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The Guide to Irish Traditional Music by Fintan Vaallely
CD Compilation
6/ Combining the sounds: Duets, accompaniment and bands in the modern age
Coventry/Mayo accordionist Verena Commins joins with Mayo fiddler Julie Langan on the dreamy Janine's, John Doherty's and Br’d Harper's reels in a kind of duet that remains popular and hugely enriching.
Accordion is Mayo-born Mary Staunton's instrument too, typically for many players mediated by rhythmic instrumentation, and here with jigs Trip it Up the Stairs and Michael Burke's is hung on a lattice of Yorkshire-born, long-time De Dannan member Alec Finn's rich, pioneering bouzouki, measured and highlighted by John Moloney's solid bodhr‡n.
Donegal fiddler Liz Doherty is one of many players who today break their repertoire out into the closely-related Scottish-style music of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and French Canada. Here Waterford fiddler Martin Murray's reel Daisy Bell's, the traditional Quebecois Le 24 Juin, and American J. Ungar's Popcorn Behaviour are explored in free-spirited improvisation with Ryan MacNeill's dramatic Cape Breton piano, Newcastle, England guitarist Ian Carr, electric bass and stick-clicking Co. Derry bodhr‡n player Gino Lupari of the group Four Men and a Dog.
Finally, taking this fast-track journey through a thousand years of Irish music instrumentation and style to a high-energy conclusion is the internationally-reputed, courageously-adventurous bouzouki, bodhr‡n and keyboard player, producer and composer D—nal Lunny from Kildare with his band Coolfin. Ray Fean on drums, Roy Dodds percussion, Graham Henderson keyboards and Fionn î Lochlainn bass, build out a rock-style backing tapestry that enhances and envelops the melody of piper John McSherry, fiddlers MairŽad Nesbitt and Nollaig Casey on D—nal Lunny's slides Coolfin and N—ra Cr’ona.