Pay The Reckoning
Reviews 2002-2003
New Interviews
New The Blythe Hill Tavern Session
Aidan Crossey's Irish Mandolin Vol One
The Humours of Lewisham Volume Two
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Pay The ReckoningReviews 2002-2003 |
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New Interviews New The Blythe Hill Tavern Session Aidan Crossey's Irish Mandolin Vol One The Humours of Lewisham Volume Two
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We gave McGrath's last outing, "Marmite (And Other Stuff)", a rave review. And little wonder. A collection of thoughtful songs, high on insight and compasssion, regardless of whether they were overtly humorous or serious, Marmite was a CD which surprised and delighted.
2003's follow-up, Sweet Liberty, sees McGrath maintain his quality standards. His spartan, highly effective, guitar playing provides a bedrock on which he lays down his songs. McGrath's voice is a delicate instrument and yet the passion that underpins most of the tracks on this album is evident despite his maintaining an even keel throughout. In fact, the very lack of histrionics reinforces McGrath's raging; shouting and posturing detract from the message and he has important points to make - points that require and demand your attention, your concentration.
Much of "Marmite" concerned the aftermath of 9/11. The events of that day continue to reverberate in McGrath's music, continue to worry at his mind. The human, individual impacts concern McGrath much more than the political ramifications. And so is the case with, to our mind, the album's stand-out track, "The Road To Derry". A meditation on the Bloody Sunday massacre with lyrics by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and a final verse by McGrath himself, looking back at the day from the perspective of 25 years in the future, the anger which suffuses the song stems not so much from the political dimension of the barbarous events of the day in question, but from the human dimension. Underlying the succinct imagery which brought home to us memories of that frightening day are two visceral questions which pulse like the beats of the left and right sides of the heart; how? why? how? why?
If Bloody Sunday made such an impression on McGrath (and Heaney), then little wonder that 9/11 did the same. For, in their human impact, both events touch very similar chords (even if, on the political dimension, both events are poles apart).
Elsewhere, in "Kim The Minister" McGrath is able to take a wry look at the current Government's obsession with pushing through asinine licensing laws which could - if enforced rigidly - deal a severe blow to traditional music making in England. And in "Whitby Coming Home", he gives us a very personal view of the importance of the annual folk festival in the North Yorkshire fishing town. Howells might not get it; most of Pay The Reckoning's readership will nod in agreement at McGrath's sentiments.
A first-rate selection of songs by the Bard of Harlow, simply recorded and all the more direct and powerful for that very fact!
From time to time we receive CDs for review which are outside our normal Irish Traditional Music purview. While these don't always see the light of today as reviews in these here pages, we'd nevertheless like to spotlight some fine releases of 2003 which the artists brought to our attention.
Maggie Holland's "Circle Of Light" collection spotlights her songwriting skills (Cold Night On Bernard Street and Number 4071, Private Bennett), but focuses mainly on her abilities as an interpreter of traditional and contemporary songs. Holland has a particular penchant for the songs of Robb Johnson, and the CD features five of Johnson's compositions. The album also sees Holland give voice to songs by Billy Bragg, Al Stewart, Dave Evans, Leon Rosselson, Bob Dylan and Alan Tunbridge.
A restrained and committed singer and musician (guitar, banjo, acoustic bass), Holland is assisted by Malcolm Ross (electric guitar, lapsteel) and Wendy Weatherby (cello). The end result is a classic contemporary folk album, full of insight, passion and sincerity.
Find out more at http://www.irregularrecords.co.uk
Where you'll again find reference to Robb Johnson. A singer/songwriter with first-rate credentials, Johnson's songs are delivered in an archetypal understated manner but his vision is broad and much of his writing informed by anger at intolerance, injustice and the posturing of our current-day warmongers. His latest outing "Clockwork Music" is anything but mechanical. A highly personal, political and ambitious project, the CDs directness and simplicity hammer Johnson's messages home.
Miranda Sykes' double bass and Saskia Tomkins' cello, viola and violin add depth and drama to Johnson's work, while never detracting from its immediacy.
More at http://www.robbjohnson.co.uk and, of course, at http://www.irregularrecords.co.uk
What's to be said about Whapweasel? Their blend of traditional English dance music with rock, jazz and "world" rhythms defies description. Suffice to say that the energy levels are in the red zone throughout the ultra-tight CD "Relentless". Taking "folk-rock" as a notional starting point, Whapweasel thumb their noses at evolutionary theory and push the envelope in umpteen different directions. Once on board, part of this particular ride's thrill is the fact there's no certainty as to where the next track will take you. However you can be sure that regardless of destination, musicians of Whapweasel's calibre will guanrantee a safe journey!
Check them out at http://www.whapweasel.com
After the pyrotechnics of Whapweasel, time for some sober reflection with Andy Smythe's "Love Unspoken" collection. Taking love - searching for it, finding it, losing it - as his dominant theme, the South East London singer/songwriter demonstrates that there's still plenty of mileage in the "young man with guitar" paradigm!
Pay him a visit at http://www.andysmythe.com
We gave the group's debut album, "Up For It!", a big thumbs-up when it first appeared and so we were interested to see how things have moved on since the band's first recorded appearance.
Well, the line-up's changed for a start. Founder members Gwyneth Keen (vocals) and Gordon Taylor (guitar, mandola) are still in the fold. Jonathan Shorland (flute, pastoral pipes, backing vocals), Sian Phillips (fiddle, backing vocals) and Daniel Murphy (accordion) have joined the group. The new mix represents an evolution rather than a revolution. The trademarks of the band's sound remain intact, notably the slightly heavier emphasis given to songs than is common with most traditional/traditionally-influenced acts and the band's keen ear for arrangement. Arrangement is always a tightrope for traditional bands. Too much conscious arranging and the results turn off the listener; the music begins to smack of having been manufactured. Too little conscious arranging can, however, lead to a chaotic mix. Few bands manage to navigate such a narrow channel without at least once or twice scraping their sides off the rocks. Celtish, on the other hand, make it appear plain sailing.
Each listener will, of course, have his or her favourites from the selection of songs and tunes laid out for us. However as far as we were concerned, Keen's vocals on "Billy Boy" and "The Bells of Rhymney" made these the stand-out songs on the album, while if it's tunes you're after, you'll want to check out "The Geese In The Bog/Harmony Hill/Half An Hour Early For Being Late".
Just as impressive as their debut, "Imago" continues the tale of a band who have a long way to go, but already are far ahaed of many of their contemporaries.
More information from http://www.celtish.com
Well-known guitar/bouzouki player and vocalist O'Donoghue debuts as a solo recording artist in this tasteful and understated collection of traditional and contemporary material. Solo that is, except for the support of a cast of luminaries (Siobhan Peoples, Tola Custy, Michael Queally, Paul O'Driscoll, John Kelly, Leonard Barry, Murty Ryan, Tony O'Connell, John Moloney, Padraic O'Reilly, Leanne O'Donoghue, Patrick Branagan, Kevin Branagan, Michael Rafferty, Declan Hoey and Fiach McHugh) who appear at various times and in various combinations to add depth, richness and colour to O'Donoghue's songs and tunes.
Traditional songs such "A Blacksmith Courted Me", "Ae Fond Kiss" (well, composed by Robbie Burns, but such a staple of the Scottish singing canon that it's as near as damn it traditional!), "The Night Visit", "The Bonny Light Horseman", "The Newlyn Highwayman" and "The Recruited Collier" are sensitively treated by O'Donoghue. His keen musical compass points in the right direction throughout; he pulls off that difficult act of balancing passion with restraint. Throughout, the guest musicians respect O'Donoghue's take on songs that he's culled from the tradition, highlighting and colouring the songs but never breaking the spell that draws the listener ever closer to the singer.
On contemporary songs such as Joe Dolan's "The Foxy Devil" (documenting the author's love-hate relationship with the "devil's buttermilk"), Hugh Moffat's "Slow Moving Freight Train", Bruce Guthro's "The Fiddle and Bow" and the title track, Steve Earle's "Nothing But A Child", O'Donoghue brings the same keenness of vision and sensitivity of approach.
Two tracks stood out on first listening; their charms increased with each subsequent visit of this CD to the carousel! We weren't familiar with "The Scariff Martyrs" until we came across it here. Documenting the fall of four young men from Scariff during the Tan War, the song is a classic of its type; personal without being sentimental, rousing but not bombastic. O'Donoghue combines spirit in his reading of the song with just the right degree of detachment, allowing the song - rather than the singer - to stir the listener's reaction.
The album's closing track is the album's other highlight. "Aoibhinn's Waltz (Saudade)", written during a period on tour in Portugal, was inspired by O'Donoghue's pining for his grandaughter back at home. A tune that captures perfectly the bittersweetness of distance, "Aoibhinn's" is a tune that many listening to this album will wish to return to time and time again.
Accomplished and thoughtful; O'Donoghue has made an album he can be truly proud of!
Available via Cork's Red Hat Music http://www.redhatmusic.com
Stonecross are Susan O'Rourke (vocals, guitar, bouzouki) and Ziggie Zeitler (bouzouki, fiddle, mandolin, dobrolin, harp). On this CD they are joined by Joyce Hagerman (harmony vocals, flute, mandolin, bodhran) and Jiva Falcon (dumbek).
You'll have guessed from the name-checks above that Stonecross have some exotic blood. The latest band from the US to capture our attention, Stonecross testify yet again to the limitless appeal of Irish and Scottish music. And yet again, Stonecross prove that the music is capable of absorbing influences from other lands and retaining its identity. Time and again throughout this collection, the influences of old-timey, mountainy, high lonesome American music appear in the midst of tunes and songs from across the water. Rather than each music struggling to shrug off the other's influence, the combination works well and the blend sits easy on the palate.
O'Rourke and Hagerman make a grand job of "Lovely Agnes", a homely ballad and well-suited to the close, organic harmonies of the vocalists. Elsewhere The Banks Of Red Rose and Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce Hi are highlights of the album's songs.
And string-players are bound to get a kick out of Zeitler's original compositions, The Morning After, The Tongue Of The Dog and A Day's Work. The last-mentioned in particular brims with verve, energy and inventiveness.
Find out more about the band at http://www.stonecrossband.com
When it comes to Irish traditional music, the combination of flute and fiddle is surely the "par excellence" dual-instrument combination. And when it comes to flute and fiddle interplay, O'Hare and Byrne make music that's as good as any.
Supreme interpreters of the tradition, both are superb tunesmiths. O'Hare's "Union Quay Comotions", "New Year's Dip" and "Fergus Og's", Byrne's "Trip To Seapoint", "Ardenza Storm's", "The Navigator", "Ril Roisin", "Farewell To Drogheda" and "Bavan" and their joint composition - the stunning "Binnian" - are all likely to turn up in other musicians' sets once this album's influence begins to percolate its way into the trad community.
As for their playing of traditional tunes, the opening set (Andy McGann's No 42/Gweebarra Bridge Reel/The Kashmir Cloak) shows the pair in fine fettle, setting a standard to which many players will aspire - but few will equal. Elsewhere an impeccable "The Hag With The Purse/An Buachaillin Dreoite" simply begs to be repeated over and over!
O'Hare and Byrne combine a thoroughly modern approach to the music with a deep grounding in the tradition. They source tunes from contemporary composers (Sully Sullivan, Maire Breatnach, Charlie McKerron, Peadar O'Riada) as well as from other Celtic traditions. The rich brew that results is one to savour!
More information available from http://www.ceolbavan.com
Distributed by Cork's Red Hat Music http://www.redhatmusic.com
Pay The Reckoning are joined in fulsome praise of Bavan by journalist and commentator Alex Monaghan ...
I've always been delighted by Conor Byrne's fluteplaying, from his schoolboy recordings to his solo CD a few years ago. For my money, he's one of the best young Dublin musicians. Now he's teamed up with fiddler Méabh O'Hare to produce a duet album that's pure class. The depth and maturity on Bavan are astonishing. Flute and fiddle merge perfectly, with a oneness that's rare indeed. Both these players are masters of the smooth, mellow side of Irish music, giving exceptional warmth and fullness of tone to jigs, reels and slower pieces. Not that the pace is lacking when needed: Conor is no stranger to high-speed Dublin sessions, and Méabh matches him note for note on the quicker numbers such as Andy McGann's Reel and Conor's own Ríl Róisin.
As well as traditional pieces renowned and rare, there are five of Conor's tunes and three of Méabh's here, plus compositions by Sully, Charlie McKerron, Máire Breatnach and Peadar O'Riada. There's also a gobsmacking slow air composed by Conor and Méabh jointly: it's called Binnian, and it's undoubtedly a highlight of the album. Other highlights are the hornpipes Máire's and An t-Eas, the pair of Méabh's jigs New Years Dip and Fergus Óg's, and the title track which finishes the album. Méabh and Conor also make excellent and sparing use of some great guest musicians, including Donncha Moynihan and Caoimhín Vallely.
