GOOD MORNING TO YOUR NIGHTCAP - Stirred And Waked Anew
Private Label R2DP02
One of those CDs where from the outset I just knew I was in for something special – the neck-prickling, the foot-tapping, the whole shebang! Amazingly, I’d never come across these guys before, even though they’d released their eponymous debut recording back in 2015. The foursome comprises Ruadhrai O’Kane (fiddle, viola), Desy Adams (flute), Ryan O’Donnell (banjo, bouzouki, guitar) and Paul Maguire (bodhrán), all veterans of the Irish traditional music scene with various groups (among them Óige and Na Dorsa). They came together musically in the shadow of the Cavehill in North Belfast, and the album cover portrays a brand-new dawn there. This so aptly signals the music within, where traditional tunes are indeed “stirred and waked anew” with some of the keenest and most bright-eyed playing you could imagine, all helped along by an exemplary, crisp and superbly well-balanced recording engineered by Dónal O’Connor. The tunes themselves aren’t run-of-the-mill session fodder; there’s a sprinkling of well-known ones though, alongside a composition of Ruadhrai’s, a set of Asturian muñeiras and a set of Danish reels to close.
The individual playing is outstanding; the musicians’ companionably driven virtuosity and excellent sense of ensemble complemented by their total immersion in the music born of many years of consummate experience – I might single out Ryan’s banjo lead on the pair of set dances (track 5) and the opening set of jigs; or the joyous swing of Ruadhrai’s fiddling on the strathspey and reels set (track 2) and the stomping reel set that includes the Cambridge Hornpipe; or Desy’s masterful flautery on The Wheels Of The World jig-set.
The disc also contains two songs (sadly no more!) featuring the wonderful singing of Tracy O’Donnell (I especially loved her take on The County Tyrone, from a Cathal McConnell collection). On a couple of tracks there’s a modicum of additional layering (guitar, mandolin or bouzouki parts courtesy of Donogh Hennessy).
This is a feelgood disc with substance, destined for repeated play.
David Kidman
This review appeared in Issue 142 of The Living Tradition magazine