Luke MacNeilâs âHereâs One For Sanityâ burns bright

It should come as no surprise that 23-year old singer-songwriter and Milford native Luke MacNeil sights Irish crooner Damien Rice as one of his primary influences. MacNeil’s cover of Rice’s “Cannonball” on his debut release “Here’s One For Sanity” rivals the original and his voice is just as sweet as Rice’s. What is surprising, though, is up until about a year ago, is that MacNeil said he couldn’t sing worth a damn.

“I was afraid of singing really, I was a horrible singer growing up. I put a lot of work into it, but as a kid I never thought I was going to be able to sing.”

On his album, MacNeil doesn’t just go through the “American Idol”-esque motions of an amateur performer. His stunning voice is achingly beautiful as it rides the waves and troughs of his melodies. Each quiver in his voice is truly goosebump-inducing.

He first became interested in music when he was 8 years old, passing a man on a porch playing folk. MacNeil also began to dabble in hard rock a la Metallica, but “Trying to play that kind of music on an acoustic guitar wasn’t working out so well.”

His heavier tastes still come through on the disc which, despite his bewitching voice, is mostly melancholy. Though the tunes stick to his acoustic-folk tastes, the music stays pretty dark, even with his silvery delivery. Songs like “I Tried” and “Why” drip with heartache and loneliness. It’s a theme MacNeil was conscious of when writing.

“I think most songs and poetry originate from some form of emotional pain,” he said.

While the album is free of any booty-shaking party hits, it’s certainly not a dreary affair either. The emotion is genuine and the sincerity in MacNeil’s songwriting saves the material from becoming too depressing.

That’s a good thing, since his goal wasn’t to upset listeners. Rather, he hopes they walk away feeling like they just left a campfire, what he considers folk music to be all about.

This artist is underselling himself though. If all campfire performers were as gifted and pleasing on the ears as MacNeil, we’d all have to brave the outdoors more often.

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