Bavan is an outstanding recording by two outstanding musicians, the finest duet CD I've heard in a long time. I'd recommend this album to anyone who wants to experience the true beauty of Irish instrumental music. Bavan combines flawless technique, intuitive understanding, and top quality material: the result is simply gorgeous. If it isn't readily available near you, try www.ceolbavan.com for direct sales.
Mention ceili bands to any Irish music fan and immediately they'll think of the dozen or more musicians lined up on stage belting out set after set of mighty reels and jigs. Two sharp taps on the woodblock and they're off, whipping the dancers into a frenzy with their rousing, pared-to-the-bones settings of well-known tunes.
The term doesn't have quite the same connotations to the right of the ditch, and The Lucy Lastic Band epitomise the English ceili band. A more compact article than the Irish breed, they rely for their impact less on the strength of numbers than on a degree of spontaneity and edginess that the larger ensemble can't muster.
We blew the band's trumpet when their first CD was launched. Since then fiddler Richard Whiteside has left the outfit to be replaced by another fiddler, Julia Pugsley. While the overall dynamic remains unchanged - the line-up continues to boast the combination of fiddle, Guitar (Jon Palmer), accordion (Jane Lewis) and percussion (Susan Heard) - Pugsley's more "classical" approach to the fiddle represents a significant stylistic shift.
The music is a combination of Irish, Scottish and English traditional tunes, played - as the band points out in the sleeve notes - at the correct speed and duration for dancing. Therefore, don't expect any "improvisatory acceleration" (an excuse we use when, in the odd session here and there, we've personally let speed get the better of us!); this is rock-steady stuff, underpinned by Palmer's thoughtful guitar and Heard's on-the-button rhythm work.
So, clear the furniture to the sides of the room, stick Dance 'Till You Drop on the CD carousel and ... just "do what it says on the tin"!
More information from http://www.bigbear-uk.freeserve.co.uk
Now then! Hands up those of you who started your own musical journey without the assistance of a teacher ... Hands up those who wished they'd had a teacher from the beginning ...
In the circles in which we mix, there is a perennial debate about the merits or otherwise of being formally taught Irish music. No matter what side of the fence people are on, there is an agreement that the teacher of the music occupies a special place in the tradition. There is an element of "imparting" in the teacher/pupil relationship, but - particularly as the pupil develops, often to the point where they are a more competent musician than the teacher - the teacher's role becomes one of coaching, of mentoring, of inspiring confidence and fostering the player's individuality.
Of course, when it comes to tutorial books, much of the latter element is impossible to convey. And yet Nesbitt's publication comes close.
Nesbitt, originally from the Roscommon/South Sligo/Leitrim triangle, now living in Tipperary is as well known as a player as she is as a tutor, assessor and lecturer (and producer of musical offspring, all six of her children being fine musicians in their own right, including Mairead who is gaining something of a reputation!).
The scope of her tutorial is vast. Assuming no prior knowledge of the fiddle, Nesbitt's "curriculum" starts at square one - an introduction to the fiddle itself, before summarising in the space of a few brief pages - succinctly and clearly - the basics of reading music. After a brief skim through scales, Nesbitt introduces us to a few simple tunes.
From this point on she leads us through basic elements of ornamentation - grace notes, triplets, long and short rolls - illustrating their use via a variety of tunes in all of the key meters, each becoming subtly "harder". All this in the space of just over 40 pages!
When we've mastered all that, she gives us a selection of well over 100 tunes, from slow airs, through jigs, polkas, hornpipes, set dances, hornpipes and O'Carolan pieces. Ample opportunity to consolidate the knowledge we have gleaned, to perfect our technique and to develop our own style.
The difficulty with tutorial books is that they perhaps deceive the casual reader into believing that mastering this or that instrument is easy - it only takes 40-odd pages! We all know, however, that this isn't the case. You may be able to encapsulate the gist into a few pages, but to become a player - well, there's only one sure-fire route and that's the old "practice, practice, practice" road! The beauty of Nesbitt's book is that by building gradually in the way that it does, by allowing the student to begin to play tunes as opposed to academic, dusty and uninspring scales and exercises, from the earliest opportunity, it makes its points unobtrusively and gently. It makes the assumption that the reason for buying this book is to enable the learner to make (better) music and from the word go, that's how the pupil will learn! Not by "practice" but by playing. (Which would you rather do?)
The accompanying 41-track CD illustrates the variety of techniques in the context of tunes (and is a good listen in its own right!).
Priced at 45 Euros (around £30, give or take the odd bob), we're sure you'll agree that this a paltry sum for the distillation of a lifetime's experience as a player, teacher, examiner and assessor.
Available via http://www.maireadnesbitt.com
The trad purist may be a wee bit shy of O'Connor's and Aherne's packaging. Aherne won't be the stumbling-block so much as himself. The guy oozes glamour. From his matinee idol looks to his sharp dressing to his air of supreme confidence, he's a far cry from the unkempt and uncouth crowd that most people associate with the music. The trad purist might think to him or herself, "Sure, there's not going to be much of a smell of the turf about yer man!"
Well, now! There might be hints of odours more fragrant and exotic than the turf about O'Connor but when he lets rip on the accordion or concertina he dispels all fears.
Recorded live at the Franciscan Friary, Killarney in January 2003, Reel Spirit captures an evening of entertainment which combines staged, choreographed moments with sets of dance tunes where all semblance of conscious "musical direction" disappear in a welter of inventive, rousing, spontaneous musicality.
Among the former moments are all of Aherne's appearances. A vocalist of stunning clarity and precision, who combines power with graceful subtlety, the arrangements are carefully worked out to support and colour, but never to distract from, her delivery. She and O'Connor balance off against each perfectly in the evening's opener "Be Thou My Vision". Given the ecclesiatical surroundings, to begin with a hymn is fitting. Aherne's appearance in a flowing white dress suggests there's something of the angel about her. Small wonder therefore that she feels compelled to give us Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" later in the evening.
Superb harmonies give her rendering of "Down In The River To Pray"a feel which is far removed from its Appalachian origins.
We've always had a soft spot for "The Water Is Wide" and Aherne does the song proud. Its apparent straightforwardness presents a trap for the unwary. Aherne does it justice, combining restraint with sensitivity.
Let's give the tunes the once-over.
O'Connor is a stellar player. No question! When he solos, for example, on the 6-minute long "The Coolin" and when he romps through "O'Carolan's Concerto" with such ease that he makes it appear no more troublesome a piece than a nursery rhyme, then we're in no doubt. The man's a wizard!
However O'Connor has surrounded himself with some mighty sidekicks - and he's determined that each of them is a member of a partnership of equals. Cathal Hayden (fiddle), Michael Buckley (sax, flute), Tony Molloy (bass), Ian Parker (piano, keyboards), Eamon McElholm (guitars), Nicholas Bailey (percussion, bodhran, drums) are class acts in their own right. Together with O'Connor they are a tight and powerful outfit.
There's a sense that although the tunes have been rehearsed, the musicians have agreed not to "over-rehearse", to allow for an organic, spontaneous element to the evening. The first reel set "Master McDermott's/The Flogging Reel/The Red Haired Lass" establishes the defining pattern of the evening. O'Connor's wizardry on the buttons is mirrored by Hayden's dexterity and muscularity; both players are confident and keenly intelligent, developing tunes as they play, energising each other.
A sparkling jig set "The Rose In The Heather/Out In The Ocean/Connaghtman Rambles" and the album's closer, a magnificent "Tom Billy's Reel/The Boys of Malin" are blue-chip exercises in ensemble playing. And fair do's to O'Connor for giving Hayden the opportunity to take centre-stage for a blazing set of reels "The Boys of Ballisodare/Gan Ainm/Lord McDonald's".
Two sets stood out for us. The first O'Connor's polka/slide set "Deep In The Heart/The Kings Of Kerry" (the latter a recent composition by Mike Scott and Sharon Shannon, but sounding for all the world as if it's been around since the dawn of music!). Playing his grandmother's concertina, it's obvious that he has a deep respect for the music of Sliabh Luachra. This is, in fact, the most understated set on the album.
A set to which we returned time and again - thank God for skip buttons on the CD player! - is "Solas Mo Chroi/Victory/The Fox Hunter's Reel". The first tune is one of O'Connor's own compositions and a fine piece of tune-making! The second - one of Ronan Hardiman's compositions - is a real showman's tune. Not for the ham-fisted or the hesitant player, "Victory "is one of those quirky, addictive tunes that you don't want to end. However, as the change looms and the combined forces lock in on a driving "Fox Hunter's", all momentary regrets are put to bed!
Further info from http://www.liamoconnormusic.com
Swan (smallpipes, flute) and Dyer (guitars) are a match made in heaven. She the nimble-fingered focus of our attentions, he the inventive anchor who ensures that no matter how far her agile imagination allows her to wander, her music remains perfectly grounded.
Comprising contemporary material - the vast majority of which is written by Swan or Dyer themselves - the music rarely strays too far from its roots. Sure, there are flavours of other ethnic musics that each of the pair has encountered on their travels; sure, there are flirtations with the occasional weird time signature (e.g. on "Jester's Waltz" many of the bars are 7/8). But taken as a whole the tunes on the album fit right into that particularly Scottish tradition of "made" tunes - original, but completely in character with the tradition which spawned them.
There's a degree of wit and sheer chutzpah on this album which are bound to raise a smile. Take, for example, "Metamorphosis" - played first as waltz, as a reel, then as a jig and finally a combination of waltz and jig which the pair dub a "wig". Take "Geordie Lad/The Good Old Way", where deceptively simple (but stunningly effective) guitar lays a solid foundation on which Swan builds a monument!
Superb as the album is, we have no hesitation in awarding a special mention to Swan's "RTW(Round The World)/The Home Coming". "RTW" - one of the most elegant, clever and heart-rending tunes we've heard - commemorates Swan's lengthy period travelling minus her pipes. Any musician will commiserate with Swan; the inability to express herself in the way she finds most natural for a long time must have been excruciating. The sudden lift as she swings into the rousing "The Home Coming" represents an end to that enforced period of longing; a joyful reunion as she fills the bag with air and lets fly with a gush of sheer elation. The reprise of "RTW", a brief reminder of that period of distance - its poignancy as real, but somehow diluted by "The Home Coming's" appearance.
No elitists, Swan and Dyer have, commendably, published all of their tunes on the web. Just go to http://www.thumbtwiddling.co.uk and - as they say themselves - "pick up your instruments and start playing". Might we suggest that you start with "RTW" and see if you agree with our assessment?
Swan and Dyer can also be found on the web at http://www.smallpiper.co.uk
Words do not do justice to this outstanding latest release from the (deservedly!) legendary seven-piece whose confidence, tastefulness and passion set them head and shoulders above most Irish trad bands.
The drafting of Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh into the fold is an inspired (and inspirational) piece of casting. A singer whose subtlety, whose maturity and whose depth of character belie her years, hers is a voice that will be a role model for generations to come.
On Tommy Sands' "Co. Down", Nic Amhlaoibh avoids the temptation to over-sentimentalise an intensely bittersweet song. Few singers have the degree of innate musical intelligence necessary to tread the thin line presented by the Bard of Rostrevor. Nic Amhlaoibh judges perfectly and instinctively, allowing the song to work its melancholy charm.
Her rendition of Richard Thompson's "Farewell, Farewell" is every bit as exquisite as Sandy Denny's version on Fairport's "Liege and Lief". And exquisite too are her renderings of the aisling song "Ráitachas na Tairngreacht" and the mournful "Beannacht ó Rí na hAoine".
As for the tune sets, we've come to expect a lot from Danú. We expect a degree of fire, spontaneity, wit and keen, uncompromising musical direction. And have they ever let us down? Devil the bit! But even we fans of the band will not have expected music so bold, so incandescent, so self-assured.
Danú play like men (and woman!) possessed; possessed not by some demon, but by visceral, irresistible fervour; consumed by a furious musicality. Instruments weave in and out of the mix, each leave-taking and arrival perfectly timed to add texture and colour, to highlight changes in the set or to accentuate the mood.
The opening set (MaCahill's Reel/Doherty's Reel/Gan Ainm) immediately captures the listener's attention and makes a promise which seems impossible to deliver. But each and every set lives up to the gauntlet thrown down by the album's opener from the mighty jig set "Top It Off/Gan Ainm/Kilkenny Jig/Alasdruim's March" through a dazzling polka/slide set "Neilí/Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Swing Band/Dayne Thomas's/Jazzing With Mag Leary".
