Phil Callery & the Long Wave Band: From the Edge of Memory (Tara Records)

A large colour party rows in behind this Voice Squad man and his euphonious, stereophonic larynx; the understated ornament and emphasis authoritatively harrying forth some fabulous, hurting ould songs like The Trampwoman's Tragedy, or Robbie Burns' bleakly luscious Westlin Winds. Throughout, Callery is tight as a drum, while - apart from maybe the harmonies of In This Heart, or the cantering strings on The Cocks Are Crowing - the arrangements are rangy, grassy affairs: Jimmy Faulkner's guitars and Niall O Callanain's bouzouki entangled with Kevin Murphy's cello and Colm McCaughey's fiddle. Guests include Frankie Lane, Steve Cooney, Dermot Byrne, Gay McKeown, Brian Kennedy, and even Callery's own daughters on backing vocals. Very impressive, in its manful, familial, mournesomely meandering way.

- Mic Moroney

Eoin Duignan: Ancient Rite (Oifig an Cheoil, Dingle)

This Dingle-based piper-whistler gets production values right with these mostly original tunes, from slip jigs and reels to rounded-off riffs on Breton melodies and waltzes. His purly, jazzy style on low whistles, backed by Robbie Overson's guitars, might even make a single of the Moving Hearts-groove opening track. Yet apart from a couple of pipe tunes (one bearing the Midas paw-prints of Steve Cooney, from Baile an Chota days), others are full-pelt Spillan-esque affairs, all rock'n'roll raging for the high diddle, running nowhere very fast. More delicacy is spared for the whistles, sweetened by Maire Breathnach's viola/violin, in an album which gets gentler as it progresses, and Duignan's mother and sister, singing a song of his grandfather's, crowns a disc of mystic easy listening from the Kerry Kingdom.

- Mic Moroney