fiddle of Alasdair on top of the stunning piano of Ewan. Truly breathtaking.


Not sure how much extra is added to the numerous versions in existence of Westlin Winds or Song Composed In August as it is called here. Perhaps this should have been left for their live set. I do like the use of two fiddles and twin pipes on some tracks, whilst the potential for some great Gaelic songs is also here.


I suppose the sentiments of what this CD is about is in Lovers And Friends, which talks about taking note and learning from the past, whilst looking forward to the future. It talks of, “Filling up your glass to the future and past in harmony”, which is what us fans have to do with the new line up.


It seems strange to mention the word potential when talking about a group that is an institution, but that is what the change of personnel allows. This CD is not the finished article and I am sure the second by this Battlefield Band will be much stronger - the signs are there. But this one will do well. Above all it is still Forward With Scotland’s Past.


Dave Beeby


DONNA HARKIN Tell It Like It Is Private Label DHRCD10001


Donna’s style is plain and direct, plenty of triplets of course but not a lot of other ornamentation. There’s also an almost rhythmic irregularity, as if she’s snatching the music in handfuls, which could be studio nerves. In any case, the notes are crisp and clear, with no blurring of the tunes, and there’s a pleasant swing to many of her sets.


The Old Favourite is a pair of well-known jigs played with panache, and for an Irishwoman she makes a fair fist of Gordon Duncan’s splendid composition The High Drive. Charlie Lennon and Larry Redican are credited with a tune apiece, and there’s an unusually fresh version of Sí Beag Sí Mór gilded by Jim Byrne’s guitar. Tell It Like It Is ends with a whistle solo, the air Roisín Dubh, expertly played. Apparently Donna is already working on album number two: if it’s as good as this one, it’ll be worth hearing.


Alex Monaghan PETE COE


Tall Tailes Backshift Music BASHCDEXTRA59


Memory testers are present in Tree On The Hill and the well known Herring’s Head. Black, White, Yellow And Green are the colours of mobile, maggot-ridden plum puddings. There is more daftness in Hop, Hop, Hop which allows the kids to sing a verse starting “Teacher, teacher I declare, I can see your underwear”.


The instrumentation is imaginative and engaging. It includes tuba (Michael Beeke), hurdy gurdy (Jon Loomes), hammer dulcimer (Chris Coe), jews harp (Lucy Wright) and bubbles (Alice Jones). Pete confines himself to melodeon, banjo and bouzouki.


Is Tall Tailes a thoroughly wholesome and uplifting collection of songs? No. Will its title help kids to spell correctly? No. Is it fun enough to get them interested in folk songs? Definitely.


Tony Hendry


DERVISH & FRIENDS The Leitrim Equation 2 Private Label LTCD9016


An experienced button-box player from Donegal, Ms Harkin has taken her time making a first CD but after 20 years behind the bellows she’s brought out an honest recording of her music. There’s no fancy production, no double- takes or techno dubs. The box sits squarely in the spotlight, accompanied mainly by Jim Byrne on guitar, with occasional bodhrán or piano.


Donna’s repertoire is varied, jigs and reels supplemented by a hornpipe and a strathspey, plus four fine slow numbers. Her own compositions are among the best here: Baby’s Waltz is instantly appealing, while the air A Gul’s Ghrá Mo Chroí runs much deeper. The Nyaa Reel has a certain snap to it, and Donna seems to have a taste for jigs. Tell It Like It Is opens with the jaunty Angus an Angeal, certainly not written for my son, and later we have a pair of more esoteric melodies in Dancing With Meff and Six String Sweeney accompanied by Brian Sweeney on guitar.


Sponsored by BIrnam CD


Anyone who has done more for folk music than Pete Coe has MBE after his or her name, wears an EFDSS gold badge, and is a shoo-in candidate for deification. Here the lad is again, this time with a CD to inspire and entertain the kids. Pete was a primary school teacher before he became a professional musician, and he’s been going back to schools for years to do workshops and presentations. Tall Tailes is based on one such workshop and he’s joined on the choruses by Years 5 and 6 pupils from a school in Ripponden. The 15 songs on this 53- minute album deliver what young children like: the grotesque, the gruesome, the rude, the ridiculous, and lots and lots of animals. Around half are traditional.


Take a few of the beastie songs first. Pete’s Animals, Beasts and Creatures uses the Sailor’s Alphabet tune and structure (“H is for human, the strangest of all”). Daddy Fox is given a last verse which will delight the anti-hunting lobby. Cyril Tawney’s Stanley The Rat tells of an elusive rodent on a submarine. Leslie Haworth’s Froggie sees the marriage of a frog and a mouse end in carnage. There Was A Pig Went Out To Dig is a delightful Christmas song where birds and animals do farming jobs (“There was a thrush went out to thresh”).


The first Leitrim Equation CD resulted from Lúnasa’s year as resident musicians, and volume 2 comes from Leitrim County Council’s choice of Dervish as a follow-up group. A good three dozen Leitrim musicians join the Sligo Six here, and many of their names will be known to you: Ben Lennon, Eleanor Shanley, Noel Sweeney, Mary McPartlan, Mick Mulvey, John Regan, Dave Sheridan, and upcoming local lad Andy Irvine. The quality is mixed, but Leitrim certainly shows its fair share of talent. Most interesting for me are the new names here: Fionnuala Maxwell who sings a stately Little Hills Of Leitrim with confidence, the five Ward girls playing a charming selection of jigs, the powerful raw voice of Rosie Stewart on one of two versions of The Shores Of Lough Bran, and a few tracks featuring Mossie Martin (not exactly a new name, I know, but not extensively recorded) with fellow fiddlers Ben Lennon and Tom Morrow.


The distinctive singing and playing of Dervish enhances most tracks on this collection. Cathy Jordan duets with any number of singers, while the lads provide a tightly woven backdrop to the songs and dance music. Vocals and instrumentals are evenly balanced. There’s a bit of harp, a lot of flute, and several


The Living Tradition - Page 45


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