and make a fine collection when put together. Everything here is unreleased, from those radio station in-person performances. It's all taken from YouTube videos, but the sound quality is very good.

The first volume roughly corresponds to her rockabilly phase. As a result, a lot of these songs are lively even in acoustic format, but they work well this way. Most of them are written or co-written by May, but there are a few covers, like "Kentish Town Waltz" and "Tainted Love."

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 Feel Me (Imelda May)
02 Kentish Town Waltz (Imelda May)
03 Johnny Got a Boom Boom [Acoustic Band Version] (Imelda May)
04 Mayhem (Imelda May)
05 Tainted Love (Imelda May)
06 Sneaky Freak (Imelda May)
07 Inside Out (Imelda May)
08 Big Bad Handsome Man (Imelda May)
09 Psycho [Solo Electric Version] (Imelda May)
10 Love Tattoo (Imelda May)
11 Proud and Humble (Imelda May)
12 All for You (Imelda May)
13 Falling in Love with You Again (Imelda May)
14 It's Good to Be Alive (Imelda May)
15 Right Amount of Wrong [Solo Electric Version] (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15133257/ImeldaM_2009-2014_AcoustcVersionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure when or where the cover photo is from. But it must be from her rockabilly phase (which means prior to 2017), due to her distinctive hair style.

Imelda May - Festival Luna Lunera, Sos del Rey Catolico, Spain, 7-23-2010

Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May has changed and diversified her musical styles over the years. But in the early part of her career, she was all about rockabilly. Imagine the stray cats fronted by an exceptional female vocalist. This live bootleg captures her and her band when they were rocking hard, performing mostly originals but in that 1950s rockabilly style.

Unfortunately, there are very few excellent sounding Imelda May bootleg recordings out there, and she has yet to release an official live album. Luckily, I was able to find this one as a YouTube video. I converted it into individual mp3 tracks. It was professionally filmed and recorded (you can watch the whole thing on YouTube still), so the sound quality is excellent. It sounds better than virtually all the other bootlegs I've found of her music.

Most of this comes from a festival that took place in a village in Spain of less than a 1,000 people. The festival was an annual tradition for many years, but unfortunately this was the last year it was held. The concert recording is rather short as concerts go, with a length of 59 minutes long. I happened to have a few bonus tracks of different live songs from that same time period, so I added those on to the end. Thus, the songs from "My Babe" to the end are made up of these bonus tracks. I don't know where or when they were recorded, except they're bonus tracks to the 2008 album "Love Tattoo."

The entire album, including the extra songs at the end, is an hour and 14 minutes long.

01 Feel Me (Imelda May)
02 Love Tattoo (Imelda May)
03 Big Bad Handsome Man (Imelda May)
04 talk (Imelda May)
05 Proud and Humble (Imelda May)
06 All for You (Imelda May)
07 talk (Imelda May)
08 Falling in Love with You Again (Imelda May)
09 Smokers' Song (Imelda May)
10 talk (Imelda May)
11 Pulling the Rug (Imelda May)
12 Smotherin' Me (Imelda May)
13 talk (Imelda May)
14 Watcha Gonna Do (Imelda May)
15 Psycho (Imelda May)
16 Mayhem (Imelda May)
17 talk (Imelda May)
18 Johnny Got a Boom Boom (Imelda May)
19 talk (Imelda May)
20 Tainted Love (Imelda May)
21 talk (Imelda May)
22 My Baby Left Me (Imelda May)
23 talk (Imelda May)
24 My Babe (Imelda May)
25 Don't Do Me No Wrong (Imelda May)
26 Rollin' and Tumblin' (Imelda May)
27 Wild about My Lovin' (Imelda May)
28 talk (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693317/IMELDMY2010_FestivalLnaLuneraSpin__7-23-2010_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from the YouTube video of this exact concert.

Imelda May - The Word Is Out - Non-Album Tracks (2018-2021)

I'm a big fan of Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May. She's a star in Britain and Ireland, but very little known in the US. This is the sixth stray tracks collection that I've posted of her, and it finally catches up more or less to current day.

This album is typical of these sorts of albums, with lots of different things from different sources. All but three of the performances here have been officially released. The three unreleased ones are "Always on My Mind," "When You're Gone," and "Grace." The first of those is from a radio show and the last one is from a TV show, so their sound quality is very good.

