Releases > Releases Annual 2025

Want to see earlier releases? Visit the archive.

CHRISTY MOORE
A Terrible Beauty
Claddagh Records, 13 Tracks, 34 Minutes
www.claddaghrecords.com
Christy Moore released his first album Paddy on The Road 56 years ago, he’s been living up to the title ever since. He’s simply unparalleled as a collector and interpreter of songs, and this new collection is released at a time when his informed and passionate contributions on events, at home and abroad, are as necessary and relevant as ever.
In recent years, Christy has refined his sound, and tends to opt for a more minimal production, allowing the songs to resonate and breathe more easily. Throughout his career he has sung in his natural accent, unaffected, authentic and heartfelt. As with his last release Flying Into Mystery, a trusted group of collaborators are engaged in creating the soundscapes for each track – Gavin Murphy, Seamie O’Dowd, Jimmy Higgins and Andy Moore feature throughout, with engineer David Meade ensuring that the overall sound is perfect.
As always, he addresses subjects such as war, personal tragedy and addiction with a deep empathy and a desire to highlight issues in society that matter to him. Sunflowers addresses the conflict in Ukraine and Palestine hints at the seeds of the situation there, highlighting the suffering of innocent civilians in each case. Closer to home, he’s always been a tireless champion of those deprived or affected by unforeseen events; Lemon Sevens is a chilling account of addiction and poverty, Life and Soul revisits the senseless loss of Anne Lovett, and Lyra McKee covers the tragic murder of an innocent journalist in Derry in 2019.
There’s a lighter side too, with Mick Blake’s Cumann na Mná rekindling memories of Joxer and Stuttgart, and his own composition The Big Marquee celebrates his annual gigs in Cork. It’s all vintage Christy, and will definitely appeal to his huge pool of admirers as well as attracting some new ones.
Mark Lysaght

THE HALF ROOM
The Half Room
Own Label, 10 Tracks, 42 Minutes
www.thehalfroom.bandcamp.com/album/the-half-room
The  band began their musical life organically, a bunch of friends meeting up to share songs and enjoy their creative company, and that provenance shows in this beautifully produced album.
The Half Room is Pauline Scanlon, Nicola Joyce (The Whileaways), Eoin Wynne (nylon strung guitar) and Fabian Joyce (steel string guitar). Alex Borwick joins the core quartet on organ, synthesizers and electric guitar.
Pauline begins the album with Will You Go To Flanders? An old Scottish song, possibly dating from the Duke of Marlborough’s campaign in Flanders in 1706/7 during the War of the Spanish Succession.  The song sets out the table for what is to come: gorgeous harmonies, pitch perfect instrumental backing allowing the voices of each singer to float effortlessly above the accompaniment, no doubt due to the magic touch of the album’s producer Donogh Hennessey.
Things get a more contemporary feeling on Chris Leslie’s My Love is in America, a title that has carried a number of songs down the years, the common thread being separation because of economic migration.
Nicola sings lead vocals on Dónal Óg, a timely reprise of one of the big Irish songs; it came back into the revival via Al O’Donnell in the 1970s and Al had it from Seamus Ennis. Like many of the songs on this album, this is a must-have song for any aspiring young singer.
Pauline takes the lead again on Bes Cronin’s The Bonny Blue-Eyed Lassie, the stereo separation of the two guitars is a master-stroke here. Pauline’s voice imbues the song with just the right amount of emotional weight, working  in melodic variations with such ease. Nicola brings another dimension to the album’s songs on Lisbon, another song of separation. The tempo here is slow and every word considered, effortless and enfolding.
The album closes with Eoin singing Foreign Lander, a song from the Appalachians and one that deserves to be sung everywhere classic songs are appreciated. It is from the Jean Ritchie collection and was sung by her father when he asked her mother for her hand in marriage.
The band have curated some of the most cherished songs from the tradition, marking them with their own stamp. This is hallmark quality, it’s a collector’s keeper.
Seán Laffey

