Traditional

REWIND 2002:  We're surrounded by it, spoilt by it, swimming in it. Traditional music sessions are 10-a-penny, many of them peopled by players of spectacular ability who, more often than not, find themselves playing for free in snugs and bars across the country, write Siobhan Long.

The paid gigs are few and far between, as a proportion of all the traditional sessions at our disposal. So the audience wins (almost) every time, and the musicians are lucky if they break even at the end of the night.

Casting an eye over the highlights of the traditional music world over the past year is a dodgy undertaking, due to the above circumstances.

How many of us would welcome judgment of an activity we perform free gratis?

But still, with the burgeoning growth in numbers of young musicians who have had an instrument in their hands almost as early as they had shoes on their feet, sessions are frequently the stuff of dreams where the molecules of tunes and musicians meld in a manner akin to Flann O'Brien's Third Policeman.

Conor Byrne, Méabh O'Hare, Gavin Ralston and Andrew Murray wooed and wowed us with their spine-tingling ensemble playing on their Music Network tour way back in January.

Whether playing in community halls or in Dublin Castle, they never failed to unleash a remarkably eclectic selection of traditional and original tunes, along with a brace of fine songs, on their listeners.

Kerry piper Leonard Barry whupped it up with enviable passion in the Cobblestone, and Johnny Óg Connolly and Brendan Begley tiptoed and high-stepped in turn in the cosy confines of An Bóthar in west Kerry.

Mairtín O'Connor continued to coax his accordion to hit notes that few other players manage to reach, no matter where he played, while Cathal Hayden and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill duelled with exceptional grace and danger on fiddle and guitar.

With so many tunes and sessions, the outstanding moments occurred with greater frequency than one might have dared to expect. Lúnasa's recent sessions in Whelans proved unequivocally that they're the rightful inheritors of the baton passed on by the Bothy Band, their fluid and often impish readings of tunes an elixir to jaded ears.

But the standouts this past year were Jackie Daly and Seamus Creagh, who have elevated low-profile gigging to an art form; accordion and fiddle rendering the most complex of tunes with an enviable simplicity, while Alison Brown, the former investment banker and now peerless banjo player who has fused bluegrass and jazz in the unlikeliest of unions, simply stopped us in our tracks at her gigs in the Cobblestone and at the Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival in Longford.

Some vintage performances and spellbinding sessions. Not a bad year after all.