Of the remaining songs, many of them come from May's appearances on other artists' albums. For instance, the first two songs come from a Jeff Golblum album (the famous actor who is also a musician) and tracks nine and ten come from a Ronnie Wood album. There also are soundtrack appearances and various artists compilations appearances. 

In 2020, May released an EP called "Slip of the Tongue" that consists entirely of spoken word poems she wrote that were set to music. I've included three songs from that ("Elephant," "Becoming," and "The Word Is Out") and scattered them through the other songs so the flow doesn't stay very long on the spoken word style. There are a total of nine poems on that EP, but I only included the ones I considered the most song-like.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 This Bitter Earth (Imelda May & Till Bronner with Jeff Goldblum)
02 Come On-A-My House (Imelda May with Jeff Goldblum)
03 Always on My Mind (Jack Savoretti & Imelda May)
04 Molly Malone (Dervish with Imelda May)
05 When You're Gone (Imelda May)
06 Elephant (Imelda May)
07 Waltz Around the Kitchen (John Lewis with Imelda May)
08 Becoming (Imelda May)
09 Wee Wee Hours (Ronnie Wood with Imelda May)
10 Rock and Roll Music (Ronnie Wood with Imelda May)
11 The Word Is Out (Imelda May)
12 Mercy (Bobby Bazini & Imelda May)
13 The God That Failed (Imelda May)
14 The Glory of Love (Imelda May)
15 Grace (Rod Stewart & Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602834/ImeldaM_2018-2021_TheWrdIsOut_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from a public appearance in London in February 2020.

Imelda May - Game Changer - Non-Album Tracks (2017-2018)

A couple of days ago, a commenter pointed out that a link to an Imelda May album that I had posted had died. Not only have I reposted that one, but I redid all of her albums posted here, fixing the volume balance between song and changing the mp3 tags. That also reminded me that it's been way to long since I last posted a stray tracks album from her, so here's the next one.

Up until 2017, May had mainly been known as a rockabilly musician. But in 2017, she put out a new album, "Life Love Flesh Blood," with a wider musical palatte and a new hairstyle (which ended her trademark blonde swirl look). The first six songs here are bonus tracks to various versions of that album. The other six songs come from a variety of sources. Two of them, "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" and "Another Suitcase, Another Hall," are officially unreleased. The rest come from her appearances on other artists' albums or various artists compilations.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 The Longing (Imelda May)
02 Flesh and Blood (Imelda May)
03 Game Changer (Imelda May)
04 Love and Fear (Imelda May)
05 It Must Be Love (Imelda May)
06 All I Want Is You (Imelda May)
07 Big Big Love (Damien Dempsey & Imelda May)
08 Ever Fallen in Love [With Someone You Shouldn't've] (Imelda May)
09 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Imelda May)
10 Another Suitcase, Another Hall (Imelda May)
11 Straighten Up and Fly Right (Imelda May with Jeff Goldblum)
12 Fe Bhlath (Imelda May with Kila)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15845078/ImeldaM_2017-2018_GameChangr_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from a 2017 concert in Las Vegas.

Imelda May - Cheltenham Jazz Festival at Home, Dublin, Ireland, 5-9-2020

Imelda May has a new album out, called "11 Past the Hour." I've given it a listen and I think it's pretty good, so I hope you'll check it out. It's hit number one in Ireland and the top five in Britain (though sadly she remains very little known in the US). In celebration of that, I'm posting this home concert she did in 2020.

May has played acoustic versions of songs from time to time. In fact, I plan on posting an album or two of that kind of thing later. But during the height of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, when lots of artists were playing acoustic home concerts, it seems she only did this one. At least, it's the only one I could find. It's rather short, at only 18 minutes long. So I've fleshed it out a bit by adding four songs at the end, all of them also done in acoustic mode at various points that year. That boosts the total length to 28 minutes, which is still short, but that's all the music I could find that fits the format.

I like this concert for a couple of reasons. For one, it's great to her May perform in such a stripped down acoustic style (with guitar and occasional backing vocals by Niall McNamee). But also, she did a bunch of songs she's never done anywhere else, including covers of "These Arms of Mine" by Otis Redding, "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers, "Wild Night" by Van Morrison, "How Can I Tell You" by Cat Stevens, and "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn. Plus, speaking of her new album "11 Past the Hour," she played one song from that album for the first time in public, "Don't Let Me Stand on My Own."