DAVID MUNNELLY
Retro
Own Label, 10 Tracks, 34 Minutes
www.davidmunnelly.com
I’ve been a fan of Dave Munnelly’s playing for years, and I expected to like this album - I don’t, I love it. I love its honesty because you can hear the buttons of his accordion being pushed, the fact that the tunes here are from the old stock and that this is measured music with a lift and swing, the nyah of syncopation. He is joined by long-time collaborator Mick Conneely on trichorda bouzouki, who brings a flavour of Alec Finn to the proceedings and understands that the bouzouki isn’t a guitar. In The Wearied Lad / Tommy McCarthy’s, some double tracking here from Munnelly on the piano.
The big surprise and a pleasant one too is Dave’s singing on Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore; his voice has an earthy quality reminiscent of Dolores  Keane with no need to hide a West of Ireland accent in a transatlantic drawl. Dave sings over a droning accompaniment on the box,  it’s a spellbinding combination. Banach Cuain / The Price of my Pig / Joe Kelly’s is peppered with deliberate triplets and the piano backing is minimal, reminding me of the late Denis Cahill’s way with accompaniment.
He’s jaunty and sprightly on a set of hornpipes The Bell Harbour /Jacky Tar / Fitzgerald’s, it includes a lovely shift into a minor tune on the second selection. The piano comes in here adding extra bass, whilst Conneely supplies some complex bouzouki playing, low notes and a high string counterpoint played simultaneously.
The album closes with two reels, Major Moran’s / Larry Mc Donagh’s, a fine ending with Dave Munnelly at the top of his game. This is raw bar playing in an unmistakeable signature style and another bulls-eye from the bullet from Belmullet.
Seán Laffey

MARY COUGHLAN
Repeat Rewind
Strange Brew Records, 11 Tracks, 48 Minutes
www.strangebrew.ie
Mary Coughlan is celebrating 40 years in the music business this year; it’s been a remarkable journey for her, and she has certainly enthralled her audiences worldwide with her unique voice, delivery and carefully chosen songs that always seem transformed by her very personal interpretations. At this point in her career, comfortable in her own skin and in a retrospective mood, Repeat Rewind is a collection of reflections on life as it has unfolded for her.
The title track brings her back to her childhood in Galway with various memories of a past life that seems carefree and fun. On this she’s accompanied by Johnny Taylor on piano, who features throughout and enhances the recording with his empathetic playing. Really Gone and I Can Let Go Now are searingly honest and emotional; the music is sparse and tracks the vocal unerringly, like a sentinel observing the pain.
Elsewhere, Mary treats us to her more humorous side on tracks like Marital Bliss and Freefalling. Both songs poke fun at relationships in general and feature male/female vocal duets with Ultan Conlon as a very effective foil on the latter track, with perhaps the most mainstream item on this album. More Like Brigid takes a look at the lot of women in modern society with tasty brass figures and some interesting rhymes, and she also includes Tinseltown, a nod to Christmas and festivities. Perhaps the most remarkable track is Mary’s reading of Brian Wilson’s classic God Only Knows, where she manages to invest the lyric with a more chilling nuance, aided by a studied and vaguely sinister keyboard backdrop.
Repeat Rewind finds Mary Coughlan in fine form, confident in her ability to inhabit and breathe life into her material, and addressing aspects of life that she tackles fearlessly and with great honesty.
Mark Lysaght

DAN POSSUMATO
An Teachín Gorm (The Blue Cottage)
Own Label, 20 Tracks, 60 Minutes
www.danpossumato.com
This is a self-curated album of choice tracks from Dan’s three previous releases: The Last Pint, Tunes Inside and Pulling Out the Stops. It also includes a bonus single, a new tune  Planxty Gerard McDonnell, more on that later.
Dan is currently based in Maine but has moved around the world over the past 50 years and was a stalwart of the Irish music scene in Alaska. He is an accordion player who treats his instruments “like a double row melodeon”. His skill and his music have been acknowledged by some of the finest musicians in the tradition, many of whom appear with him on some of the 20 tracks on this album. Luminaries such as Kevin Burke, Séamus McGuire, Bill Verdier, Frances Cunningham, Mick Mulcrone, Kathy Fallon and many others.
Dan is a very fine box player; he’s absorbed and developed a style that is as genuine as anything you’d bump into in Ennis or Galway. You can hear him in all his glory for free on his website.
The set of reels Fly Fishing / Martin O’Connor’s Flying Clog makes for a standout opening. A session looking for a number to slow things down should consider his version of André Brunet’s Valse du Chef de Gare or The Station Master’s Waltz, Dan on D/G box, Kevin Burke on fiddle with Teresa Baker on piano. Another waltz is on track 14, Dublin Airport; the website has the backstory. The bow hand of his friend Kevin Burke is evident on The Eavesdropper. Dan is joined by pipes and piano on Rosemary Lane / Chris Droney’s, happy upbeat tunes, dripping with spontaneity and life.
There are songs too, a fine sea shanty with a perfectly jangly bouzouki intro: Leave Her Johnny Leave Her from the singing of Liam Clancy. Mick Mulcrone is on lead vocals and bouzouki, John Thornton - harmony vocals, and Dan plays a C melodeon. Mick also sings The Boys of Mullaghbawn,  a song about transportation to a penal colony in Australia.
Planxty Gerard McDonnell is Dan’s original composition in memory of his bandmate and  friend, Limerick man Gerard McDonnell who died on 2 August 2008 on Pakistan’s K2, the second highest mountain in the world. The single is available as a standalone recording and on Dan’s website. It is played by Dan, Séamus McGuire and Stan O’Beirne.
Dan has been welcomed into the tradition, and this album is his way of giving something back. It’s a wonderful legacy and a source of tunes, songs and pleasure for decades to come.
Seán Laffey