Donnchadh Gough's piping kick-starts the march/jig set "Song Of The Chanter/The Rakes Of Clonmel", which is surely one of the album's musical highlights as various of the band's players join Gough, circling and snaking their way around and above his intricate pipering.
But pride of place on the album goes to John Sheahan's guest appearance on "The Wonder Hornpipe/The Impish Hornpipe". The teaming of the veteran, venerable Sheahan with the youthful Danú makes for a wonderful musical moment. As far as Irish traditional music is concerned, the concept of a generation gap has no place. If proof is needed, then look no further than this impressive, spirited set of hornpipes!
A band who continue to grow in stature, who continue to delight, surprise and entertain with their soulful, honest, rugged music!
Distributed in the UK by Copperplate (http://www.copperplatemailorder.com)
Visit http://www.danu.net for all the latest from the band!
Hynes' & Liddy's "Waifs and Strays" is one of those rare, understated, slow-burning CDs that works its charms subtlely and imperceptibly. The Clare-based fiddle/flute duo don't have any time for cheap and tasteless attention-grabbing. They let the music - and their facility with the music - command our attention.
This is an afficionado's album. Great tune selections are done justice by spot-on playing. The lads have the knack of judging when to hold back and, crucially, when to let fly; here are two musicians who strike that much-sought balance between control and abandon.
As you might expect from the title, the album is host to a rake of tunes that are not so often-heard as the session standards. Be they original tunes such as Hynes' "Corkscrew Hill/Humours of Smithstown" and "Shanghai Seanchai/Farewell To Philip Lane" or Scott Skinner's "The Cradle Song" or the waltzes "Nicholson's/Bright Visions", such tunes are revelations.
And despite the title, there are plenty of tunes on offer which will be familiar to the traditional music fan. Reel sets such as "The Four Hand Reel/Billy Brocker/The League", "Ned McCormack's/The Fair-Haired Boy/Micho Russell's Reel" and "The Boys Of The Lough/The Longford Tinker/Buckley's Fancy" will be familiar to those who have an interest in the music.
We always maintain that there's no more apt accompaniment to Irish music than the sound of dancers' feet rattling on the bare floor. And so pride of place on the album must surely be the album's closing set "Boys Of Ballinahinch/London Lassies/Roarin' Mary". Hynes and Liddy are joined by eight local dancers for the third figure of The Caledonian Set. The sense of abandon combined with the sense of purpose - music which provides the dancers with their energy and drive - make this set a particularly exciting listen and one to which we were drawn to listen to over and over again!
The combination of dancers and musicians is a feature of the Barefield Ceili Band's "Between The Sets" and the energy and passion which feed back between the band and the people on the floor is practically tangible.
The Barefield Ceili Band - of which Liddy is the musical director - are All-Ireland Champions (2002). This album demonstrates why. All too often ceili bands can - despite their own best efforts - sound just that wee bit cacophonous. The demands of playing in the ceili band setting are too much for many players; the temptation to individualise, to play ahead of, around or in front of the rhythm becomes too much.
But each of the musicians in the Barefield is disciplined and maintains the degree of tightness necessary to ensure that the sound remains coherent throughout.
There are some classic sets on the album, as you'd expect. Pure timeless combinations - "Merry Blacksmith/The Limestone Rock", "Limerick Lassies/Craig's Pipes", "The Stack Of Wheat/The Derry Hornpipe", "Jackie Coleman's/The Hare's Paw", to select just a few. All delivered with great vigour and zip and all - as you can hear - with the ability to stir the feet into action!
It's interesting to compare "Between The Sets" with the Barefield's earlier outing "Flowers Of The Burren". Their first release was a more eclectic CD than its predecessor, featuring a number of songs, "When A Man's In Love" and "Raglan Road" as well as a number of sets which featured various smaller groupings of the whole band - e.g. a trio playing "Glor Jig/The Lark In The Morning", another trio giving us "Mayor Harrison's Fedora", a duet on "The Trip To London/Fiddlesticks" and eight of the band performing "Planxty Sile Ni Ghadhra".
Of course we get the full band playing on the majority of the sets - and some truly sparkling sets there are too! Just give an ear to the opener "The Earl's Chair/I'm Waiting For You/Fred Finn's" or the storming "Devanney's Goat/Maid Of Feakle/The Cameronian"!
The music on "Flowers Of The Burren" is excellent throughout. Yet this band is developing at such a rapid pace that the follow-up of anly one year later sees the band grow in confidence and poise; solid, steady, skilful players one and all.
"Waifs And Strays" and "Between The Sets" are both available from Copperplate Mail Order (http://www.copperplatemailorder.com).
Keep up with all the latest from Dennis and Michael at http://www.liddy-hynes.com
For news on the Barefield Ceili Band, go to http://www.barefieldceiliband.com
O'Brien (pipes/whistles) and O Raghallaigh (fiddle/whistles) play music with passion, spirit and energy. And above all else, sheer good humour.
"Kitty Lie Over" had us grinning like a Cheshire cat from the first time we gave the disc a spin and it's made many a visit to the CD player over the course of the past few days to put paid to the Autumn blues!
The lads pay homage to the music of the Sliabh Luachra masters to such an extent that Denis Murphy ought to get a credit as the third member of their musical gang. And yet they have a distinctive, unhurried and individualistic style. O'Brien and O Raghallaigh are not merely players, they are truly artists who have worked out for themselves what they want to achieve and have set about realising a lofty ambition.
The opening jig set, "Kitty Lie Over/The Munster Buttermilk", sets the scene. To open the album with such a popular tune, also known as "The Frost Is All Over", is a shrewd move. We've heard so many classic versions of the tune - Ennis' and Planxty's versions must surely stand out as among the best-loved, well-known and utterly memorable - that immediately we are able to home in on the pair's ability to "claim" a tune. Their fluency, subtlety, confidence and earthy joie de vivre come across loud and clear within a few bars and leave the listener in no doubt that these are as gifted a duo as you're likely to encounter.
The promise of the first set holds true throughout the album. Whether they're playing superb reel sets ("Teampall an Ghleanntain/Hickey's", "Woman Of The House/Rolling In The Ryegrass", "The Lady On The Island/Seanbhean na gCartai", "The Copperplate/Paddy Gone To France/The Wind That Shakes The Barley", "Dillon Brown/Sarah Hobbs" and "The Silver Spear/Mullin's Fancy") or cracking slide or jig sets ("Mickey Callaghan's Slide/Winnie Hayes' Jig", "Biddy From Sligo/Punch For The Ladies", "Rathawaun/The Hare In The Corn", "The Sporting Pitchfork/The Rambling Pitchfork" and "Na Ceannabhain Bhana/Mairseail Alasdruim/Munster Buttermilk" - a different and unrelated tune to the that in the opening set), the pair never falter in their ability to communicate their infectious affinity for the music.
O Raghallaigh's notes on each set are as informative and inspiring as they are personal, witty and touching. And Peter Browne's ringing endorsement of the album sums up what most listeners will feel after giving it a listen. "Everything sounds right ... the music is played with enjoyment and ease, yet with the right amount of respect."
A real treasure, which we hope will gain the lads a horde of new listeners. To enquire about the CD, please e-mail ACM at acmrecords@eircom.net
Pipers are few and far between. The task of mastering the instrument's intricacies and idiosyncrasy is beyond most musicians and consequently only a few, a devoted and courageous few, stick the pace.
Thank God Mulligan didn't take the path of least resistance, because An Tobar Gle shows what a consummate musician he is. There are no niches and alleyways in which to lurk as a solo musician. The "line of sight" into the piper's heart and soul is perfectly clear. We feel every shift in mood, every doubt, every worry, every up-welling of joy. Because music played at the level at which Mulligan operates is nothing to do with "the dots". Instead it's about communicating the tune, or rather his version of the tune, with all of its humours and notions, to the listener.
Some fine dance sets such as "East Of Glendart/I Buried My Wife And Danced On Top Of Her", "The Morning Thrush/Colonel Frazer" and "An Fainne Oir/Airgead Realach" are interspersed with tremendous airs, such as his moving version of "A Stor Mo Chroi" and a jaw-droppingly fine rendition of "Taimse im' Chodladh".
Mulligan is as good a writer of tunes as he is a player. "An Tobar Gle", "The Dooneen Reel "and "Oilean Na Meannain" are as infectious and memorable as any of the traditional material on the album and warrant becoming part of anyone's repertoire.
However the most beautiful of Mulligan's self-composed tracks on the album is a slow air dedicated to the memory of his mother. "Caitriona Rua" is a fitting ode to a deeply loved and sorely missed mother.
Mulligan's love and respect for his family is demonstrated further. The album contains two tracks on which Mulligan duets with his late father, Tom Mulligan - "The Fermoy Lasses/The London Lasses/The Rose In The Garden" and "Chase Her Through The Garden/Kiss Her In The Furze". Although recorded on primitive domestic equipment, the quality of the playing and the very obvious musical bond between father and son overcome any doubts about the technical aspects of the recording process.
This shockingly good album is available from the increasingly influential and consistently discerning Copperplate at http://www.copperplatemailorder.com
It never ceases to amaze us how Irish traditional music has been adopted by musicians the world over. Tucson, Arizona's Round The House are the latest transatlantic outfit to come to our attention and were it not for the fact that the sleeve notes attest to their USA base, the listener would be forgiven for thinking them first-generation natives!
David Firestine (mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, bodhran, guitar, tenor guitar, vocals), Sharon Goldwasser (fiddle), Mike Smith (guitars) and Claire Jamieson Zucker (vocals, bodhran) are no bandwagon-jumpers. Their thoughtful and incisive approach demonstrates a deep love for the music, an understanding of its subtleties as well as its power.
Hard-driving reel sets such as "The Boogie Reel/Stack The Rags", "John Stenson's No 2/Speed The Plough/The Star Of Munster" and infectious jig sets such as "Wilshire Lasses/Dever The Dancer/Swaggering Jig" and "Devlin's/The Rolling Waves/Brendan Tonra's" showcase the band's abilities. Multi-instrumentalist Firestine and fiddler Goldwasser weave an intricate aural web, each coming to the fore at one time or another and then dropping back to allow the other space to develop the tune. And then, of course, both will collaborate - creating the dense unison sound of fired-up Irish music. This approach pays dividends on the barndance set, "Stack Of Barley/P.Joe's", where the band finds the "tight but loose" Holy Grail.
However pride of place goes to the waltz/reel set "Vanagon/Salvation". The poignant waltz - a truly affecting tune and a great credit to its composer, Rachel Rosenberg - gives way to a compelling reel. Firestine plays all the instruments on this track; his versatility evident in the fact that he manages to conjure up such a textured feel.
The tune selections reflect both a grounding in the classics of the Irish tradition and an ear for newer material which nevertheless captures the elemental soul of the music. The band are at once traditionalist and experimental, true to the music's spirit but willing to move beyond conventional boundaries.
The listener may therefore be pulled up short by the song selection. "Spancil Hill" , "Irish Molly-O", and "Spanish Lady" would seem to be strange bedfellows with the recent comic song by Brian O'Rourke, "Bodhran Song", with "Willy Taylor" and with the beautiful "Casadh Cam na Feadarnai". However Round The House's treatment of the songs brings out new highlights and undertones.
Congratulations to Round The House and to Roger Landes who co-produced the album for an intelligent and feisty debut.
Find out more about the band and their music at http://www.roundthehouse.com
Christy O'Leary (vocals, pipes, whistles) and Bert Deivert (guitar, bouzouki, backing vocals) are joined by Paul Kelly (mandolin, fiddle), Eva Deivert (fiddle), Martin O'Hare (bodhran, bones), Gunnar Backman (fretted and fretless virtual guitar, loops, bass) and Jonny Wartel (soprano sax) to bring the listener one of the most thoughtful albums of recent years. Proof, if proof is needed, that musicians from different, but related, genres can work together to make music that is more than just an overlayering of forms, but a true blend.
O'Leary's understated vocals and subtle musicianship dovetail perfectly with Deivert's intelligent and sensitive playing. The undoubted core musicians of the CD, O'Leary and Deivert nevertheless allow their gifted collaborators room to unleash their talents.
Staples of the traditional song canon ("Green Grows The Laurel", "Bonny Light Horseman") provide an anchor for some lesser-known songs ("Green Fields of Gweedore") and their own "Songs Sweet Caress". In a similar fashion, well-known tunes such as "The Dear Irish Boy" and "Miller of Drohan/Ormond Sound" provide a base of timelessness against which newly-composed tunes "Bembring/Up Downey" (by Eva Deivert and Tola Custy respectively) and O'Leary's "Josef's March" (which he couples with "Lady Montgomery") are thrown into sympathetic relief.
