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MICK MCAULEY & COLM O CAOIMH - Highs And Bellows

MICK MCAULEY & COLM O CAOIMH - Highs And Bellows
Private Label

Here's an album of sublime playing that shows that there is nothing wrong with doing one thing and doing it superbly. There is a bit of singing here – a perfectly competent version of As I Roved Out, for instance – but it is really all about Mick McAuley and his accordions. His playing is in the Sharon Shannon class, although you would have to go back to her very first CD to find such a straightforward approach. This album is just Mick, accompanied by guitarist and fellow Kilkenny man, Colm O Caoimh. Mind you, I do mean accompanied, because his immaculate contribution to this set recalls Dennis Cahill doing the spade work for Martin Hayes. In other words, he unobtrusively enriches it without once getting in the way.

McAuley is a vastly experienced musician, whose recent adventures include working with Sting and touring with Solas. In this album there is a sense of getting back to basics; not that it is in any way a conservative collection, either in its variety or the panache with which he plays. Slides, jigs, reels and tunes from the Iberian end of the Celtic musical world are all included, but if I am allowed a favourite, along with a luxury and the complete works of Shakespeare, it would be The Sparrow Polkas, with its chopped-up rhythms trying to break loose. Try to listen to it without smiling; I've tried and failed repeatedly.

www.mickmcauley.com

Dave Hadfield


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This album was reviewed in Issue 115 of The Living Tradition magazine.