ALISON O’DONNELL
Hark The Voice That Sings For All
Talking Elephant Records, 11 Tracks, 49 Minutes
www.talkingelephant.co.uk
Alison O’Donnell has maintained a lifelong career as a singer and composer, first coming to notice as a member of legendary folk band Mellow Candle in the early 1970s. Since returning home in 2001, she has been active in various collaborations, performing at gigs, sessions and festivals; she’s also active in various singing circles in the Dublin area, notably An Góilín.
This album consists entirely of original compositions and seeks to invest the songs with narratives and structures drawn from a range of styles associated with ancient traditions.  Alison has succeeded spectacularly well on each of the eleven tracks featured here. From the opener Lass From A Distant Shore, solo vocal and bodhrán transport us to times past with beautifully sparse accompaniment gradually joining in. This spell is cast across the whole recording, and instrumental arrangements are by Alison’s cousin Anthony Bools, another stalwart of the Irish folk scene. The accompaniments are simultaneously authentic and richly creative, Anthony playing most instruments himself, augmented by carefully-selected guest musicians.
She has a wonderfully resonant and vibrant singing voice, and invests each track with her deep emotional connection to the material. I Wish We’d Sailed On The Jeanie Johnston commemorates the famous ship with a glorious chanted lyric. The Unwelcome Tide Of Tomorrow is a beautiful gentle ballad and Four Fine Females commemorates four women from different parts of the last century, culminating in a tribute to the late Veronica Guerin. There’s a universality and depth to the material that warrants repeated listening; each time a new nugget is discovered, the nuances of a theme expanded.
At times I was reminded of Kate Bush when listening to this. It’s a really remarkable collection of original songs and Alison, with Anthony, has produced an album that deserves a much wider audience – well worth checking out.
Mark Lysaght

TULUA
No Coming No Going
Own Label, 10 Tracks, 45 Minutes
tulua.bandcamp.com/album/no-coming-no-going
Tulua is an exciting four-piece band from Co. Wexford, featuring Kayleigh Moran on fiddle and vocals, Diarmaid Murphy playing on flute, whistles, banjo and mandolin, Caoimhe Moran on harp, keyboards and concertina and Cian O’Grady on guitar and bouzouki. They’ve already established a great reputation as an innovative and creative unit, and this, their debut full-length album, released in 2023, displays their cohesiveness and shared purpose to great effect.
The Opening Set, as for so many classic recordings, is a calling card for their instrumental prowess and also highlights a collective talent for tight arrangements with a great understanding of dynamics and musical light and shade. The first tune was composed by Cian O’Grady, and elsewhere we find two more of his original instrumental pieces; Soul Train is  exciting and carefully constructed, and the album’s title track is a beautiful finale with a gorgeous guitar introduction, a low whistle joins in, with keyboards, harp and fiddle gradually included to create a mystical ambience.
Kayleigh Moran has a distinctive and pleasing voice with a range of expressiveness on the album’s four songs, with Caoimhe’s keyboards providing a nice backdrop on Rambling Boys of Pleasure and Passage West, composed by John Spillane. Two songs in the Irish language are also featured with a beautiful version of Casadh An tSúgáin, enriched by a fine flute feature from Diarmaid. He and Kayleigh are outstanding instrumentalists with Caoimhe and Cian providing exceptionally tight and creative accompaniment, featuring some great chordal ideas – they can make you sit up and realise that they have a true empathy and bond, reminiscent of some of the legendary bands of the past.
Tulua is certainly an inspiring young band and this album, produced and arranged by them with assistance from Benny McCarthy, provides an enjoyable introduction to their individual and collective talents.
Mark Lysaght

