This has little to do with his CD “Giants” but it was so darn unique I had to include it. “Giants” was recorded in Nashville, where Donal now calls home.  This is a CD that gets better the further you go into the recording--but I thought that was the opposite way you do things.  The title track, which kicks off the album, is a kind of update of the old Dion song “Abraham, Martin and John” or Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire .”  I like “Abraham, Martin and John,” hate “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” and feel lukewarm about the song “Giants.”  Track two is “Before Music Was a Product,” a rocking number that revs up the CD for me.  The next cut, “Road to Ruin,” is a cool ballad, nicely written and performed. Following that is “Shock and Awe,” the U.S.’s name for the first hours of the invasion of Iraq.  (Here’s a write-up from CBS news on “Shock and Awe” in case you’ve forgotten.)  Donal cleverly uses the imagery for self-reflection, in addition to criticizing the Iraq war where “innocents” are “sent to die for reasons yet to be revealed.”  I might have named the CD “Shock and Awe.”  Best tracks on the CD, in addition to “Shock and Awe,” include the rocking “You and Me” (maybe the hit single, if there were such things for folksingers these days); the thoughtful and melodic “Bubble,” which has a string arrangement reminiscent of the Beatles’ “Yesterday”; “Louisville,” whose horn recalls the Kinks’ work in the mid-1960s--and the chord changes do too; and “The One,” which has Donal strumming the ukulele with an interesting string arrangement and a surprisingly harsh-sounding guitar solo that I enjoyed (I’m a metal head at heart).  Somebody was thinking outside of the box during this recording session!    I’m giving “Giants” three bottle caps.  A slow starter, but worth the wait. {mosimage}