Six Days in Down Riverboat Records/World Music Network ****

If collaboration was always this much fun, we’d all be doing it. American tricone and Hawaiian guitarist Bob Brozman has had his share of music partners. This prolific performer and recording artist has hit the colder climate of Co Down in the company of At First Light fiddle player Dónal O’Connor and piper John McSherry. What emerges from their six days in Down is a sometimes whimsical, ever fleet-footed, and strapping collection of tunes, including two from Stephanie Makem. Flexing their musical muscles to encompass middle eastern tones on their own composition,

Beer-belly Dancing

, and touching on the two-keyed north African lydian mode on

Brelydian

, Brozman, McSherry and O’Connor underscore the lifeblood of any tradition: whose pulse beats hardest in the musicians who make it their own. See worldmusic.net

Download tracks: Pota Mór Fataí. Brelydian