RANDAL BAYS & FRANK KILKELLY
Up The West
Own Label, 15 Tracks, 53 Minutes
www.randalbays.bandcamp.com/album/up-the-west
Up The West with fiddler, guitarist, writer and composer Randal Bays accompanied by Frank Kilkelly is an important piece of work in the traditional Irish canon. The title, a celebration of Randal’s love of place(s), the Pacific Northwest of America and the west of Ireland. Launched at Feakle Festival, in his introduction, Pat Hayes said Randal Bays was “one of the true masters of the complex art of Irish fiddling”, no higher praise.
Bays began playing music at eight years old and in his twenties happened on an Irish music session in Portland, Oregon, which influenced the course of his life. With about fifteen albums to date, he has recorded with some of the best; Daíthí Sproule, Joel Bernstein, Roger Landes, James Keane, Dave Marshall and here in a dynamic pairing with Kinvara man Frank Kilkelly.
Up the West has musical virtuosity, seamless segues, beautifully wrought sets of tunes, jigs, reels, hornpipes and a captivating waltz, New Orleans Wedding, composed by Susan Waters. There are several links to south Galway and east Clare, Paddy Fahey Compositions, a set of reels to memorialise Randal’s pal from Kilconnell.
All throughout there’s tasty accompaniment by Frank Kilkelly, his crucial chords catching perfectly the fiddle lines, rhythmic, appropriately restrained at times, authoritative. There’s great synchronicity in the pairing of traditional tunes with the newly composed, The Hairy Cat’s Ear, written for Susan Waters, glides gracefully into the well-known Maid on the Green.
The Leac Rua set is a rouser and the original, title track Up the West has feeling, passion, an draoicht, bringing the listener along the byroads, into rural landscapes, among the gentle hills of Clare and Galway, among the whistlers, foot tappers and lively set dancers.
Recorded at Ballybranagan Studio, Kinvara, Up The West is as good as it gets!
Anne Marie Kennedy

TRIO - WALTERS - FAVRAU - PINC
Westpointers
Vocation Records LEUR 039-5/1/1, 13 Tracks, 53 Minutes
triowaltersfavraupinc@gmail.com
In 2021, three musicians from Central Brittany, who play mainly Irish and Scottish music, got together to form a trio. Far from being unknowns, the group is made up of Sam Walters on fiddle, Brewen Favrau on uilleann and small pipes, low whistle (Insch, Les Irlandais de Bretagne) and Arthur Pinc on guitar (Galánta).
In reference to a Canadian folk group from Prince Edward Island, The East Pointers, which they particularly like, they have named their album Westpointers. As Brittany is at the extreme west of continental Europe, it’s a nod to its geographical location.
These three virtuosos have searched through old Scottish manuscripts and selected ancient tunes that they have adapted to a more contemporary aesthetic. Here they offer us a set of 13 dexterously performed tracks, featuring tunes borrowed from both the Scottish and Irish repertoires with a few forays into Canada: Fortune & Favour, The Mortgage Burn, or the Basque Country: Bok-Espok. There are also a number of tunes by Brendan Ring, the Irish harpist and piper, who has been based in central Brittany for a number of years: Duncan’s, A Minor Reel, The Eagles Fledge.
The album kicks off with an ‘Inter-Celtic’ set, brilliantly supported by Brewen’s supple small-pipe playing, before being overtaken by Sam’s vibrant bowing. And the songs flow energetically from one country to the next.
Patrick Ourceau’s The Old Station House, often played by Sylvain Barou, comes to mind. Or the famous The Grey Buck March. Then there’s Hugo’s big reel, composed by Seamus Egan (Solas), followed by the traditional Irish Killarney Boys Of Pleasure. The album closes with Da Iwan, a poignant composition by B. Favrau in tribute to a friend who died too soon.
Throughout these 13 tracks (and 40 tunes), you’ll be captivated by Sam’s ethereal fiddle, whose bow twirls from note to note, or Brewen’s sensitive touch, while Arthur’s guitar accompaniment supports his companions’ playing with a relentless rhythm.
All we can wish this talented trio is the chance to play in the countries from which they borrowed their tunes.
Philippe Cousin

