REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

DREVER McGUIRE YOUNG - Gifts
Orcadian Recordings ORCCD006

This group formed in late 2012 after a request from Ivan Drever to Frankie McGuire about the possibility of working together, leading to a similar communication with Richard Young. According to publicity material it was obvious even after only a couple of hours that the three made music that was “something very special”. On listening to Gifts which was the resulting CD, I am not sure I would go that far, but do admit that it is good.

Ivan Drever is well known as a vocalist and guitarist who found fame in Wolfstone and more recently has produced some rather good solo work. Richard Young is a multi instrumentalist who has worked with far too many artistes to mention. Frankie McGuire is a flute player and percussionist who has again toured with lots of different musicians.

Gifts is firmly acoustically based, with lots of influences as you would expect. All songs are written by Ivan but I would suspect the other two had a large say in the arrangements. The vocals are clear at all times and there is some high quality musicianship on show by all three of them.

I would love to see them tour this, especially as a festival project, as lots of the tracks would sound really good on a summer’s afternoon with a glass of something - this is, on the whole, an optimistic album. All in all a good listen.

Dave Beeby