In a classy, tasteful selection, the lads' version of "Farewell To Whiskey" nevertheless stands out as the track to which we returned time and again. The interplay between O'Leary and Deivert and the steady, measured pace highlight the beauty of a piece which, although it is a fine tune when played as a polka, loses a great deal of its lonesome grandeur in the process.
A laid-back listen whose charms grow each time it gets a spin!
Available via the ever-tasteful Copperplate at http://www.copperplatemailorder.com
Diver (fiddle, banjo, guitar, percussion, bass) is a major talent. No two ways about it. You don't even need to listen to the album to know that he's in the first division. Simply check out the list of people who've gone out of their way to guest with Manchester's maestro. Lisa Knapp (vocals, fiddle), Tim Edey (guitar, accordion), Lucy Randall (bodhran, bones), Gino Lupari (bodhran, bones), Ed Boyd (guitar, bouzouki), Ollie Blanchflower (double bass), Jo May (djembe), James O'Grady (pipes), Ben Clark (drums), Edel Sullivan (fiddle), Pete Townsend (bass), Johnny Hennessy-Brown (cello), Les Hill (pedal steel) and Richard Pryce (double bass) contribute their various and varied talents to a smorgasbord of an album.
Diver's tastes are diverse. Eastern European influences feature at various points on the album, as does a Western Swing/country jazz aesthetic on the epic "Hot Summer Hooley".
However Irish traditional tunes form the album's bedrock. Some quality sets here, grounded in the "pure drop" approach, but accommodating more than a little experimentation. "Ferny Hill/Rakish Paddy/Christmas Eve" is a real corker and leads into the compelling "The Orthodox Priest/Charlie Lennon's/The Sailor's Bonnet".
"Henry's Jig/Calliope House/The Munster Buttermilk" gets our vote for the highlight of the album. The first jig was composed by Diver himself as a tribute to his dad. The closing jig is the first tune he ever learned. There's a very real sense of the forces that drive Diver in this set; that, despite his love of exotic musical forms from other places, his roots are very much in the Irish tradition.
A modern classic. Utterly contemporary and yet solidy traditional. Available from Copperplate at http://www.copperplatemailorder.com
The Red Hat Band is a collective of some of the finest musicians playing on the experimental, progressive edge of the "traditional" music field. We've used the quote marks because, although informed by the tradition, much of the music which the Red Hat Band make - in the Red Hat Band format as well as in their "day jobs" in other outfits - is very definitely contemporary, pushing at the boundaries of the music.
The band consists of Deirdre Moynihan (vocals, fiddle), Aine Whelan (vocals), Brian Finnegan (flutes, whistles), Diarmaid Moynihan (pipes, whistles), Donncha Moynihan (guitars), John Joe Kelly (bodhran) and Noel Barrett (bass). The Red Hat Band gives the musicians an opportunity to continue some of the experiments in music which they have been exploring in their other outifts. Music which is not so much a form of "fusion" as a radical redefinition.
It's safe to say that some will disapprove of the results just as many others will be delighted. In any field of human endeavour, experimenters and risk-takers rarely meet with universal applause for their efforts. This is especially true in the conservative traditional music world, where deviations from the accepted notion of "purity" cause many to shudder. However the individuals in the Red Hat Band have proved their credentials many times over and many in traditional music circles will be just as likely to embrace their approach, to wish them well and to bask in their music.
Eleven of the album's thirteen tracks were recorded live in Cork at the band's debut performance. Due to their other extensive commitments, this was the first time the band had been together under one roof. It doesn't show! The band's output features many subtle and complex arrangements, all of which work perfectly, even spectacularly!
Drawing inspiration from around the globe, the music is cosmopolitan and highly-spiced. The band covers Janis Ian's "When The Silence Falls". Breton tunes feature alongside Diarmaid Moynihan's own compositons ("The Central Line/Skeduz") and paired with Asturian tunes ("Storvan/L'Angliru"). The band even tackle a traditional gospel song, "Jesus Is Comin' Soon" to stunning effect.
The album also features studio versions of "Vasa" and "The Coalface", which epitomise the band's approach to making music - utterly contemporary and yet rooted in traditional music, daring and experimental and yet accessible.
Pay The Reckoning wishes the Red Hat Band every sucess for the future.
Available via the excellent Red Hat Music website at http://www.redhatmusic.com
Clo Iar-Chonnachta is one of those labels whose output regular visitors to Pay The Reckoning will lust after. Passionate about not just capturing, but doing justice to the wealth of traditional music talent in Ireland - and particularly that of Connemara - CIC's sights are not on the mass market but on the true devotees of the music.
The company's latest releases bear all the hallmarks of quality, sincerity and passion that set CIC apart from many companies operating in the traditional music niche market.
Meaiti Jo Sheamuis' and Mairtin Pheaits' recordings major on sean-nos songs in Irish. Both are blessed with remarkable singing voices and with the ability, in the understated, restrained manner of the finest sean-nos singers, to communicate the wealth of emotion that lies at the heart of their repertoire.
Some who have no Irish may have qualms about their ability to derive proper enjoyment from both albums. There is no doubt that the Irish speaker will get more benefit from these albums than those without the gift of Irish. However, in the fulsome sleeve notes which accompany each album, CIC provide sensitive English translations of the songs. And in any event, the listener doesn't need Irish to recognise the sentiments underlying the songs or to be captivated by the rugged honesty of the singer.
Both albums contain a number of surprises. In among epic songs of love, loss, banishment and enchantment which form the bedrock of the sean-nos canon, Mairtin Pheaits gives us a version of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen". There are those who will cock an eyebrow at the merest suggestion that such a song should be allowed to rub shoulders with the likes of "Ceaiti an Cuil Chraobhaigh", "Peigin Misteal" or "Loingseach Bhearna". However, as far as Mairtin Pheaits is concerned the song is part of his tradition. The distinctions - blunt or fine - of academics and pedants and of those who stand on the sidelines shouting their advice matter little. If the song appeals to Mairtin Pheaits, he'll sing it and sing it well. His music is not a snobbish art, but an inclusive one.
For an object lesson in the power, beauty and epic grandeur of the sean-nos tradition, look no further than Mairtin Pheaits' version of "An Casaideach Ban".
Meaiti Jo Sheamuis shares some great songs with us as well. A less "robust" singer than Mairtin Pheaits, he has selected well from his repertoire to give us songs that give free rein to his talent for subtle, organic ornamentation and direct communication. From the opening "Baile Ui Li" through such beautiful songs as "An Buachaill Caol Ard", the poignant "An Deorai", the harrowing "La Fheile Cailin" to the closing, eponymous "Boithrini an Lochain", Meaiti Jo Sheamuis treats the listener to some of the big songs, as well as a few lesser-known from the Connemara tradition. His version of the English-language "Patrick Sheehan" will inspire many to add this to their own collections.
A fine singer, no doubt. And a talented fluter and piper to boot. Joined by Aisling Ni Neachtain (harp) , Johnny Connolly (melodeon), Neansai Ni Choisdealbha (flute), Luisne Ni Neachtain (fiddle), Micheal Deairbi O Fatharta (melodeon) and Tommy O Mealoid (accordion), he cranks out a couple of infectious reel sets, "Imelda Rowland's/The Gleantaun" and "Lucy Campbell's/The Drunken Landlady" as well as a captivating jig set "The Trip To Athlone/The Leg Of The Duck".
As if all this isn't enough, he lilts us a couple of reels, "The New-Mown Meadows/The Connacht Heifers", in a set which demonstrates that this often-ridiculed art is one of the purest and most affecting ways of putting the music across to the audience.
More information from Clo Iar-Chonnachta at http://www.cic.ie
A remarkable solo album from Cherish The Ladies’ pianist, Handprints’ impact grows with each listen.
Rarely have we come across an album which so perfectly and precisely captures the epic grandeur and simultaneous subtlety of the piano. It’s a cliché to say that if you close your eyes you could imagine you were in Long’s living room as she plays. But cliché or not, the quality of the recording is such that if you close your eyes, you could …
So 10/10 to Long and to Paul McKeown who mixed, mastered and engineered the recording for exemplary production values and exquisite skill.
The true traditional artist has the ability to put across a tune in such a way that their playing remains true to the tune itself and yet, at the same time, makes the tune their own, with their own inflections, ornaments – offering us a glimpse into their soul. (Whereas the mere musician is often content merely to be able to play all the right dots in the right order and fairly much in time!) Long confirms her status as an artist throughout the album, but if you want to shortcut to a tune which typifies her artistry, then look no further than her version of McMahon’s. A session staple, often subjected to the slash-and-burn treatment of the frenetic pub melee, McMahon’s is nevertheless a glorious reel. Long makes the tune shimmer and glow; her touch is light, but brimming with confidence and her instinctive, personal and inspired ornaments enhance the sense of joy which this bright reel conveys.
Elsewhere, playing solo (and without the aid of a safety net!) she imbues airs such as “Bridget Cruise” and “My Lagan Love”, reel sets such as the magnificent “Johnny Allen/Tuttle’s/Imelda Roland’s” and “The Lass Of Carracastle/Ballinasloe Fair” and jig sets such as the album’s opener “As Old As The Hills/The Blarney Pilgrim” with the same sense of passion, spirit and conviction.
A thrilling soloist, Donna has also been able to attract some superb talent to share in the music. On “The Circus Hornpipe/Fitzgerald’s/Jackie Tar” she is joined by son, Jesse Smith (whose album “Jigs and Reels” received rapturous applause from Pay The Reckoning when we reviewed it earlier this year) and daughter-in-law Yvonne Kane. Smith sits in with Long for a mother-son duet on “The Woman Of The House/Johnny’s Wedding” and their close bond is obvious in their playing.
The album’s final track, an air, is one of Long’s own compositions. Accompanied by Billy McComiskey and Liz Knowles, “Luna” is testament not just to Long’s accomplishments as a musician, but as a composer of thoughtful and powerful music to boot! This compelling air could just become the new "Inisheer" such is its infectious melancholy.
On the monumental “Maguire’s March/The Kerry Jig/Sport”, Long has an opportunity to duet with James Kelly. Kelly’s fiddling is a phenomenon to match that of Long’s playing and the result is a fiery, feisty set which draws to an end with a muscular, energised, lingering piece of bowing by Kelly.
On “The Lark In The Clear Air”, Long begins and ends the piece with a recording of a lark singing. In other people’s hands such a decision might appear a little contrived, a tad artificial, tricksy, distracting. However, yet again, Long’s impeccable taste comes to the fore and the decision to overlay the birdsong works perfectly (and charmingly!).
An album which you’ll want to return to time and again.
Find out more about Donna at http://www.cherishtheladies.com and watch out for the launch of her own website http://www.donnalongpiano.com
Brilliant. Triumphant. No difficulty with the third album for North Cregg. This band's brand of perky Sliabh Luachra music goes from strength to strength. As well as a change of record label, North Cregg have had a change of singer since their last album. Fiona Kelleher's West Cork voice is truly stunning: she delivers two traditional ballads, a baby-dandling song, and a pair of light-hearted Ger Wolfe compositions. The ballads, a broken token song and the well-known Recruited Collier, are as clear and precise as any singer you care to mention. The dandling is done unaccompanied, showing the flawless power of her voice. Ger Wolfe's songs are great fun, two fluffy numbers with catchy melodies and excellent arrangements by the band. Swallow Sing was particularly poignant for me: I have several nests nearby, and they're forever leaving notes on my windows.
The instrumental side of North Cregg is as strong as ever, with seven sets of super tunes. Push-button powerhouse Christy Leahy leads on polkas and slides, among them the wonderful Fred Finn's Polka which the boys make their own. Caoimhín Vallely's fiddle emerges strongly on the reels, and there's honky-tonk piano and skiffle rhythms on Cooley's Hornpipe and The Kishkeam Lasses amongst others. At times this CD reminds me of the madcap magic of Reeltime, but Benny Hayes isn't credited. However you slice it, this is a smashing album: North Cregg do what they do so well that everything hangs together perfectly, even when some of it is off the wall. Definitely a must-have.
East Galway fluter Mike Rafferty has lived in New Jersey for most of his life, but he hasn't lost the feel of the music he grew up with. His daughter Mary, box-player with Cherish The Ladies, has picked up his love for the old tunes, and when the two of them play it's as though they'd never left Ballinakill. On this CD they're joined by neighbour Gerry Conroy, a fine whistle player, and a couple of young lads on guitars.
I'll make special mention of twentysomething fiddler Willie Kelly, because it's the tracks he appears on which really stand out for me. On reels, jigs or hornpipes, with Mike and Mary or on his own, Willie Kelly's fiddling is a joy to hear and this album is worth getting for that alone. There are also two outstanding songs from veteran singers Micheal Rafferty (no relation) and Kathleen Glynn (Mike's sister). The first is an old version of The Banks Of The Lee which Kathleen delivers in a warm relaxed style. The second is a great new song which I'd never heard before called Horses And Plough, written in 1982 by the late Michael Hogan of Ballinasloe. Apparently Michael won an All-Ireland medal with this song in the same year: the singer and the song are both instant winners on this recording.