CAPERCAILLIE with BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
ReLoved
Vertical VERTCD130, 16 Tracks, 74 Minutes www.verticalrecords.co.uk
It’s been eleven long years since the Scottish band Capercaillie last recorded a new album.  And for their return, they’ve struck hard.
To mark the band’s fortieth anniversary, like many other bands before them (Altan, Lúnasa, Sharon Shannon, Moya Brennan), they have invited a symphony orchestra to accompany them, in this case the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. They collaborated to rework 16 tracks previously recorded, presented here on the excellent album ReLoved.
One of the pioneers of Celtic music in Scotland, Capercaillie are considered to be the major force in popularising Scottish music on the international scene. Despite their roots in traditional Scottish music, they have explored original musical terrain, from world music to electronica and from pop to jazz. Symphonic arrangements of their music are yet another milestone in their already rich career.
Lasting 75 minutes, the new orchestrated versions of their repertoire sum up Capercaillie’s career. There are a number of Hebridean waulking songs, such as Hi Ri’m Bo and Mile Marbhaisg Air a’Ghaol as well as Tobar Mhoire, which Karen learned from the great singer Flora MacNeill, interspersed with contemporary ballads by Manus Lunny, Servant To the Slave and Donald Shaw’s, God’s Alibi and At the Heart Of It All. As well as poignant love songs such as Iain Ghlinn’ Cuaich. Not forgetting, of course, traditional tunes such as Port Na Caillich and David Glen’s Jig, and, most original of all, the Breton dance suite Boules et Guirlandes, composed by guitarist Gilles Le Bigot, whom Donald and Karen met at Héritage des Celtes. The whole set is supported by the orchestra’s arrangements, which highlight Karen Matheson’s magnificent voice, touched by the hand of God according to actor Sean Connery.
Eleven long years of waiting compensated by an album that succeeds from the first note to the last.
Philippe Cousin

ALASTAIR SAVAGE & ALICE ALLEN
Where the Good Ship Lands
Own Label SAV007CD, 14 Tracks, 82 Minutes (2 CDs)
www.alastairsavage.co.uk
This double album starts in formal mood with two precisely articulated old jigs, but don’t be fooled: there’s wildness ahead as Alastair and Alice alternate the stately fiddle and cello style of 18th century parlours with the madcap ceilidhs of the common folk. Kenmure’s On and Awa’ - or Hexham Races as it’s known in Northumberland, or I Will if I Can to give it one of the names it goes by in Ireland - exemplifies the eclectic approach here.
Allen and Savage turn their hands to Irish and American material, and to several Savage compositions, in addition to material by masters of Scottish fiddle music. Gow Senior and Gow Junior, William Marshall, and James Scott Skinner are well represented: the beautiful air Coilsfield House, the big Marshall strathspey Mrs Admiral Gordon and Niel Gow’s Major Graham of Inchbrakie, which were both chosen as song melodies by Burns, and the even more poignant Flower of the Quern are among the more majestic moments.
Alastair’s fiddling ranges up and down the fingerboard, while Alice chops and changes her cello accompaniment to suit every mood, taking the melody as often as not and pouring passion into every arrangement. A freer line is chosen on a mostly Irish set culminating in the reel Fair Haired Mary, on a few faster Scots classics, and on a pair of American tunes including Stephen Foster’s popular Angelina Baker.
The seven Savage originals measure up surprising well to this weighty traditional material: the airs Lend you my Tears and When the Sun Shines over Brodick (rare enough) are highlights, and the last two tracks balance the big anthem Dark Lochnagar with Alastair’s bouncy Capital Nights.
Alex Monaghan

DE TEMPS ANTAN
J’ai Mal à Mon Folklore
Compagnie du Nord CIE024 10 Tracks, 35 Minutes
www.detempsantan.com
A long-established Quebec trio, De Temps Antan deliver toe-tapping music and hard-hitting songs. Humour is there too.
If you’re a French speaker, listen to Le Reel des Piasses or Boubou au Nouvel An. Sleeve notes are in short supply, but I’m pretty sure J’ai Mal à Mon Folklore has kept the same line-up as the last couple of releases from this group. Guitar, bouzouki and mandolin are wielded by Eric Beaudry, while the powerful little Quebec accordion sits in the hands of Pierre-Luc Dupuis, with David Boulanger picking up the fiddle and all three exercising their vocal cords in a mix of joyful chorus songs and ballads.
Quebec music wouldn’t be complete without a good helping of foot percussion and jaw harp, of course, and the accordion also remembers its Cajun relatives on a few numbers.
Arrangements tend towards folk rock, electric fiddle sounds and a solid rhythm in addition to the acoustic strings and accordion. Click through to Vivons Librement de nos Biens, a full-on drinking song, and you could easily be at a rock festival in the backwoods - except that the song is in 6/8, which would blow the rednecks’ minds.
As well as songs, there are a couple of instrumental tracks - reels and a lovely waltz to finish. In true Quebec style, De Temps Antan tag tunes onto songs and vice versa, meaning that many of the vocal tracks also have cracking dance music as a big part of the arrangement.
It’s fun, it’s fiery, and it’s fabulously well played: as the website says, you’d think there were twice as many in this band.
Alex Monaghan

