T With The Maggies

T With The Maggies TWM Music ***

T With The Maggies TWM Music***

T With The Maggies is a languid collection with a long shelf life imprinted on its DNA. The group owe their provenance to the Temple Bar Trad Festival, which lured Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Moya Brennan and Altan’s Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh to share a stage a few years ago. The tone here is often pastoral, the pace decidedly languorous, and the foursome’s song choices are revealing in their subjects: motherhood, emigration,music, memory, friendship.

Ní Dhomhnaill’s piano is the backbone of the collection, and her harmonies with sister Maighread magically intertwine with those of Brennan and Ní Mhaonaigh. It’s the synergy between the women that renders the whole much greater than the sum of the parts, with the subtlest of arrangements underscoring this laser-sharp, distilled collection. See twiththemaggies.com

Download tracks: Farewell, Farewell

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about traditional music and the wider arts