Angelina Carberry and Dan Brouder: Back in Times – A beautifully paced collection

Women have too often been overlooked in Irish traditional music, but Angelina Carberry and Dan Brouder have gathered together a mighty collection of tunes, many of which were written or played by women, or celebrate them in their titles.

Carberry and Brouder have a well-earned reputation as a banjo/accordion duo who let the tunes do the talking. Carberry is this year’s TG4 Traditional Musician of the Year, and her playing is characterised by honesty, freshness and a delicious lightness of touch that elevates the tunes so that they soar with ease. This is a family affair, with three generations of the Carberrys’ trading notes.

The pair's ability to strip a tune back to its essence is writ large on their reading of the march, Burn's farewell, which they marry seamlessly with a pair of jigs learned from the playing of the late Longford fiddler, Packie Dolan. Many tasty arrangements featuring Carberry on tenor guitar as well as tenor banjo, bodhrán, pipes, flute harp and some fine step dancing.

Still, all have ample space in what is a beautifully paced collection, full to the brim of quirky readings of the finest of tunes.