POLLY BARRETT
Sapling Be…
Own Label, 10 Tracks, 36 Minutes
www.facebook.com/pollybarrettmusic
Polly Barrett is a singer-songwriter and actor who lives on The Mizen Peninsula in West Cork. She enjoys rural Ireland and the outdoors. The countryside influences the shape and direction of her original songs on this album.
The title track comes to us midway through the album. Saplings are our future; programmatically, the world needs more trees, Ireland needs more native forest and  metaphysically, every day should be one of renewal, and there’s nothing more hopeful than a starting sapling in the ground. There is something ethereal and spiritual in the music here, from Polly on vocals, tongue drum, acoustic guitar, piano, bass guitar, bodhrán, whistles, shakers, Lea Miklody: cello, Frank Wieler: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, Tara Mestre: backing vocals and Darren McCarthy: Double Bass. Polly plays the tongue drum on the title track. The lyrics and drum connecting with ancient earth wisdom:
First inkling, old soul. Curling,
unfurling to the sound of a heartbeat,
deep underground. With roots in the ground, roots in the ground…
Hedgerow is mesmeric in its repeated Dum dum dah dah, dah dah; is this what winter solstice sounded like at Newgrange? Huge Mistake speaks of relationships and relocation. She sings: “I’m an open door, I’m a faraway place. I’m an honest joke, not a huge mistake”. Standing by The Sea is on the surface a jazzy tripping tune with a whistle break, you can taste the salt wind off Mizen Head in this number.
Fool’s Gold is bigger, more theatrical, a slice of Celtic Rock, music for a big stage and a flashing light show. There’s a lolloping quality to The Queen with the words delivered tongue in cheek: “Baby go back to bed, you know my eyes are tired of green. I’ve got the insight, it’s not your god-given right to be the queen.”
The album ends with the song Old Wound, nothing dour or bitter, a memory of an unfurnished room, perhaps the entry Polly had to her West Cork haven. It’s a catchy song and Polly’s voice takes on the timbre of early Joni Mitchell. And that’s a recommendation if you need one.
Seán Laffey

BREAKING TRAD
Drive
Own Label, 11 Tracks, 45 Minutes
www.donalmurphy.bandcamp.com
Punchy box and fiddle music backed by solid but flexible guitar with a couple of songs thrown in. Breaking Trad play with a definite Munster accent - polkas and slides are on the menu, but they’re outweighed by reels and jigs, still with that South West lilt. Dónal Murphy from Abbeyfeale, on the edge of Sliabh Luachra, leads a mix of Irish music old and new as well as a few of his own pieces including the rather fine Brushy Creek Waltz. Fiddler David Doocey and guitarist Mike Galvin combine Irish and Stateside influences: there are touches of swing fiddle on a few tracks, and Galvin’s rendition of The Leaving of Liverpool evokes the New York or Pennsylvania towns rather than the jewel of the Mersey.
This band is a real crowd pleaser, delivering lift and energy, and barely slowing down except for the gruesome song Boolavogue. There’s shared DNA with the likes of Four Men and a Dog or North Cregg - a fine pedigree indeed. Alongside grand old tunes such as The Bloom of Youth, Palm Sunday, The Mountain Top and Jimmy Doyle’s Polka, these lads have put their own stamp on Phil Cunningham’s Harsh February, John Dwyer’s Sunny Hills of Beara, John Morris Rankin’s Hull’s Reel, and The Mist Covered Mountain claimed by Junior Crehan.
There’s a cracking trio of slides ending with one of Murphy’s own, and Drive wraps up on Ronnie Cooper’s great Shetland reel Millbrae. If you like your Irish music with a bit of bite, you won’t go wrong with Breaking Trad.
Alex Monaghan

RAKISH
Now, O Now
Own Label 2024, 11 Tracks, 46 Minutes
www.rakishmusic.com
A second album from this Massachusetts duo of fiddler Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn is a welcome treat. Their debut release was number 3 on my 2022 Top Ten list, and Now, O Now has the same swing, flair and polish. There are more songs on this recording - five in eleven tracks, all contemporary, with lyric composition almost evenly split between Rakish and James Joyce, and vocal delivery shared by Maura and Conor. I think James Joyce is the better lyricist: judge for yourselves. All the music here is original, and it’s top notch. Rakish enlist a couple of percussionists to beef up some of the arrangements, but most pieces are duo numbers with occasional double tracking.
The Rakish style oscillates between Irish and Americana, Scanlin alternating between fiddle and banjo and pump organ for different moods. The laid-back backwoods feel of the title track is followed by a brilliant combination of fingerpicked guitar and fiddle for the modern reel 765 with a touch of MacIsaac distortion. The oldtimey hornpipe or slow drag Time Check leads into the jaunty song Lightly Come or Lightly Go with fine vocals from Hearn and exuberant fiddle. An almost classical air and a lovely relaxed reel precede Maura’s atmospheric redneck ballad Lightly as the Rain Came Down and the final Scots-tinged pair of tunes, ending on a high with an outstanding guitar and fiddle duet on the reel The Tourtoise which moves faster than its name suggests.
I enjoyed Now, O Now, and I think you will too.
Alex Monaghan

