La' Lugh Gerry O'Connor and Eithne
Ni Uallachain "Brighid's Kiss"
Lughnasa Music LUGCD 961 (43 mins)
Dial a track code 1201
"Brighid's Kiss" invokes the eponymous pagan and early Christian goddess/saint tutelary deity of livestock, fertility, and fire, herald of spring and patroness of Imbole, the Celtic spring festival. The title track, an old Irish praise song to St Brighid, Gabhaim Molta Bride, is extended to include a new English language addendum making explicit the symbolism of renewal and change. The effective use of voice overdubs lends a percussive urgency which is wholly appropriate.
On Babog na Bealtaine, Seanie Mc Phail provides the harmonic contrast on a singularly beautiful version of the Thugamar Fein an Samradh Linn song. Renewal again in a reworking of Nil Se na La which is transposed into Ta Se na La sung and written by Eithne Ni Uallachain and in every way a song for the times that are in it. Two other Ulster songs complete the set, Omeath Music, which is an inspired sequence of children's or nonsense songs culminating in a flying three part reel Considine's Grove and Lough Erne's Shore, a pastourelle attributed to the singing of Paddy Tunney.
Instrumentally, La Lugh are defined by the spirited fiddle playing of Gerry O'Connor and Ni Uallachain's expressive flute style. Scots and Ulster repertoire dominate to make the whole album a cohesive statement of the local made universal. This is underpinned by the pervasive sense of family throughout the album (on one track three generations play together The Three Generations Jig) and references in the excellent sleeve notes to family members involved in the transmission and collection of traditional music and song. An exception is, A Bruxo Gallician sourced, which translates as The Druidess a dreamy melange of fiddle, flute, cello, guitar, bells and vocalising which, becomes nonetheless an integral part of the celtic continuum. Biddy is well served by this votive offering.
Patrick Street "Corner Boys"
Green Linnet GLCD (51 mins) Dial a track code 1311
Neither family nor community ties connect the members of Patrick Street, yet three of the four Andy Irvine, Jackie Daly and Kevin Burke are exemplars for many young traditional musicians. Members of most major traditional groups of the past 30 years (Planxty, De Dannan, Bothy Band), between the three of them, their collective CV is on the massive side of weighty. Recent Patrick Street albums have been disappointing but in Corner Boys their fifth to date, the old fire and brilliance is again in evidence.
The new "corner ho " is guitarist Ged Foley, late of The Battlefield Band, whose nifty guitar picking makes for a good partnership with Irvine's impeccable bouzouki and mandolin playing. The mix is, as usual, one part Sligo fiddle tradition (Burke) one part Sliabh Luachra (Daly) one part English language ballad tradition with inimitable string settings, and one part contemporary traditional group arrangements. This time the mix is right, and the playing on form.
There are four songs sourced by Irvine from the great traditional Northern singers (Butcher, Cinnamond Hanna) although the first, Sweet Lisbweemore, is attributed to Bess Cronin set off to sparkling effect in intricate instrumental arrangements. Pity The Poor Hare is a clever sequencing of three hare hunting songs with a jig of that title composed by Irvine. The Moorlough Shore breathes new life into a version associated with the late Eddie Butcher. Elsewhere, there is a spanking set of reels Devanney's Goat/The Leitrim Rover/ Michael Ryan's articulated in the beguiling rolling Burke style and a dainty set of polkas, The Kanturk Polka/Joe Burke's.
Colm Murphy "An Bodhran/The Irish Drum"
Gael Linn CEFCD 175 (37 mins) Dial a track code 1421
One of the most exciting and popular developments in Irish traditional music was undoubtedly the rehabilitation of the "Irish drum" in the 1960s. More than a generation later, there is a growing exemplary consistory of percussions in the tradition amongst whom first among equals is Colm Murphy. For other aspiring "bodhranadoiri" An Bodhran will be a hard act to follow. It's all here, from the barely whispered, resonances behind Ciaran O Gealbhain on Citi na gCumann to the dazzling tattoos driving Mairtin O'Connor and Frankie Gavin on Kitty's Wedding/ Jimmy Kelly's/The Noon Lasses. The frenzied, response of the audience to Murphy's relentless incitements on the one live track included, is the most basic of all that of the tribe to the shaman.
