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BRENDAN HENDRY & JONNY TOMAN - Living Roots

BRENDAN HENDRY & JONNY TOMAN - Living Roots
Private Label LR001

Here's an album that counts as a pleasant surprise. Not being familiar with the work of either musician, I soon found myself carried along with their combination of Irish fiddle and five-string banjo. Living Roots (and could you have a more appropriate title for an album to be reviewed in this magazine?) sets out to re-unite elements of the music of Ireland and the Appalachians.

The chemistry is startling on both traditional tunes and ones of more recent vintage from the duo. Try the second track, The Crosses Of Armagh / Cousin Sally Brown, for evidence of how two strands of the same music can reinvigorate themselves. Hendry's fiddle and Toman's five-string banjo fit together perfectly, although I understand that it is not a combination which has been much explored.

Perhaps that is why it sounds so fresh. A smidgen here and there of bouzouki and dobro helps as well. Even the closing track, the song Where is my Sailor Boy? - which has space-filler written all over it – turns out to have a strange charm.

www.brendanhendry.com

www.jonny toman.com

Dave Hadfield


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This album was reviewed in Issue 119 of The Living Tradition magazine.