Mick, Louise and Michelle Mulcahy: The Mulcahy Family (Shanachie)
I'll never forget seeing a 13-year-old Michelle Mulcahy in Kilrush pippeting out extraordinary concertina music with an expression of insouciant serenity. Now 15, she steps out on concertina and jaw-dropping solo harp tunes with the father, Mick the Abbeyfeale box-player, and sister Louise (nearly 18) on beautiful concert flute and fine, measured uileann piping. Apart from solos, they sit tightly together, meshing up a bright session babble with all sorts of voices in there: Noel Hill, the Peoples, harpists Laoise Kelly and Mick Rooney, even the late Junior Creedon. Backed by bouzouki, or Pops double-jobbing on tenor banjo, their lush vitality and growing power give your ears a good, fresh rinsing.
- Mic Moroney
Conor McCarthy: Selection Box (Twin Records Ireland)
There's needle-sharp uplift to this box-player, with his snappy off-beats and Shannonesque notethrums; often slithering down the incidental slopes of a phrase, leaving tunes careening like ninepins, but still sitting up and roaring for porter. He plays gorgeous tunes like Sean Ryan's The Nightingale, and further head-jiggers a Tommy Peoples strathspey. Alphie Duggan guitars him along, himself reverberating a Cuil Aodha-style Northern song. McCarthy also experiments with slow airs, but here he's bettered by his father, Johnny, who wandered in, washed out an air like a briny tide, followed by a juddery jig and a reel and - according to the sleeve - said "good luck now", and left. Now there's your duchas.
- Mic Moroney