01 talk (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
02 These Arms of Mine (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
03 talk (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
04 Lean on Me (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
05 talk (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
06 Stay [Poem] (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
07 talk (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
08 Black Tears (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
09 talk (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
10 Don't Let Me Stand on My Own (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
11 talk (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
12 It'll Be Easier in the Morning (Imelda May with Niall McNamee)
13 Wild Night (Imelda May)
14 How Can I Tell You (Imelda May)
15 We'll Meet Again (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602805/ImeldaM_2020_CheltenhamJzzFestivlatHmeDublinIrland__5-9-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover art comes from a screenshot I took of a YouTube video of the exact concert in question.

Imelda May - I'm Crying - Non-Album Tracks (2014-2016)

It's time for another Imelda May stray tracks album. This one deals with the years 2014 to 2016. If you like her past ones, you'll be sure to like this one too.

This album is unusual for this stray tracks series in that the vast majority of the songs are officially unreleased. Only three of the 12 songs were officially released. That said, the sound quality is still pretty good. Another six of the songs come from appearances on TV shows, and those all sound very good as well.

This time around, many of the songs are covers of classic songs in a wide variety of genres. She does a New Wave song ("Say Hello, Wave Goodbye"), a Motown song ("Get Ready"), a soul song ("You Send Me"), a British Invasion song ("You Really Got Me"), and many more. She even does a version of "Bein' Green," a song best known due to the version by Kermit the Frog!

01 Your Sister Can't Twist [But She Can Rock 'n' Roll] (Imelda May)
02 Tears of Clew Bay (Imelda May)
03 Baby What You Want Me to Do - Hit the Road, Jack - A Big Hunk o' Love (Imelda May & Jools Holland)
04 Top to Bottom Boogie (Jools Holland with Imelda May)
05 Every Night about This Time (Sinead O'Connor & Imelda May)
06 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson & Imelda May)
07 Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (Imelda May & Marc Almond)
08 Wayfaring Stranger (Lulu & Imelda May)
09 You Really Got Me (Imelda May)
10 I'm Crying (Imelda May)
11 Bein' Green (Imelda May)
12 You Send Me (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602702/ImeldaM_2014-2016_ImCryng_atse.zip.html

The cover is a promotional photo from 2014.

Imelda May - Dreaming - Non-Album Tracks (2012-2014)

Here's the next stray tracks album from Imelda May. I live in the US, so I'm not totally sure, but I hear May is a big star in Britain and Ireland. But she's far less known everywhere else, including the US. That's a shame, because she has a great voice, great stage presence and beauty, and is a talented songwriter too. Her musical style is heavily influenced by earlier eras, and she's totally divorced from current pop trends. For me, that's a huge positive instead of a negative. If you like the other musicians I post at this blog, you're probably going to like her stuff too.

The songs come from singles, bonus tracks, various artists compilations, and so on. Five of the songs are officially unreleased and come from concert bootlegs. Those sound pretty good though, especially since two of them are from TV show appearances.

I'd hesitated to post the next in my series of stray tracks albums for her though, because I was missing two key songs. A week or so ago, a kind commenter here sent me one of them ("On My Radio"), so I'm proceeding with the next album.

(I'm still missing the other one, her version of "Rock Around with Ollie Vee," which has been officially released, but only as a bonus track to the various artists tribute album "Listen to Me: Buddy Holly." If anyone has it, please let me know, and I'll add it to this album.)

This album is from the time period when Imelda May was still heavily in her rockabilly phase. So expect some of that. But there's a wide variety of music here. For instance, the song "On My Radio" mentioned above is a cover of the ska hit by the Selekter. There's blues ("Spoonful"), traditional Irish (such as "Carolina Rua"), and even covers of songs by Blondie ("Dreaming") and Sonny and Cher ("Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"). A lot of good stuff. I think this truly would make a nice album all on its own.

In terms of sound quality, four of the songs here are officially unreleased. But they generally sound pretty good. There's one more, "Important Words," that didn't quite make the cut as far as sound quality, so I bumped that one down to being a bonus track.

