The Two Duos Quartet: Half as Happy as We (Ruf Records)
This extraordinary English neo-trad ensemble has an individual and collective Penguin Cafe Orchestra compositional genius, and a keen fist on the innards of the English folke tradition. Instrumentally, Karen Tweed's impeccably expressive accordion gushes loudest on inside-out Eastern European melodies or dapper Irish tunes, buoyed by beautiful guitar work and bewitched fiddle drones. And just when you wonder why they mixed this in Robin Hood's Bay near Martin Carthy and the Waterson royalty, Chris Wood breaks into the 5/4 English folk song Through Lonesome Wood, and his majestically rewritten The Shouter, a divine hunt for that rarity: human compassion.
Mic Moroney
Brian McNamara A Piper's Dream (Drumlin Records)
Mystical guff about "gentleman pipers" would actually well describe this Co Leitrim man whose elegant style is nearly as clean-cut as himself: unhurried, exact and giving the slow nod to Liam O'Flynn. Every ornament sits handy: buttery register-squawks, taut-reined multiple crans, alarum trills, lathered Ennissy regulators with the hup-bup judders, and he can mightily prosecute a slow air. Some tunes are common as colds, others piping standards, and more dug from the local Grier and Sutherland manuscripts. Whether alone, backed by Mick Rooney's harp or Jens Kommnick's guitar, or duetted jig-time by Deirdre Macnamara's concertina, he nicely manicures the shaggy claws of this outrageous instrument, making it very sweet and listenable indeed.
Mic Moroney