Mike and Mary mix and match through a very traditional repertoire, slowing down only once when Mike picks up the pipes for the lovely slow air Barrell Ó Rabartaig. Grand old reels and jigs like Ambrose Maloney's, Dominic's Farewell To Cashel and The Daisy Field have been gleaned over the years from Paddy Kelly, Martin Mulvihill, Paddy Taylor, Josie McDermott and others. The general effect is of a really high-class Irish American house party about twenty years ago, great music well played with some of the regional colour that's been bleached out more recently. Email mraffie@aol.com and give this CD a whirl.
Great name, super cover, excellent album. For their first own-label release, Shooglenifty have gone back to a more acoustic sound and it works perfectly. This CD has all the bounce and brilliance of Venus In Tweeds, plus all the poise and polish of Solar Shears. The Shoogles blend ancient and modern Scottish influences with Eastern sounds, and they do it with such flair. Founder members Iain MacLeod and Conrad Ivitsky have been replaced by Luke Plumb and Quee MacArthur, but the Shooglenifty sound is so well defined that this hasn't made a great difference.
All the material on this CD was composed by the band, but as with previous albums many of Shooglenifty's tunes will quickly make their way into Scottish and Irish sessions. Glenuig Hall is a catchy slip jig by Plumb, followed by one of fiddler Angus R Grant's fine jigs. The title track is a sinuous saraband paired with the punchy reel Aye Right, another Grant tune, underpinned by grungy basslines. Heading West is slightly more laid back, and The Reid St Sofa is a wonderfully spooky reel. The boys throw in an African Rumba and a couple of polkas for luck, then the oriental feel is back on A Fistful of Euro. A couple more quintessentially shoogled tracks bring us to the final Tune For Bartley, one of those bluegrassy slow airs for which Shooglenifty are justly famous. And that's it, a top quality performance from start to finish, available from http://www.shoogle.com if nowhere else.
Behind this unusual name lurks a duo from Orkney. Douglas Montgomery and Brian Cromarty have been playing together in various line-ups for decades, and it shows, but this is their first commercial recording. Subtitled "traditional and original music from Orkney", Goose Music is feisty fiddle and gutsy guitar with that swing so typical of Scotland's northern isles, and a strong blues flavour on the vocals. Most of the tunes and songs are their own compositions, and their style owes as much to American folk music as to Celtic.
From the off, Montgomery and Cromarty are completely in control. Every note is in place, every word is clear, every touch is totally professional. At the same time, they're clearly having enormous fun with this music and it's impossible not to be carried along by their energy and enthusiasm. The opening Karaoke Carol introduces Brian's raw earthy voice, perfect for his modern ballads and blues: he sings us seven of his songs here, powerful numbers all, in a style somewhere between Leadbelly and Dylan. On Red Diesel Reels Douglas serves up a trio of original tunes from syncopated country to straight-ahead reels, each one more toe-tapping. Brian's aching Song For Ali is followed by the first of two fabulous slow airs: both Tune For Ali and Watersound Shore are world class melodies beautifully played.
And so it continues, with a mix of trad and blues, sweet tunes and bitter songs. Saltfishforty rock it up a bit whenever they get an excuse, and what better excuse is there than Highland Park whisky? Brian is at his best on the Djangoesque Tabasco Twist, a humorous Hot Club romp, and Tongadale Stroganoff is a rock'n'rollercoaster with Douglas pulling out all the stops. Goose Music is a class act from start to finish, and a visit to http://ww.saltfishforty.co.uk is a must.
Did you know that over half the tunes recorded by Lúnasa are reels? Only just over half, mind. That's the sort of fascinating little snippet of information which is instantly available from Donogh Hennessy's wee book. In a little over sixty pages, Lúnasa's guitarist has provided chords and melodies for all the music on the band's first three albums. Gone is the need to work it out for yourself, which is just as well because some of the versions I've seen circulating on the Internet have little in common with the reel McCoy.
By joining all these dots, Donogh has performed a great service for Lúnasa fans worldwide - and there are millions of us. It's hard to think of another band that can compete with Lúnasa's range of talent: Mike McGoldrick, John McSherry, Kevin Crawford, Cillian Vallely, Sean Smyth, and that's just the whistle players. If any single instrumental group from the turn of the millenium is going to have a lasting effect on Irish music, it'll be Lúnasa. Imagine what might have happened if the Bothy Band had published a book of all their music in the early eighties. This collection could have a similar effect.
So what's between the covers? Along with all the dots and chords for the seventy tunes on the three albums Lúnasa Live, Otherworld and The Merry Sisters of Fate, Donogh has included notes on the source of every tune, as well as lots of extra bits of information such as alternative names, different keys, a lecture or two on Irish history, and an advert for The Frames among other things. There are also several photos of the current Lúnasa line-up on stage and relaxing, and an individual portrait of each of them doing what they do best: in Donogh's case, tuning his guitar. The photo reproduction is good, and the full-colour cover is even better, but the tunes themselves are printed in a slightly blurred fashion which reminds me of books from the 17th century. This actually seems to be due to rendering digital images at an insufficiently high resolution. It's not a major problem, because it doesn't stop you seeing what's there, but it is an irritation and I hope it will be rectified in subsequent print runs.
The book is organised by album, and by track order, so you can start at page one with Lord Mayo and play right through all three CDs to The Malbay Shuffle on page fifty-two. Or you can hold the Mayo and start with Gavotte. The possibilities are endless. If you want to skip straight to a particular Lúnasa highlight, say Pierre Bensusan's slow reel The Last Pint or the Galician classic Aires de Pontevedra, then you can find it straight away by using the two indices provided: one index by tune type and name, and another by album and track names. The idea of two indices is a great one, and should catch on: for one thing, it let me see straight away that the music is about 55% reels, 25% jigs, 5% marches and 15% other stuff. In a final section, Donogh has provided a couple of pages for guitarists, discussing tunings and showing chord diagrams to match the chord names used in the rest of the book.
And that's really about it. Excellent value despite the blurring, and Donogh deserves hearty congratulations for his "concept, design, artwork and content". I'll be playing a lot of these tunes more faithfully now, and I'll be able to spin a yarn or two about their origins, all thanks to Donogh Hennessy.
Tayside fiddler Pete Clark is joined here by The Neil Gow Ensemble (six fiddles, a viola, two cellos and a bass) for an album which is halfway between an orchestral suite and a dozen sets of fiddle tunes. There's a mix of traditional dance music and atmospheric pieces, all composed by Pete Clark and arranged for a string ensemble. Inspired by the scenery around The Hermitage near Dunkeld, Sycamore succeeds in evoking the Scottish rural landscape and the lifecycle of an extraordinary tree.
From airs to strathspeys, waltzes to jigs, there are over two dozen tunes on Sycamore and many of them can hold up their heads alongside traditional Scottish melodies. Some fit perfectly here but would be out of place in other settings, and others will doubtless join the repertoire of fiddlers and bands countrywide. Croftinloan is a first rate strathspey, full of bite even on massed fiddles. Several of Pete's reels are equally good: I'll mention Dalguise Hall in particular, which combines Shetland rhythm and Perthshire melody. On the orchestral side, The Planting is a nicely constructed piece with a catchy melody and The Firth Of Tay is a grand, sweeping, majestic composition with an undercurrent of sadness and loss which ends the recording perfectly.
Whether you want to listen to this CD as a single musical work or treat each track as a separate entity, whether you thrill to the sound of six fiddles or prefer to learn the tunes yourself, this recording can be enjoyed over and over again and will yield something new each time. You can find it at http://www.fiddlerpete.com if nowhere else.
This young Dublin flute and whistle diva has taken her time producing a second album, and Playground is very different from her 1996 debut Merry Bits Of Timber. Emer's touch is more assured after another five years of hard playing, and her excellent compositions make up the bulk of this CD. She's particularly strong on jigs: Kalyana is a beauty that seems instantly familiar, and August First measures up well to Donogh Hennessy's reel of the same name.
Emer's flute, whistles, pipes, fiddle and cello are supported by the strums and keyboards of Donal Siggins, who has a hand in most aspects of this album and also contributes a couple of fine compositions. This core partnership is supplemented by subtle percussion from Robert Harris and occasional bites from Mick Kinsella's tin sandwich, plus guests on two tracks.
Although this is definitely Irish music, there's an eclectic side to Playground. A gorgeous Breton set and a pair of Grey Larsen hornpipes break up the Mayock tunes. Rhythms come in fives and thirteens, as well as the usual fours and threes. There's more than a hint of Balkan music, but that's no surprise since Riverdance. Lucky Thirteen is a terrific tune, and the rhythm seems completely natural. Other highlights include a languid treatment of The Boys Of Ballisodare (one of only two traditional tunes here), a pair of up-tempo waltzes including the eerie Orlagh's Waltz, and the final slow air Home Time. Check out http://www.emermayock.com for more details.
This is the big one. Celtic spirit, heart-felt lyrics and gut-wrenching tunes meet smooth modern production values. Kila have always been mavericks, rough diamonds with so many facets that their inner beauty was only glimpsed, under-valued by all but the enlightened. Now producer Mick Glossop, whose previous successes have included Frank Zappa and Van the Man, has cut and polished Kila's sound to reveal the fire and passion within.
The stirring Gaelic vocals are still there, as are the pipes and fiddles and all those wild elements of Irishness, but there's a new cutting edge to the music on Luna Park. The 9-minute opener Glanfaidh Mé ranges from a familiar Kila sound sharpened up, through Eastern European and Asian feels, to blockbuster sound track and back again. Hebden Bridge combines Latin and Moorish textures behind some scary whistle playing. The next two tracks expose Kila's New Age leanings: the lazy, misty Wandering Fish, followed by the trance dance beat and staccato lyrics of The Mama Song. Then there's a passage of pristine Irish inspiration, with the jig Bully's Acre and a pair of bewitching new reels called Grand Hotel and Mary Kelly's Hatchet.
And so it continues, with Kila's original outpourings set in a lush, vibrant, multi-tracked soundscape by Mick Glossop. There's a fairground full of guest musicians, too. In fact, the seven members of Kila only play one track without a little help from their friends. That's if you don't count The Hour Before Dawn, a farewell lament from Dee Armstrong on fiddle and piano. The whole CD is a feast of musical creativity and contrast, the best of new Irish music given a transatlantic make-over and spiced with the rich flavours of North Africa or southern Spain. Luna Park has to be one of the tastiest recordings of 2003, and shows Kila to be rare gems indeed. I'd love to see it on stage.
Macleod's follow-up to the acclaimed "Springwell" sees him team up with the talented Finn, of De Danaan fame, to produce an album which sets new standards for the recording of stringed instruments in the Scottish/Irish traditions.
Macleod and Finn are passionate about early 20th century mandolins, zouks, resonator, slide and tenor guitars and the album showcases some fine instruments as well as some outstanding playing. The use of vintage instruments, set up to perfection and whose individual nuances are captured superbly well (take a bow, Stuart Hamilton), will cause the mandolin and CBOM (cittern-bouzouki-octave mandolin) community to salivate over this recording.
However, this is not an album aimed at simply at fellow players. Polbain To Oranmore's appeal will extend to all who appreciate honest, thoughtful and passionate playing, regardless of instrument, and the choice of tunes will give heart to all those who, like Pay The Reckoning, love to see traditional music - some well-known and some not so familiar - thriving.
The mix of Irish and Scottish material makes for a rich brew. There are purists from the Irish and the Scottish traditions who disdain playing tunes from the "non-native" tradition. (We recall Sean Keane, the legendary fiddle-player with The Chieftains, relating how he was berated for including a number of Scottish tunes on his superb "Jig It In Style" album.) Such puritans miss the point - and miss the opportunity to share some great tunes.
The balance of tunes swings in favour of the Scottish numbers. A feature of the Scottish tradition - much more so than in Irish music - is the combination of different rhythms within the same set. Thus we have sets such as "PM John Stewart/Marjorie Lowe/The Bernera Bridge" which combines a 2/4 march with a couple of jigs and "Farewell to Cape Helles/Mackenzie Hay/The Spey In A Spate" which combines a retreat march, a strathspey and a reel.
From Ireland, we have tunes such as "Dinny O'Brien's Hornpipe" which the lads combine with "The Burning Sands Of Egypt". The two airs, Slieve na mBan and Slieve Gallen Braes, warrant special mention. The latter in particular is one of our favourite tunes. Macleod and Finn's treatment set it off brilliantly - Finn's tenor guitar and slide guitar arrangement makes for a positively crucial piece of music!