01 On My Radio (Imelda May)
02 Carolina Rua (Imelda May & the Chieftains)
03 Spoonful (Imelda May)
04 I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me (Imelda May & the Dubliners)
05 Mr. Five by Five (Imelda May)
06 Clint [Silence on Tourne] (Thomas Dutronc & Imelda May)
07 Meet You at the Moon [Acappella Version] (Imelda May)
08 Beautiful Day (Imelda May & the Levellers)
09 Zombie Girl (Imelda May)
10 Dreaming (Imelda May)
11 Amber Eyes (Imelda May)
12 Bang Bang [My Baby Shot Me Down] (Imelda May)

Important Words (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693306/IMELDMY2012-2014_Dremng_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is of Imelda May in concert in London in 2012.

Imelda May - More Mayhem - Non-Album Tracks (2011)

I've been meaning to post this album for months, but I've hesitated because there are two songs for it that I've been trying to find. However, all this time has passed and I still haven't found them. I'm trying to post the stuff I have on Imelda May chronologically, so this has stopped me for posting anything from her. Thus, I'm going to post this now, and if those two songs show up later, I'll just have to update this.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Imelda May is the whole package. She's got a great voice, she's a talented songwriter, and she looks like a star. She's pretty big in Britain and Ireland but very little known elsewhere, so if you still don't know about her yet, give this a try.

In 2010, May released the album "Mayhem." It was a hit, reaching the top ten in Britain and going gold there, and reaching number one in Ireland. In 2011, rather than release a new album, she put out an enlarged version of the "Mayhem" album with four new songs, plus three other previous released songs, and called it "More Mayhem." I'm using the "More Mayhem" title and cover here, but I'm only including the four new songs. The other seven songs here come from various other music projects she had going on in 2011.

The four songs from the official "More Mayhem" album all fall into her rockabilly style, including a cover of the Patsy Cline classic "Walking After Midnight." The rest have a much wider stylistic range. She does covers of 1950s classics "I'm Lookin' for Someone to Love" and "Train Kept a Rollin'" still in her rockabilly mode. But she also gets in touch with her Irish roots with "Mountains to the Sea" and the standard "Danny Boy." She also does a lullaby she wrote herself for a charity, "Make a Wish." She finishes it all with the Christmas classic "Silent Night."

All in all, this is a solid album. I wish she actually would have put out an album like this instead of the supersized "Mayhem" idea. She wouldn't put out another studio album until 2014. (Though as we'll see, she kept busy.)

As for the two songs I still can't find, one is her version of the Buddy Holly song "Rocking Around with Ollie Vee," done for the Holly tribute album "Listen to Me." The problem is, it's only a bonus track, and most versions don't have it. The other one is a cover of "On My Radio," a ska hit by the band The Selecter. That was done for an extremely rare various artists album called "Reworked: Songs from the John Lewis TV Adverts." If anyone has either or both of these songs and can share them with me, I surely would appreciate it! Then I can add them to this album.

UPDATE: On November 4, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file. I added one song I'd previously missed. It's a version of May's original song "Kentish Town Waltz," but in duet form with Lou Reed, of all people! Apparently, record producer Tony Visconti became a fan of the song shortly after it was released and passed a recording on to Reed. Reed liked it so much that he asked May to record a duet version. That was put on the B-side when the regular version was released as a single.

01 Road Runner (Imelda May)
02 Gypsy (Imelda May)
03 Blues Calling (Imelda May)
04 Walking After Midnight (Imelda May)
05 I'm Lookin' for Someone to Love (Imelda May)
06 Train Kept A-Rollin' (Imelda May)
07 Make a Wish (Imelda May)
08 Mountains to the Sea (Mary Black & Imelda May)
09 Danny Boy (Jeff Beck & Imelda May)
10 Baby, I Love You (Imelda May)
11 Kentish Town Waltz [Duet Version] (Imelda May & Lou Reed)
12 Silent Night (Michel Legrand Orchestra with Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693311/IMELDMY2011_MreMayhm_atse.zip.html

As mentioned above, the album cover here is the exact one for the official "More Mayhem" album, though the contents are drastically different.

Imelda May - Why Don't You Do Right - Non-Album Tracks (2009-2010)

First off, I've already posted a couple of Imelda May albums, but I've gotta say that if you don't know her music, you really need to check her out. I gather that she's big in Britain and Ireland, where her albums regularly reach the top five in the charts, but she's very little known everywhere else, where her albums rarely even make the charts.

