Traditional

Seamus Creagh & Aidan Coffey (Ossian)

A fine, leisurely little album from this veteran fiddler (who once teamed up with Jackie Daly) and noted young accordionist, backed by delicate bouzouki. The weave of reed and string is highly reminiscent of the enmeshed babble of De Danann, and indeed Coffey spent a few years with that group, demonstrating his old-style rousing chord swells and his quicksilver melodic flexibility. The accordion volume often threatens to eclipse the fiddle, but Creagh rattles a fair few screws loose from the tunes, coming into his own with a drugged, lyrical air, 'S e Fath Mo Bhuartha. Drifting from reels and hornpipes into slides, Finnish waltzes, and a descriptive piece of polkas picked up from Johnny O'Leary, the pair have a great groove between them.

By Mic Moroney

Gleanntan: Sliabh Notes (Ossian)

An infectious tribute to such late Sliabh Luachra musicians as Padraig O'Keeffe and Terry "Cuz" Teahan, this contains plenty of pacey polkas and slides. The centrepiece is the serious virtuosity of box-player, Donal Murphy, with fiddler Matt Cranitch working around him nicely with harmonies and chords, while Tommy O'Sullivan chips in with guitar and two local nostalgia songs from Jimmy McCarthy and Tony Small. The trio is reinforced by banjo, flute, keyboard and Steve Cooney's bass and guitars, nursing Cranitch, with his odd waltzy touches, through the old Cuil Aodha air/song Aisling Gheal. The band arrangements make great hay of tunes like The Miller's Maggot, with Murphy flinging away sudden rolls and chord rinses to check if you're awake.

By Mic Moroney