But of all the tracks on the album, the one to which we found ourselves returning time and again was a waltz set - "The North Atlantic Waltz/The Springwell Waltz". Both tunes repay repeated listening and, like the very best waltzes, they conjure up an intense atmosphere, where melancholy rubs shoulders with affection. The second waltz in the set is one of Macleod's own compositions and one which will doubtless survive his passing.
Rumour has it that Finn launched into his accompaniment of a few of Macleod's sets without having pre-rehearsed. In which case the tightness of the album is surprising. However perhaps this freshness is one of the elements which gives the album its atmosphere of excitement. Because this is an exciting listen. Sparky, invigorating music which contains a host of elements - the empathetic interplay of the two musicians, masterful technique combined with a deep and abiding respect for the music and yet a willingness to experiment, to layer, to "peel back".
Available via Greentrax at http://www.greentrax.com
Those interested in finding out more about Macleod's remarkable instrument collection should pay a visit to http://mysite.freeserve.com/kevinmacleod.
We aren't the only ones to have been impressed by Macleod and Finn's recording. Read on for Alex Monaghan's verdict.
This is a beautiful recording. And I'm not just saying that. I wasn't particularly impressed by Kevin MacLeod's 1999 Springwell CD, but Polbain To Oranmore is a brilliant piece of work. Alec Finn is every bit as good here as on his enchanting Blue Shamrock album, and the combination of Irish soul with Scottish bite is pure alchemy.
Kevin and Alec play guitars, bouzoukis, citterns and mandolins, plus a few other things. No other musicians are involved as they romp through reels, jigs, hornpipes, marches and strathspeys, or pluck at heartstrings with slow airs and waltzes. Most of the fifteen tracks come from the Scottish tradition, but there are two great airs and a couple of dance tunes from Ireland. Slieve Na mBan is exquisite on guitars and mandolin, and Dinny O'Brien's Hornpipe combines cittern and bouzouki with slide guitars. The stately Miss Hamilton is a joy, full of baroque counterpoint. The reels The Green Mountain and John Keith Laing sit perfectly on bouzouki and mandolin. The classic Skinner tunes MacKenzie Hay and The Spey In Spate give lesser musicians official permission to slow down on the difficult bits. There are bravura performances of the great 4-part pipe marches The Bloody Fields Of Flanders and The Glendaruel Highlanders, as well as a couple of lovely jig sets and two superb waltzes by Freeland Barbour. In fact, there's very little here that could be improved.
Sparkling mandolin and sensuous slide guitar. Bouncing bouzouki and scintillating cittern. Great tunes from the two great Celtic traditions. Polbain To Oranmore is fifty minutes of near perfection.
Piper Cooney, from County Tipperary, gives us a thoughtful and superbly balanced collection of tunes on a CD whose production values are impeccable.
From the opening jig set (My Love In The Morning/The Split Rock/TheBattering Ram), Cooney generates a sense of excitement and energy which never once flags.
A masterful musician, Cooney's unerring sense of taste admits the occasional flash of experimentation. For example, the presence of an unexpected slide guitar accompaniment on the slow air "Green Fields Of Canada" and his inclusion of Luke Thomasson's beautiful waltz, "Midnight On The Water".
But while Cooney is prepared to accommodate the occasional strange and strong colour in his palette, these do not detract from the overall effect. The album's core is straight traditional music, played with fire, passion and immeasurable affection.
Some of the tunes have been part of Cooney's repertoire since the days when he was a mere beginner on his musical voyage and are local to his home. Hence on the set "Easter Sunday/The Commons/The Milliner's Daughter", the first two tunes are very personal. Cooney learned "Easter Sunday" from the accordion player Paddy O'Brien from Newtown. "The Commons" is a little-heard reel, named after a village near Cooney's birth-place.
Others are tunes Cooney picked up as he made his way in the world, reassembled here into sets that have great architecture about them. "The Sally Gardens/Jimmy Ward's/Peter Byrne's Fancy", for example, sees Cooney move seamlessly from the graceful and wistful slow air into a pair of urgent jigs. "The Pipe On The Hob/Na Ceannabhain Bhana/The Gleantann Reel" is another remarkably well structured set; the change from one jig to another is a tidy job, the change from the second jig to the reel is testament to the man's ability.
The two marches on the album, "Donald MacLean's Farewell To Oban" and "Johnny Cope", deserve special mention. Both tunes are prime examples of the paradoxical ability of some of the slower tunes in the traditional musician's repertoire to better hold the attention and quicken the pulse than some of the faster tunes.
Cooney is assisted by Kevin Burke (fiddle), Bernie Nau (keyboards, harmonium), Ged Foley (guitar, mandolin), Tom Hall (banjo, slide guitar) and Tim Hegan (bodhran). Each a superb musician in his own right, they are nevertheless prepared to step back and allow Cooney to claim the limelight.
A stunning CD, which will have no bother in staking its claim on your listening time. Discover a bit more about the man and his music at http://www.michaelpipercooney.com
We've already praised Kathleen O'Sullivan's singing to high heaven in our review of the latest release by The London Lasses & Pete Quinn. And so we were delighted to have the opportunity to listen to her solo work.
Before discussing the singing and the songs, a brief digression. All proceeds from the sale of this CD go to The British Heart Foundation. O'Sullivan's brother, Matt, died at the age of 36 of a heart attack and this is one of the ways in which she aims to support this good cause.
However if you buy the CD, the BHF will not be the only beneficiary! Your ears will thank you as well.
Whether she's singing a light-hearted piece such as "The Boys Of Tandragee" or "The Bold Rogue" or a big song such as "The Verdant Braes Of Screen", O'Sullivan has the ability to capture the mood perfectly and, in the process, captivates the audience.
Like the singers who have inspired her and who she namechecks at various points in the sleeve-notes - Cathal McConnell, Kevin Mitchell, Seamus Ennis, Paddy Tunney, Roisin White, Dolores Keane and others - O'Sullivan is a natural, whose only training has come through experience and exposure. While she has absorbed and internalised all that's tasteful through listening to great singers, at the same time she's gone on to develop a unique style. Her delivery is so effortless that it may give the uninitiated cause to think that singing's an easy business. However those in the know appreciate just how much effort will have gone into preparing herself to make the most of her vocal gifts.
The fruits of that effort are evident to all on this blinding recording. As well as the songs mentioned above, O'Sullivan makes a great job of the well-known and the well-loved (such as "The Lark In The Clear Air", "Suil A Ruin" and "The Broom Of The Cowdenknowes") as well as the lesser-known gems which will appeal to the collector in all of us (e.g. "The Maid From Maraclune", "The Cold Quay Market").
O'Sullivan is a real treasure. A distinctive, characterful voice; a great ear for material and the ability to communicate the highs and lows of the human experience through song.
Available via The London Lasses' website http://www.londonlasses.net
The Ennis Ceili Band, under the direction of pianist Padraic O'Reilly, have built up a formidable reputation in Irish music circles. Current All-Ireland champions, the band has all the hallmarks of the ceili band sound - percussion, a driving piano accompaniment and tight musicianship with pared-to-the-bone settings. However a band doesn't claim the hotly-contested All-Ireland title on the virtue of these alone. To achieve this ultimate accolade an outfit requires the "je ne sais quoi" that separates the confident and competent from the masterly.
Hard though this special quality may be to define, it's by no means difficult to detect. And nowhere is it more obvious than on the opening set "Martin Mulhaire's/Cregg's Pipes", captured live at 2002's Listowel Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann. The barely-restrained energy of the band mirrors the excitement and tension of the audience and the ecstatic, enthusistic ovation from the assembled crowds is richly-deserved.
The second set, "Maid At The Spinning Wheel/Port an Bhrathar (Behind The Haystack)" is a mighty piece of music. Those of you who play music may, like we have, struggled with the first tune in this set - a jig which is as intricate and wide-ranging as it is exciting to the ear and appealing to the feet. We were genuinely surprised to find a ceili band tackling this tune which, on account of its many intricacies and quirks, we have always associated with the solo player. (Seamus Ennnis, for example, played a typically majestic four-part version of the tune.) However we learn from the sleeve notes that The Kilfenora Ceili Band have recently recorded a version and so - we eat our hat and ponder the fact that we don't know ha;lf as much as we think we do! Still, we marvelled at how fluidly and expressively "The Ennis" rendered the tune and how well it sits alongside Port An Bhrathar - another big jig.
Elsewhere, keep an ear out for two marches from the Grier Collection, "The Fourth Dragoons" and "Number 101". The latter in particular is such a splendid tune that its Gan Ainm status is a complete surprise.
You will also be captivated by the jig set "Claire Griffin's/King Of The Pipers". The appearance of the second tune in this set took us by surprise. Like "The Maid At The Spinning Wheel", this elaborate jig is one which we always associate with individual musicianship and it's a mark of The Ennis' confidence that they tackle (and with such applomb!) a piece of this nature.
Ed Reavey's "Hunter's House" appears in two settings, firstly paired with "Rakish Paddy" and later with "Rip The Calico". The decision to include the tune twice is a very nice touch, demonstrating the band's versatility and flexibility.
We're well aware that some traditional Irish fans are wary of ceili bands. We'd urge anyone to set their prejudices to one side and give this album a listen. You may well find that you regard ceili bands in a very different light afterwards!
Similarly, many traditional fans will shy away from an album of piano music and we'd offer the same advice as above to those who would hesitate before giving O'Reilly's "Down The Ivory Stairs" a spin.
O'Reilly steps out of his role as leader of The Ennis to bring us an album of piano versions of some fine tunes. While his presence is always very felt in the ceili band setting, Down The Ivory Stairs presents O'Reilly with an opportunity to demonstrate his credentials as an interpreter of the music and as a technical virtuoso.
An inventive, even experimental(!) album, O'Reilly and co. (Tristan Rosenstock - bodhran; Liam O'Connor - fiddle; Carmel O'Dea - fiddle; Garry Shannon - flute; Ronan Ryan - flute; John Blake - guitar, saxophone; Damien O'Reilly - accordion) never stray so far from the path as to lose the listener. Occasionally, as O'Reilly himself predicts, the listener will raise an eyebrow at some of the more exotic interplay between the musicians. But few will find cause to ask for their money back. The occasional foray into terra nova apart, the musicians stick for the most part to the plot.
The sleeve notes suggest that Martin Hayes is a big influence on O'Reilly and there are, indeed, a good many similarities in their respective approaches. We would suggest, however, that the biggest similiarity between the two musicians is not their musical style. Rather O'Reilly and Hayes share a common belief in individuality, where respect for the tradition is blended with a desire to express something of their own spirit. Few players achieve such a marriage and where Hayes has succeeded, so too has O'Reilly.
Check out, for example, the opening reel set ("The Land Of Sunshine/Phil Cunningham's/Gan Ainm"), the first two tunes of which are O'Reilly's signature tunes. And as for that exotic interplay we mentioned, just give a listen to "Cathal McConnell's/The Monaghan Jig" and note how O'Reilly and Shannon in particular spark off each other! The jig set "The Ballycarroll Jig/The Blue Angel/Down The Ivory Stairs" (the final tune of which is O'Reilly's sole composition to date) is a corker and sees Blake dust off his saxophone to great effect.
The above notwithstanding, three tracks caused us to hit the replay button immediately. The "late night" set "The Drunken Sailor/Fair-Haired Molly" sizzles with excitement. Surprisingly, O'Reilly had never played the second tune until the night the set was recorded. Perhaps that novelty lends the track its edge. Whatever! An outstanding turn altogether.
On "Madame Bonaparte/Planxty O'Connor", O'Reilly gives one of Pay The Reckoning's tunes a pristine, personal treatment before tackling one of O'Carolan's more accessible pieces.
And the album's finale "Feargal O'Gara's/The Raveled Hank Of Yarn/Tilly Finn's" is a pure stormer. If the album opens with a bang, then it closes with a wallop!
Both albums are available through Alan O'Leary's mighty Copperplate empire, which can be reached at http://www.copperplatemailorder.com
O'Reilly's home on the web is at http://www.irishpiano.com
And the Ennis Ceili Band have established themselves at http://www.ennisceiliband.com
Marum, a New Englander by birth, now living in Texas, combines his love of American and Irish folk traditions on an album of traditional material, self-compositions and contemporary songs by other artists. Produced by Paul Mills, renowned for his work with the legendary Stan Rogers, the tasteful arrangements are superbly captured on an album which is remarkable for its clarity of thought and execution.
Marum himself plays high-strung and 6-string guitars, harmonicas and, of course, provides the lead vocals. He is assisted by a talented crew, who share his views on understated, quality musicianship - Rick Fielding (guitar, mandolin, autoharp, backing vocals), Mick Lane (backing vocals), Brian McNeill (fiddle), Dennis Pendrith (string bass), Wendy Solomon (cello), Curly Boy Stubbs (resophonic guitars, mandolin) and Betty Blakley Waddoups (whistle, backing vocals).