In addition to having a great voice, May also is a talented songwriter. Her official albums are mostly filled with songs she wrote. But this stray tracks album is mainly composed of cover versions. She does everything from a Beatles song ("Oh Darling") to a song associated with Elvis Presley ("My Baby Left Me") to some classic blues songs. There also are a couple of nice collaborations with Jeff Beck.

May released her first album in 2003. But her career languished in obscurity until late 2008, when she released her album "Love Tattoo," which hit number one in Ireland and went gold in Britain. In the wake of that success she had more opportunities to record music and to perform on TV and such. Five of the songs here are officially unreleased. 

The song quality is excellent most of the way through this album. The first two songs are from an audience bootleg, and the song quality is less than the rest of the album. If you're a stickler for sound quality, you can just delete those. They date from 2008.

01 On Revival Day (Imelda May)
02 Pink Champagne (Imelda May)
03 Why Don't You Do Right (Imelda May)
04 Go Tell the Devil (Imelda May & Sharon Shannon)
05 Oh Darling (Imelda May)
06 Wexford Carol (Imelda May)
07 My Babe (Imelda May)
08 Rollin' and Tumblin' (Imelda May)
09 Rogue Melody (Jerry Fish & the Mudbug Club with Imelda May)
10 Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Royal Air Force Squadronaires with Imelda May)
11 Going Up the Country (Imelda May)
12 Lilac Wine (Jeff Beck & Imelda May)
13 Poor Boy (Jeff Beck & Imelda May)
14 My Baby Left Me (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602706/ImeldaM_2009-2010_WhyDontYouDRght_atse.zip.html

I made the cover art using a photo of May from a 2008 concert.

Imelda May with Jeff Beck - Iridium Jazz Club, New York City, 6-9-2010

I must say, I'm disappointed at the number of people so far who have downloaded the two Imelda May albums I've posted. I'm guessing that's due to the people who don't know her music and are reluctant to try something new. So I'm going to step away from my usual chronological approach to post this album that features May with famed guitarist Jeff Beck on every song. Maybe this can serve as a kind of "gateway drug" - come for the Beck guitar, but stay for the May vocals. ;)

For a couple of years around 2010, May and Beck toured together as part of a tribute to guitarist Les Paul. In 2011, an official album was released from one of these shows called "Rock 'n' Roll Party Honoring Les Paul." If you don't have it, you should get it. It features May singing on about 30 minutes of music, but features another 30 minutes of music, some of those instrumentals and some sung by others, including some famous guest singers like Brian Setzer and Gary U.S. Bonds.

This is similar to that album, but it's not the same. This is taken from a DVD of another Les Paul tribute show put on by Beck, May, and others at the Iridium Jazz Club in 2010. It only features the songs sung by May. She sings more here, for about 42 minutes of music instead of the 30 on the official album.

The show entirely consists of classic songs from the 1960s or earlier (mostly earlier). It's a good mix of lively rockabilly numbers and romantic torch songs. Most of them were hits by Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford in the early 1950s. All of them, in my opinion, show what a great singer May is, as well as what a great guitarist Beck is.

01 Poor Boy (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
02 Cry Me a River (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
03 My Baby Left Me (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
04 How High the Moon (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
05 Sitting on Top of the World (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
06 Bye Bye Blues (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
07 The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
08 Vaya Con Dios (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
09 Mockin' Bird Hill (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
10 I'm a Fool to Care (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
11 Tiger Rag (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
12 Remember [Walking in the Sand] (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
13 Please Mr. Jailor (Jeff Beck with Imelda May)
14 Casting My Spell on You (Jeff Beck with Imelda May & Darrel Higham)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693265/IMELDMY2010_IridiumJazzClbNewYrkCity__6-9-2010_atse.zip.html

I made the cover based on a photo of Beck and May that I found. But I'm not sure what concert it's from.

Imelda May - No Turning Back (2003)

I'm a very big fan of Imelda May. This actually is an officially released album, unchanged. I usually don't post these, but it's very obscure, and I want to draw more attention to it and to May's career in general.

The reason this album is so obscure is because it was her first album, released back in 2003. It actually came out when she was still going under her given name, "Imelda Clabby." It was rereleased in 2007, with the "Imelda May" name and a new look, with a signature quiff in her hair. However, she still wasn't famous - she wouldn't get her big break until 2008, when she started appearing on TV in Britain. So even the rerelease has remained obscure.

