Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill: "The Lonesome Touch" (GLCD 1181) Dial-a-track code: 1201

"Honesty", "humility", "integrity", "purity", "selflessness" are Martin Hayes's sleeve-note estimation of the essentials necessary to achieve the Nirvana of a desired draiocht - The Lonesome Touch. Be seated comfortably - this is transatlantic, head-set material of which minimalism is the hallmark - sparse, pedagogic, eschewing flashiness. Hayes's brilliantly reserved fiddle and Cahill's superb guitar strip away "the steps" in quest of skeletal, melodic "soul" to the original tunesmith's genius.

Typically, Paddy Fahy's and The Cat In The Corner use a severely restrained bow-hand, a picking that is barely there. Paul Ha`penny's 12 minutes are closed by the tremendously poignant Mother And Child reel, Lament For Limerick clangs with dulcimer guitar-chording, Morning Dew resonates with carefully abandoned, ringing, open strings. All are mesmeric in their self-absorption, provocatively "blank canvas". The Bucks and Eileen Curran's eventually hop us back into the familiar; seamless transition to Jimmy On The Moor's Grapelli/Reinhardt-arched triplets and snipped rolls mediate exit on Cahill's Peggy's Waltz. Is the understatement wonderful or does it go too far? The "lonesome" of the title is a player's private music; it takes an act of faith to get in there with it. This album is about confidence in a musician drawing in, enchanting and educating: fiddle-playing is not a mere daisy-chain of rolls, guitar can do much more than beat rhythm.