Such is the consistency of this collection that it's no easy task to single out one or two tracks from the 15 on offer. However the listener will remark how well his own compositions such as "Desolation Island", "Banks Of The Mobile" and the eponymous "Soul Of A Wanderer" complement classic and timeless pieces of Americana such as Bob Will's "San Antonio Rose".
Regular visitors to Pay The Reckoning will not be surprised to find that we homed in on the Irish material on the CD. Marum's version of "Garden Where The Praties Grow" - which some might regard as a typically Victorian piece of sentimentality - rehabilitates the song. He got it from his father, who got it turn from his grandfather, Martin Little from Galway. The song has prospered from its journey over many miles and over many years!
We would also commend Marum's version of "Drill, Ye Tarriers!". One of the most sparse arrangements on the album - just Marum's guitar and vocals - this is also one of the album's most powerful cuts and goes to demonstrate why so many superb musicians welcomed the opportunity to work with the album's author. When a musician is this good, he attracts quality collaborators like a flame attracts moths!
However pride of place on the album is reserved for the closing track, "Sarah's Mountain Time". Using the tune "Go Lassie Go", Marum's elegy to the deceased Sarah, "... my dear young friend Sarah ...", is a typically understated, honest and deeply affecting tribute.
If soulful, distinguished musicianship gets your vote, then get along to http://www.jedmarum.com or http://www.bostonroadrecords.com
This collection of songs of the sea - traditional and original - by Californian outfit, The Black Irish Band, will surprise many listeners. We've come to expect this genre to be dominated by lusty, choral shanties and while The Black Irish Band are as capable as any of their contemporaries of giving vent to traditional shanties (e.g. their renditions of "Old Maui" and "Spanish Ladies") the original compositions reveal an emotional depth that many of the traditional sea-songs lack.
Patrick Michael Karnahan is the band's leading songsmith and his compositions tend - with a few notable exceptions - to examine the dangers awaiting those who travel the seas. Which led us to ponder the album's title. "Into The Arms Of The Sea" suggests a sort of "surrender", a hope that the sea's arms will be warm, embracing and protecting. Often, however, as Karnahan's songs such as "Whalers Cove", "The Fate Of Miss Gregg" and "The Wreck Of The Brother Johnathan" demonstrate, the sea can be a capricious and destructive force which claims its share of human bounty in return for its yield of riches.
As you would expect, our attention was caught by songs which have an Irish provenence or connection. The lads' versions of "Donegal Danny" and "Fiddlers Green" in particular transcend the songs' familiarity and, by virtue of their re-emergence in the repertoire of musicians from many thousands of miles distant from their origin, remind the listener of the power and poignancy of songs which deserve better than the throwaway treatment they often receive in Ireland!
The two instrumental tracks on the album "Rickett's Hornpipe/The Columbia Bar" (the latter by band member and multi-instrumentalist, Steve McArthur) and "The Night They Stretched Larry" are thoughtful and picturesque pieces and a testimony to the Black Irish Band's ability to conjure vivid imagery from their musical approach.
Find out more about these stalwarts of the American folk and traditional scene at http://www.blackirish.com
Few bands have captured the attention of the Irish traditional fan base in the way that Dervish have. Impeccably tasteful, Dervish combine a deep respect for the tradition with an unconstrained musical vision and a ruthless individuality.
The current line-up comprises Brian McDonagh (mandola/tiple), Tom Morrow (fiddle), Liam Kelly (flute, whistles, backing vocals), Cathy Jordan (vocals, bodhran, bones), Seamus O'Dowd (vocals, guitars, bodhran, harmonicas, tarabuka, bass, tiple, tambourine), Shane Mitchell (accordion) and Michael Holmes (bouzouki, mandocello). With no trace of self-consciousness or self-importance the band lays out yet another superbly balanced mixture of tunes and songs, traditional and (more or less) contemporary, as urgent and insistent as they are timeless.
Dervish has the ability, possessed by only a few ensembles, to capture the energy of the music at the same time acknowledging its patient, solid core. So while sets such as the CD's opener, "Tinker Hill/Patsy Touhey's/Mary Bergin's/Johnny "Watt" Henry's", positively blaze, others such as the wonderfully restrained sung jigs "An Rogaire Dubh/Na Ceannabhain Bhana/Paidin O Raifeartai" glow in the most satisfying manner. Both approaches succeed in warming the cockles of the trad fan's heart.
Dervish have never shied away from experimentation and on a number of tracks, in particular "The Swallow's Tail" and "Troundell's Cross/Whelan's", the band tips its hat to other world music forms. This is not fully-blown "crossover" territory; the arrangements are subtle and sympathetic and the Irish music is not subjugated in the process. Elsewhere, Brendan Graham's "The Fair-Haired Boy" features a string arrangement courtesy of the West Ocean String Quartet (Seamus McGuire, Niamh Crowley, Neil Martin - we make that a trio - but who's counting?!) which adds greatly to the song's grace and charm.
It's nice to hear so much of O'Dowd's vocals. On "Na Ceannabhain Bhana" he takes the lead vocals and makes a very effective counterfoil to Jordan on "Paidin O'Raifeartai". And he delivers Ewan MacColl's "The Lag's Song" in a brooding rendition which underlines the song's crushing sense of claustrophobia.
Howeveer, when it comes to singing, few would argue that Jordan is the star of the show. For our money, one of the most exciting, instinctive singers to have emerged from the Irish traditional scene, Jordan gives a superlative account of "The Fair-Haired Boy", "The Soldier Laddie" and "The Cocks Are Crowing". However one of the album's standing-out moments is her version of Dylan's "Boots Of Spanish Leather". There have been many covers of Dylan's songs and few have added any value to the author's own renderings. Not so, in this case. Jordan's ability to wring every last drop of melancholy from the song and her capacity to raise and lower the temperature of the song in the space of a few notes combine to great effect.
So, Dervish move on. Sure of their own direction, gifted beyond measure, tightly co-ordinated. Spirit finds them on top form. Are you able for such music? If so, get yourself over to http://www.dervish.ie
Well, that's our verdict. Read on for Alex Monaghan's thoughts ...
Dervish are among the hottest, slickest, smoothest bands anywhere, and Spirit can only enhance their reputation. From the casual perfection which takes the first reel up to speed, to the last sigh of the final hidden track, this is pure class. As you'd expect. The only surprise is that it's even classier than their last album.
Highlights abound on this recording. Jig Songs is a masterpiece, three mouth-music ditties put together in a stunning arrangement. Tom Morrow's Siesta Reel grabs you by the ears and drags you along with glee. Liam Kelly's rendition of O'Raghailligh's Grave is right up there in the top ten flute slow airs. Whelans brings electric guitar, sitar and all sorts of mayhem into two jigs which had been quietly minding their own business, and the result is fabulous. The Dylan song Boots Of Spanish Leather will appeal to those who remember the original. The Lag's Song by Ewan MacColl is of the same vintage, and is sung here by Seamus O'Dowd.
Much of this CD reminds me of Altan's 1993 Island Angel release, high praise indeed. Some bits could only be Dervish, though: Cathy Jordan's earthy vocals and uncanny Scots accent on The Soldier Laddie, the synergy between Liam's flute and Shane Mitchell's accordion on the opening track and elsewhere, and the sheer energy of Swallow's Tail.
Spirit has been four years in the making, but it was worth the wait. Almost all of it works as well live, as I saw recently in Cambridge. You shouldn't have any problem finding this one in the shops, so what are you waiting for?
Walsh (vocals, mandola, banjo, gazouki(!) and harmonica) has a long and distinguished pedigree as a member of An Beal Bocht, which made a big impact on the Dublin folk/trad scene in the 1980s, and, in the 90s, as a member of Rattlin' Strings.
His first solo album sees him joined by various members of those outfits; Mark Lysaght (guitar, acoustic bass, mandola, bouzouki), Bary Carroll (hammer dulcimer, slide guitar, vocals), Joe Foley (vocals, bouzouki and, incidentally, one of Ireland's most respected luthiers), Johnny Curtis (bodhran, mandolin), Willie Walsh (guitar), Maria Fahey (fiddle, backing vocals), Joe McHugh (whistles) and Jerry Foley (bodhran).
The emphasis is very much on stringed instruments, whose interweaving and overlayering, jockeying and teasing bears more than a passing resemblance to the sorts of arrangements favoured by Planxty or - before their advent - Sweeney's Men. But Walsh and his assembled company refuse to dwell in the past, bringing a fresh feel to the music.
Of the eleven tracks on the album, seven are songs and four are tune sets. Walsh's original songs, such as the album's opener "No Flood Of Tears" are true contenders and bear comparison with the more traditional numbers such as "The Hiring Fairs Of Ulster" and "The Flower of Sweet Strabane".
Walsh's version of "John Jelly, The Boy From Killane" is a superb rendition of a song whose underlying melancholy is often glossed-over by the "gulderers". Walsh - a man whose approach is more subtle - explores the poignancy of the song and, in the process, may have created the definitive reading.
Walsh's banjo is in pole position in the tune sets and he proves himself to have a great feel for the instrument. A delightful right hand technique is complemented by accurate and nimble work on the fretboard. On sets such as "Old Hag You Have Killed Me/Old Tipperary/O'Keeffe's" and "Kitty Went A Milking/The Laurel Tree/Jennie's Wedding", Walsh proves himself the equal of many a more loudly-hailed banjo player with his accessible and convivial style of playing.
On the basis of this outing, we hope that Walsh has developed a taste for solo recording adventures. Surely he's got a repertoire that would sustain two or three further such efforts?
Check out Walsh's home on the web at http://www.tomwalsh.org
In Company is currently available via http://www.claddaghrecords.com and http://www.madeinirelandinc.com
The follow-up to 2000's debut from the London Lasses and Pete Quinn repays the patient fans of their timeless, dignified music. Karen Ryan (fiddle/whistle), Elaine Conwell (fiddle),Dee Havlin (flute/whistle), Maureen Linane (accordion), Kathleen O'Sullivan (vocals) and Mr Quinn himself (piano/keyboard) play with restraint and feeling. Pyrotechnics and machismo don't feature in their approach. Instead, the lasses and Pete appreciate that passion and power are not reliant on elaborately-strummed guitars or vast clouds of rosin dust. The true power of Irish music is in its innate pulse, its quietly insistent message aimed at both head and feet.
Among the tunes we have old favourites and the lesser-known, all settling happily alongside each other, shepherded by the players into coherent and well-balanced sets. The first set (The Bohola Jig/The Besom In Bloom/Paddy Taylor's/The Piper On Horseback) captures the listener's attention from the start; the switch from 6/8 to reel-time injects the set with energy.
Elsewhere, a tender rendering of Marcus Hernon's "The Beautiful Goldfinch", shows the band's feel for the most delicate of waltzes. And their firm grasp of sets such as "The Geese In The Bogs/Taylor's/Father Tom's Wager" and the glorious closer, "The Kerryman's Daughter/Paddy Fahy's/Mary McMahon" shows their absolute command of the music.
It is good to hear "Rodney's Glory" turn up; many of us will have heard the tune's name long before we ever heard the tune itself since it's one of those name-checked in the ubiquitous "Galway Shawl". Taken at a stately pace, this set dance is an intricate and inspiring piece and one well-worthy of the outfit's attentions.
O'Sullivan is in distinctive voice on this album. Her versions of "There's A Path Across The Ocean", "The Red-Haired Man's Wife" and "The Ball Of Yarn" are graced and ornamented liberally and instinctively, but never so as to distract the listener from the tune or the narrative.
Track Across The Deep will continue to be hot property in years to come. In the Irish music world, the reputation of this or that album grows slowly but, where true talent outs, surely. Be one of the first to grace your CD collection with this fine music by visiting http://www.copperplatemailorder.com. Find out more about the band at their website http://www.londonlasses.net
From Austin Texas, “Captured Live” features the might and muscle that is Pubcrawler. Irish music for a tough audience – you can almost smell the stale beer and sniff the hint of danger in the atmosphere – but the audience is no match for the power and commitment of Neville Stewart (bass, vocals, bodhran), Wes Pasco (guitar, vocals), Wayne Duncan (drums) and Sean Orr (fiddle, vocals).
A look at the track listing which features such standards as “The Wild Rover”, “Whiskey In The Jar” and “Wild Colonial Boy” might lead the uninitiated to believe that they are about to listen to some mawkish paddywhackery. However as the band demonstrate in their self-penned “You’re Not Irish”, nothing could be further from the mark. Each of these standards is remoulded, given a shot in the arm and placed alongside rocket-fuelled tunes which career from Orr’s fiddle like a stampede.