Even though this is her first album, her rockabilly style is already established. And May isn't just a pretty face and a great voice - she also is a talented songwriter. She's already showing that at this early stage, writing three of the songs by herself.

The two songs to the end of mp3 zip file come from a 1999 Darrel Higham album. But May does all the singing on both, and I believe wrote them as well. Higham and May were already romantically linked at the time and would be married and musical partners for many years, until 2015.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Dealing with the Devil (Imelda May)
02 Flame of Love (Imelda May)
03 Cry for Me Baby (Imelda May)
04 [Till] I Kissed You (Imelda May & Darrel Higham)
05 What Am I Gonna Do (Imelda May)
06 Once More (Imelda May)
07 Wild about My Lovin' (Imelda May)
08 No Turning Back (Imelda May)
09 End of the World (Imelda May)
10 Y'hoo (Imelda May)
11 Don't Do Me No Wrong (Imelda May)
12 Forever You and Me (Imelda May)
13 Bring My Cadillac Back (Imelda May)
14 Lovey Dovey Lovely One (Imelda May)
15 Let Us Sing (Imelda May)
16 Bless My Soul (Darrel Higham & Imelda May)
17 You Can Persuade Me (Darrel Higham & Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15845335/ImeldaM_2003_NoTrningBack_atse.zip.html

I've gone with the original cover, showing what she actually looked like in 2003. However, I've changed the text with her "Imelda May" name, to be consistent with all her other albums. I changed the font as well. Also, the original photo was in black and white, but I colorized it.

Imelda May - Dealing with the Devil - Non-Album Tracks (2002-2006)

Imelda May is a great talent, and I plan to post a lot of her music here. She also is a character out of time. She was born and raised in Ireland, where her family listened to lots of music from the 1950s and earlier. So even though she got her career rolling in the early 2000s when she was still in her mid-20s, for most of her career her music sounds like lost recordings from the 1950s or earlier. Heck, look at the album cover here - she even looks like a star from an earlier era.

I love Imelda May because she's got a fantastic voice, and also is a talented songwriter. Since the 1980s, the likes of Whitney Houston and Celine Dion have made oversinging all the rage, especially for female vocalists, where one shows off vocal gymnastics instead of doing what best suits the song. The musical "America's Got Talent" type TV shows have made this misuse of talent even more popular. Thankfully, May never oversings.

The music on this album mostly dates to 2004. At that time, May was an unknown, and she got started by latching onto musicians who already had recording contracts. So three of the songs here are from albums headlined by rockabilly artist Darrel Higham (who would become her husband and band member for many years). But more of the songs come from the 2004 album "Almost Grown" by Mike Sanchez, who has a long career as an R&B artist. Sanchez is definitely musically talented, but unfortunately I find his voice utterly ordinary, while I find May's voice exceptional. Sanchez is the lead singer on seven of the album's songs, and May is the lead singer on the other seven (including one in which they both sing). I simply included the May-led songs only.

At this stage, May was doing nearly all cover songs, mostly rockabilly, but also soul and R&B. Later on, she would develop into a songwriter and expand her musical range. But if you want retro rock, a la the Stray Cats, this is as good as it gets, in my opinion.

By the way, the song "Dealing with the Devil" can also be found on the 2003 Imelda May album "No Turning Back," but this is a live version done with a different band. If you like this album, I highly recommend you get that one too. It's very little known because it was done well before May became famous (unfortunately in Ireland and Britain only, so far), back when she was known by her birth name Imelda Clabby.

Oh, and "Drown in My Own Tears" is on a different album also ("Talk to Me"), but this too is a live version done with a different band.

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Dealing with the Devil (Darrel Higham with Imelda May)
02 Stop Whistlin' Wolf (Darrel Higham with Imelda May)
03 Let the Good Times Roll (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
04 Voodoo Voodoo (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
05 I'll Go Crazy (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
06 If I Can't Have You (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
07 Matchbox (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
08 Easy Easy (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
09 My Man (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
10 Drown in My Own Tears (Mike Sanchez & Imelda May)
11 Temptation (Darrel Higham with Imelda May)
12 Do What I Want to Do (Imelda May)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15845322/ImeldaM_2004_DealingwiththeDvil_atse.zip.html

This cover is based on a photo from the early 2000s.