BILLED as a Green Linnet 20th Anniversary concert, it would be kinder to all concerned to celebrate the diversity of the label's acts than to focus on comparison, for no one else could touch the live experience of the Eileen Ivers power trio. But then what Ivers and her band - guitarist John Doyle and drummer Ben Whitman - do bears little relation to the standard presentation of traditional music and more to the pyrotechnics, volume and chemistry of acts like Cream or The Who. That's not a criticism - quite the opposite - but with the best will in the world, it was hard not to see, in their wake, the other acts on offer as simply ordinary.
Deanta, from Antrim and Derry and currently recording their third album for the label, specialise in the elegant, sedate side of the tradition. Rather than raising a head of steam, the group rely on the magnificent voice of Mary Dillon on sparsely arranged, generally austere songs and self-written tunes-in-the-style-of. Fiddler Kate O'Brien debuted a lovely new waltz while keyboard player Rosie Mulholland - herself a fine fiddler - contributed a set of jigs which, while not as immediate as her wonderful pieces on the last record, suggest at least a solid third album in the making.
With so many unassuming members Deanta's stage act, as ever, was lightened up by an amalgam of tall stories and wry banter from their one charismatic asset, Clodagh Warnock "the dentist from Derry."
Unfortunately Trian, a "supergroup" featuring guitarist Daithi Sproule, fiddle legend Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey on accordion don't display much in the way of charisma. Some of their arrangements and especially some of Carroll's original tunes are first rate, but Sproule's vocals are at best perfunctory and even Carroll's musicianship, which certainly lived up to her reputation, seemed tame by comparison with what followed.
It is a mistake to believe that Eileen Ivers deals only in bombast, but what she offered that the others did not was dynamics, light and shade: her gentle moments were cathedrals of emotion, her fusion workouts were a wild, exhilarating contrast.
Underneath it all is quality material, and phenomenal musicianship and the sooner she quits Riverdance and makes a record with this trio the better.
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