Live albums are always a gamble. Rarely do they capture the excitement of the live event. However, more power to the production team on this outing who have taken pains to avoid prettifying the sound. The result is a raw and energising slice of live action. On sets such as “Banks Of The Barrow/The Eastern Harper/Dirty Old Town/The Priest And His Boots/The Orange Blossom Special”, “Danny Boy/You’re Not Irish/The Irish Washerwoman” and the album’s closer, the epic “Cooley’s Reel/The Hills of Conamara/Sugarfoot Rag/Blackberry Blossom/Church Street Polka/I’ve Just Seen A Face/Dinkey’s Reel”, there is a real sense of being in the thick of the action.
Special mention as well for the band’s “Hey Paddy” – a song about police thuggery whose acute observations about the mundanity of heavy-drinking and navvying do not prepare the listener for the cruel closing sequence.
A great album. Not “The Pure Drop”, but it never claims to be. Infectious and rousing. Fair play to them!
Find out more by e-mailing pubcrawler@themidtown.com. If you think you’re hard enough, that is!
Small wonder that among the many accolades which have come her way, Smith won BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician Award in 2002. A voice that is natural, unforced and unrestrained; dextrous on both accordion and piano, and possessing a keen sense of musical direction, Smith is a consummate musician.
Smith’s approach to music (and that of her band – Ross Ainslie (whistles, border pipes), Jamie McLennan (fiddle), Sean O’Donnell (guitar, vocals) and guest musician Neil Cameron on double bass) individualises and contemporises the age-old and time-worn in subtle and unobtrusive ways. Her self-penned material – the title track being an obvious example – draws on traditional themes and is so in keeping with the truly traditional material among which it resides that the absence of a “trad arr” credit is a surprise.
A very well-balanced collection sees roistering sets such as “Party In My Pants/Angus John MacNeil of Barra/Denmark Distortion” sit happily alongside plaintive lost-love songs such as “Fair Helen of Kirkconnel”.
As well as the title track, we were highly impressed by Smith’s versions of “Green Grass Grows Bonny” and the spine-chilling “The Cruel Mother”. However, like all astute musicians, Smith keeps her ace up her sleeve until the last moment. The closing set “MacLeod’s Farewell/Crossing The Tay With A Blind Man And A Dog” is a jewel! All that has gone before, superb as it is, is surpassed by a display of exuberance and joie-de-vivre that leaves the listener with a real sense of uplift.
Smith has already established herself as an artist brimming with talent and potential. Let’s hope that 2003 is the year when the world at large embraces that talent and potential; there are singers in “the new tradition” who receive more attention than Smith and, in our opinion, less deservedly so! Surely talent will out and the imbalance will be rectified …
Smith’s home on the web is at http://www.emilysmithband.com
Footstompin’ Records may be tracked down at http://www.footstompin.com
The boys are back! Cathal, Gerry, Gino and Kevin are joined by several guests including Mairtin O'Connor and former Dogs Donal Murphy and Arty McGlynn. Maybe it's their new-found maturity, or maybe it's a cunning marketing ploy, but with this recording they're bursting back onto the scene in a more low-key style than I'd anticipated. They're still a long way from chill-out land, and fans of their masterful mix of Celtic fire and transatlantic vibes will not be disappointed by Maybe Tonight.
The album opens with a slightly restrained bash through the ever-popular Music for a Found Harmonium, then the first of three songs by Kevin Doherty lays the foundations for the funkier side of things. Mairtin's virtuoso box takes us on Rambles in Russia, combining influences from Gagarin to Galway, next comes the first set of reels and things begin to hot up as Gerry O'Connor unleashes his banjo. The title track shows Kevin Doherty in super-relaxed mood, the polka Barlow's Knife picks up the pace a bit, and the high octane deisel finally kicks in on Leslie's March. Interestingly, Gerry's back on banjo and Gino Lupari makes his first appearance now. Gino's considerable presence continues on Midnight Special, a fitting vehicle for the band's tasty fun and games, and another high point. A pair of spirited instrumentals bring us close to the end, with a lovely tight sound on some West Kerry classics before the lads gather speed through a trio of well-known reels. The final scene starts with Kevin boogying on down to an arrangement that includes the kitchen sink and even the Hammond organ, then our heroes ride off into the sunset to the strains of The Last Rose of Summer. In jig time.
It's great to have them back, no question. A bit more flash banjo wouldn't hurt, though, and more of Mr Lupari too (you know what I mean). Still no sign of the dog either. That aside, Maybe Tonight is a first-rate album full of class and more than worth the money. If you can't find it, enquiries@4menandadog will be delighted to help.
Dicky Deegan's second CD is a vast improvement on his debut recording By The River Of Gems. There are still times when Dicky's technique lets him down, but most of the time this CD is entertaining and enjoyable. Dicky clearly loves the music of his Irish forebears, and is doing his best to recreate the sound of early 20th-century uilleann piping in his Tasmanian home.
For the purists, there are still plenty of nits to pick. The drones are less than steady, the tuning is less than perfect, the fingering is sometimes sloppy, the style shifts at random from extremely percussive to super-fluid, and unintended register jumps are compounded by occasional dead stops. But Dicky Deegan is not a purist, and being largely self- taught he has picked up techniques and ideas from all over. The interest and appeal of his music is largely in its energy, passion and innovation: there are no classic performances here, but there's plenty to entertain, intrigue, and even inspire an open-minded listener.
One thing nobody could complain about is the quantity of material on An Phib. With sixteen tracks totalling 72 minutes, Dicky has filled almost all the time available on current CD formats. Unusually, Dicky has concentrated on the slower side of the Irish piping repertoire. There are ten airs and numerous other slow tunes on this recording, and the innovative variations and imaginative arrangements are certainly worth hearing. As Sandy Brechin famously wrote, "Sometimes it doesn't work" - but that's the nature of progress. When it does work, it's first class: the opening track A Stor Mo Chroi is an eloquent statement of intent, and the stately treatment of Limerick's Lamentation is a clear winner. Dicky's spirited renditions of The Flags of Dublin, The Fairy Dance, The Gold Ring and other dance tunes are equally refreshing. So is the big, brash, unapologetic sound of the pipes on this album, and the frequent use of regulators.
An Phib may well not be an easy CD to find, but it is available online from http://www.pipers.ie/shop (not the simplest site to use, and it requires javascript) or you can email dickydeegan@hotmail.com for more information.
10 tracks, 65 minutes. It doesn't take a genius to work out that the tracks on this CD are unusually long: up to twelve minutes long, in fact, more like a mini concerto than a traditional Irish medley. Bohola have put a great deal of thought into their music, and come up with some inspired arrangements. Combining songs and tunes on the same track is unusual in Irish music, but Bohola weave grand old tunes around songs such as The Shamrock Shore, Ewan McColl's Go, Move, Shift, and the rather weaker Home which probably wouldn't hold our attention without the pair of reels grafted on.
Bohola combines the powerful piano box of Jimmy Keane with the chameleon fiddle of Sean Cleland, backed by Pat Broaders on bouzoukis. The tight trio sound drives firmly through a wide range of dance tunes, and Pat sings seven songs. All the material is broadly traditional, and much of it has a clear Irish American flavour not too surprising for a Chicago-based band. The faster tracks are lean and hungry, packing quite a punch: from Larry Redican's Jig to Lady On The Island, Bohola kicks mule and no mistake. The other side of their music is the emigrant's sentimentalised view of life back home, in songs such as The Little Thatched Cabin, The Shamrock Shore, The Shamrock Sod, and pretty much anything else with a hint of green. Pat Broaders puts the lyrics across with gusto, and the arrangements are generally spot on, but you have to be in the right frame of mind. When First Unto This Country is a great song well sung, but its impact is definitely weakened by being the sixth song of exile here.
If you have any sort of leaning towards the Irish diaspora, you'll find plenty here to your taste. There's bags of lift in the music, a wonderful variety of tones and textures, and several good songs: just don't sing them all at once. Information on the material is sparse indeed, but http://www.bohola.com promises to fill that gap in the future. I'd say Bohola would be a great live act too.
Dublin-based youngsters blend traditional and contemporary music. How many times have we heard that before, accompanied by pronises of an exciting new sound? On first hearing, Gráda sound like just another easy-come easy-go band of young, gifted and over-hyped musicians, following in the footsteps of Oige, Turas, Síona, Calando and so many others. They have all the hallmarks: lots of their own material, a mixture of musical backgrounds, and some highly eccentric haircuts. Two things make Gráda different: one is the fabulous flute and whistle of Alan Doherty, and the other is the fact that the sound they produce is actually very enjoyable.
Whether he's backing a modern song, teasing emotion from an ancient air, or simply battering through a set of dance tunes, Alan Doherty's playing never fails to impress. He seems in perfect control of breath, tongue and fingers, allowing him to handle demanding modern compositions such as Kishor's Tune by Breton guitarist Soig Siberil or The Black Wind by Diarmaid Moynihan. Yet he's also able to sink into a tune and make it his own, giving it a whole new personality, as he does with the spine-tingling slow air The Brown-Haired Girl. Alan's low whistle is strongly reminiscent of Cormac Breatnach, and his flute playing puts me in mind of Seamus Egan or the late Frankie Kennedy. They don't come much better.
Gráda isn't a one-man band, and the other four members all play their part in the overall attention-grabbing sound. Nothing is too in-your-face, but the consistent good timing, the rich full sound, and the frequent contrasts make this a compelling album. Anne Marie O'Malley fronts half of the tracks with a strong sweet singing voice: she's at her best with more traditional material, the love song I Once Loved A Boy is my favourite, and her version of the bawdy ballad The Spanish Lady is almost as good. I'm not nearly so convinced by the band's own two songs, and they try slightly too hard to jazz up the traditional She's Like A Swallow, but these are minor criticisms of a very fine almost-debut CD.
Whether they're rattling through a Gaelic rap by Kila's Rónan Ó Snodaigh, wringing tears from slow airs and ballads, or trotting out their own inventive slip jigs, Gráda are well worth hearing. They also have an eye for a good title: new tunes here include Pint of Reference, Mr Brennan's Psychological Problems, and the groanworthy BiodeGrádable. Let's hope their sense of humour is less infectious than their music. If you can't find this album locally, try their slightly flaky website http://www.gradamusic.com for online ordering. I'd say Gráda will be with us for a while.
Launched at the Ennis Traditional Music Festival, this is a long overdue recording of two very fine young musicians based in Clare. Fiddler Siobhan is well known worldwide, partly through her father Tommy, but I believe this is the first time she has fronted a full-length album. Murty Ryan has yet to establish an international reputation, and this CD might just do the trick. Fiddle and button box are given an extra boost on most tracks by the bouzouki of Cyril O'Donoghue, the guitar of Donnacha Moynihan, and John Moloney's wee drum.
It's easy to take this CD for granted. Its pedigree and provenance generate expectations of a first-class album, and Time On Our Hands doesn't disappoint. The music flows beautifully, tempo and dynamics are steady as a rock, and there's plenty of lift. Like much of the Clare tradition, there are no fireworks or fancy showpieces: the tunes speak for themselves, and the musicians don't interfere. The whole thing jogs along so smoothly that its exceptioonal qualities can escape attention, so I'll tell you the ones I've noticed.
Siobhan and Murty are both excellent musicians, and their technical brilliance is the perfect vehicle for great traditional tunes. Crusty old reels like The Dairymaid and The Skylark rediscover their youth through the flexible fingers of this pair, with every turn revealing a new twist. Box and fiddle blend into each other as well as ever you heard, rivalling duos such as Burke and McGuire, Hill and Linnane, or Bain and Cunningham. Listen to the sultry version of The Humours of Bally Manus, or the unaccompanied duet ending with Tommy Tourish's Jig. This uncanny togetherness obviously doesn't extend to the solos, of which there are three: virtuoso performances all, but again it's the music not the musician which takes centre stage. That's how it should be.
This is not your average unadorned traditional album. Siobhan and Murty are about as far from average as you can get, the accompaniment is similarly high class, and every last drop of musicality has been squeezed or scraped out of the tunes and etched into this CD. If you're still hesitating, try the final track of uninhibited reels, The Mossy Banks and Pat the Budgie: it doesn't kick but it certainly dances. Music doesn't come much better, and it's even available online at http://www.custysmusic.com and elsewhere, so there's no excuse for missing out on this one.
This is a rare recording indeed. Most of it dates from around 1985, and features a still youthful Tommy and equally tender-aged Alec Finn on bouzouki and Donal Lunny on bodhrán. Seán Ar-Óg Potts apparently bunked off school to play the pipes on a few tracks. Back in the days when an album could last up to 40 minutes, there