LIFFEY CROSSING (KEVIN MEEHAN & JORDAN LIVELY)
Liffey Crossing
Own Label, 8 Tracks, 33 Minutes
www.kevinmeehanwhistle.com
A second album from young North Dublin whistle-player Kevin Meehan is welcome indeed. Liffey Crossing may have even wider appeal than his debut Spanish Point, and he’s teamed up with singer and guitarist Jordan Lively to extend the palette of sounds as well as the repertoire, but you only have to wait until the end of the rebel song The Foggy Dew to hear what a scintillating talent Kevin Meehan is as he delivers a trio of thumping Rory Gallagher Jigs with power and precision.
There are five songs and four instrumentals here, but Kevin slips a few tunes into the song arrangements - The Rocky Road to Dublin of course, and a lively rendition of The Humours of Tulla fits nicely with the ballad Limerick Maiden Fair. Lively’s voice is strong throughout, and he knows how to milk a classic like Dirty Old Town. The medley of Rose in the Gap, Morrison’s and Cooley’s Reel adds sweet variety on the tune side.
Liffey Crossing wraps up with the ubiquitous Wild Mountain Thyme, an interesting version with a wee jig thrown in for good measure to finish a very entertaining collection. I believe this album is currently only available on streaming platforms, and there are a few videos on YouTube.
Alex Monaghan

EDEL MURPHY & EWAN COWLEY
Motherland
Crashed Music, Single, 3 Minutes, 58 Seconds
www.crashedmusic.com
Motherland, the new single from Edel Murphy of Celtic Women in collaboration with producer Ewan Cowley, feels timely; socially, culturally, historically appropriate, a celebration of woman and motherhood. Taken from her touring show, Motherland Songs, the mantle fits snugly on her shoulders, a modern day talented vocalist, gazing warmly back at generations of creative, pioneering women that have gone before, none less so than Natalie Merchant who penned the single Motherland.
In the style of a lullaby with gentle, repeated refrain, warm and melodic, the mother acknowledging the adolescent becoming adult, leaving home, being told “when you leave, keep your heart off your sleeve”. Poetry with conversational lyrics, Murphy’s voice is velvety, enchanting, ethereal.
“It’s your happiness I want most of all and for that I do anything at all”, familiar, maternal, a mother’s pain, heartstrings tugged, but as in nature, like the little bird who has to fledge, the human offspring must also find its own identity and place in the universe.
Subtle, sublime texture in the accompaniment and arrangements, the voice to the fore, sweet as a linnet. Motherland has been released via Crashed Music Group and is available on all platforms.
Anne Marie Kennedy

DAVID MITCHELL
Contours
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 47 Minutes
www.davidmitchellmusician.bandcamp.com
This is an own label album that has gone to the outer limits of the self-made. David Mitchell even built his guitar himself. In addition there’s great care for the planet, the packaging is from sustainable resources and is plastic free.
The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by David Mitchell in Somerset; he plays finger-style guitar on a range of tunes. Kicking off with a slow jig The Hills of Glenorchy, which we know in Ireland as The Rollicking Boys Of Tandaragee, there’s a pulsing down beat on the low strings, giving this tune a characteristic Scottish snap. He pairs a lyrical Lovely Joan with an original composition Summer at Christmas, the latter a well-known melody, made popular through the singing of Martin Carthy. Summer at Christmas adds a lighter sunlit mood to this track.
He visits the O’Carolan repertoire in Sheebeg and Sheemore (Sí Bheag, Sí Mh​ó​r). There are some clever juxtapositions of bass and melody strings here, and a deft harmonic tap as a bridge between phrases.
One of the longest tracks on the album is Lament for Limerick, Walk In The Forest, Miniature; the first tune is perhaps a little more baroque than we’d be used to when played on a flute or fiddle. Walk In the Forest feels European, whilst Miniature is a short closing section that could have come from an Elizabethan lute book.
He stitches two timeless Scottish tunes together My Love is Like a Red Red Rose and the Wild Mountain Thyme, experimenting with call and answer phrases, taking alternate contours and working in a shifting dynamic to build tension as the core tunes return. The album finishes with a mixture of the Gypsey’s Hornpipe, Banks of The Illen, Tobago Bound. The first tune is from the novelist Thomas Hardy, an English hornpipe, not to be confused with the Boston Irish tune of the same name. The Illen and Tobago Bound end the album with a final bass-rich coda.
An album with plenty of ideas for budding finger-style guitarists to emulate.
Seán Laffey

