James Keane: "With Friends Like These" (Shanachie)
There's a good old-style belt to the heads-down sessions on this new album from the ex-pat Drimnagh-born buttonbox player (b.1948) who, big in America since Carnegie Hall outings and Sweet and Traditional Music of Ireland in the 1970s, brings a bit of that to his own unhurried come-all-ye tunes. But you can't fault his swoon on Miss McDermott's - or, sessionwise, his great punch and ornament on the jigs, reels and polkas. Producer Garry O Briain nicely mixes in Keane's high-ranking comrades Paddy Glackin, Matt Molloy, Liam O'Flynn, Tommy Peoples and Kevin Conneff with his own quietly complex guitar/piano work, swing-chopping away behind the dance sets. Liam O'Flynn steps out alone with a Willie Clancy tune, while Conneff's spot of lilting is a treat.
Mic Moroney
Alan Kelly: "Out of the Blue" (Black Box Music) I was very taken with this propulsive young Roscommon piano accordionist, in a style sometimes reminiscent of Dermot Byrne, eclectically deconstructing Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and French Canadian tunes. With enthusiastic guitars from Donough Hennessy, and fiddler Sean Smyth, some tracks have the sound of the Galway outfit Lunasa. Others were recorded a couple of years back in Steve Cooney's Dharmakaya House on Dingle, with that man's unmistakable spin on the polkas and slides. Carl Hession is there too, in a 1994 recording, while percussionist Jim Higgins produced the most recent takes in 1996. Hard to think why the delay in releasing it - there's great sustained mood and lyrical bluster in Kelly's reeds - but hopefully, this album should launch him nicely.
Mic Moroney
Garry O Briain: "Fis: Carolan's Dream" (Gael Linn) This is a beautiful collection that should light a fire under those who feel that they have heard more than enough of Turlough O'Carolan, the blind harpist and composer who lived from 1670 to 1738. Garry O Briain, a master of the mandolin and the mandocello, and collaborators like Nollaig Casey, Seamus Maguire and Mairtin O'Connor infuse the music with the kind of restrained emotional power that the composer no doubt intended; the playing mirrors the music in its elegance and gentle humours. O'Carolan had a wonderful way with melody, harnessing it to his infectious medieval/Irish traditional rhythms. O Briain's deft picking, combined with the sweep of the violins and violas, creates a sound of honeyed musicality.
Joe Breen