FLO
Islas
Trad Records, 10 Tracks, 36 Minutes www.tradrecords.be
Flo is the performing name of the Belgian guitarist Florian De Schepper, a master of both folk and jazz with over two decades in the sharp end of the music business (he was in Bogus back in 2006). He also runs the Bogus Booking agency. A busy man, a man who needs a holiday perhaps? And there hangs the tale of this album.
Florian went east to the Aegean, island hopping with his guitar. He took on the task of writing a new tune for each of the islands he visited. We might like to think of these as remote Acadia, but the region is politically volatile; the islands’ culture is ethnically Greek but the recent rise in neo-Ottoman sentiment calls them the Blue Homeland. Florian sides with the Hellenes, indeed the word music began in Greece as ‘mousike’ the ‘Art of the Muses’.
How then have the muses touched Florian’s opus? You might need a map to chart his island hopping, here are his tune titles: Hydra, Tenerife, Guadeloupe, Büyükada, Gran Canaria, Kreta, Ilha da Culatra, Procida, Cyprus and Sicilia. And yes they are not all in the Aegean, but they are a lot warmer than Inis Boffin.
Hydra is dreamy with tapped sound board over a repeated phrase in 4/4 time, the final 30 seconds is an extended fade out. The sound of the sea breaking gently on a sandy shore brings us into Guadeloupe, a slow burner that imperceptibly transforms into fast left-hand fretting and percussive slaps in the strings. There’s even more energy towards the end of Gran Canaria, where Flo’s guitar mimics a hybrid of Arabic oud and Spanish flamenco. More shoreline waves and the sound of footsteps on white sand herald our entry into Kreta. After a quiet introduction, the guitar winds up a spring of cascading notes, Flo’s Euro jazz influences breaking through as a feint exotic accent.
Cyprus is played over a background of distant chatter, a town square on the coast, gulls in a cloudless sky, the guitar building in volume and a strong bass beat with an occasional bent note invoking a bouzouki.
Florian’s Islas is a musical impression of his relationship with islands, blue water and sunshine, an escape maybe, a creative journey most definitely.
Seán Laffey

REITIR
Alt Som Eingong Va’
Eighth Nerve Audio, 8nerve 012, 11 Tracks, 42 Minutes
www.sarah-janesummers.bandcamp.com/album/alt-som-eingong-va
Reiter are Aasmund Nordstoga (vocals), Ingebjørg Lognvik Reinholdt (vocals), Sarah-Jane Summers (fiddle/vocals), Juhani Silvola (guitar) and Morten Kvam (double bass & vocals). Reitir plays the songs of Robert Burns translated into the Norwegian dialect of Vest-Telemark.
They cut an opening dash on Anne På Li, it’s fun with the double bass, close harmony singing and jazzy guitar taking off on a riff before Sarah-Jane’s fiddle brings it back down to earth with a swinging re-establishment of the melody and a last measure merging into a bouncy dance tune, then pizzicato fiddle and a huge flourish to end.
On Jenta Med Augo Blå (The Girl With Blue Eyes), bass and fiddle work together to create hand loom cadence, the song soars above the regularity of the rhythm. There’s a breathy male voice, secretive, sharing a whisper on Fyrst Eit Kyss (Aye Fond Kiss), one of the finest love songs ever written in any language, and I’m sure this version will pull at the heart strings in Scandinavia as the original does in the Celtic world.
Plucked fiddle sends the notes descending down the scale on Ola Li. The fiddle mimics an icy wind on Og Gjekk Du I Den Kalde Vind, a lesser known Burns song (And Did You Walk In The Cold Wind). If you are looking for the familiar I am sure you will enjoy Den Raude Rosa (My Love Is Like A Red Rose), maybe Burns’ most beloved song, perfect lyrics married to an unforgettable melody, it translates with ease. Finally a song that will be sung around the world as we move from ‘24 to ‘25, and the last and title track of the album Alt Som Eingong Va’, a universal song, to mark the transition from old to new, sung as the clock strikes midnight from Teelin to Telemark and towns along the Tay. It is of course Auld Lang Syne.
I’ll raise a cup of kindness to Reitir any day.
Seán Laffey